Brown butter is so relaxing to make. You put the butter in a pan over a gentle heat and patiently wait while it melts. Once it’s melted into a lovely golden pool, turn the heat up to medium-high; it will bubble and spit and sputter, it’s very noisy. Swirl the pan every 30 seconds to a minute, and that will prevent the milk solids from caramelising too quickly. As it quietens to a crackle, the last moisture is leaving the pan. All of a sudden, it goes silent. Then you know the butter is almost ready. The silence is accompanied by a very fine cappuccino foam on top, and the smell is gorgeous: roasted hazelnut, with the slight sour resonance of butter.
Don’t be afraid to take it fairly dark; you don’t want it to go black, you want a rich, deep, golden colour. It’s a perfect example of how cookery isn’t just about sight, taste and smell, it’s also very much about sound. You’ve got the wet bubble, the dry crackle and then silence: it’s ready.
Brown butter is so versatile. It’s great in salted caramel and sticky pudding. But it’s equally valuable in savouries. Roasted red peppers with goat’s cheese, almonds, olives and brown butter poured over is amazing. It’s beautiful on meaty white fish, and even with curry. I know it’s not traditional but it’s great on tarka dal; just pour some over at the end. It elevates anything you add it to.
John Whaite is a TV presenter and cookery writer
