Like Buttah

I have seen lots of chefs use clarified butter but I never knew what it was or why one would use it until I learned about it in cooking school. Clarified butter has had the milk solids removed so that just the butterfat remains. The milk solids burn much faster than than the fat so you can use clarified butter at much higher temperatures without ending up with a smoky kitchen and brown (or black) butter. Clarified butter acts a lot like oil. It isn't necessary to refrigerate it and if you do refrigerate it, it becomes hard and needs to be brought back to room temperature or heated to become liquid again. I thought it would be difficult to separate the milk solids from the butterfat but it was actually very easy!
Now you can do it too!

Step 1: Toss your butter into a sauce pan. You want it to be small enough that you can easily skim your ladle in it once the butter melts. If it's too shallow, this will be tricky.

Step 2: With the pan over medium heat, let the butter melt gently. If you need to turn they heat down, that's ok. You want the butter melted but not boiling or burning.

Step 3: Using a ladle, skim off the frothy top layer, leaving behind as much of the golden liquid underneath as you can.

Step 4: Continue skimming until all of the froth is removed an you are left with just the butterfat.

Step 5: Keep the milk solid froth in a separate container,you can serve it over popcorn later!

 That's it! You did it! Easy Peasy! Look at that beautiful clarified butter. Ready for omelet makin'!