Clarifying a Few Buttery Terms
Source of Recipe
Milwaukee Journal
Recipe Introduction
Clarifying a Few Buttery Terms
List of Ingredients
Salted butter: Salt acts as a preservative and adds flavor. Lightly salted butter, also known as sweet cream butter, is used on the table and for cooking.
Unsalted butter: Also called sweet butter, unsalted butter is often specified in recipes. Professional bakers usually opt for unsalted butter, so they can control the amount of salt that is added. Because both salted and unsalted butter often list sweet cream on the label, it is necessary to read carefully to make sure you bring home the one you want. The two types of butter can be used interchangeably in most recipes.
Whipped butter: This is butter whipped with air to make it easier to spread. It comes in tubs. Best reserved for table use.
Organic butter: Synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and milk production hormones such as rBGH are not permitted in the production of butter that is certified organic.
Cultured butter: This increasingly popular butter is made from cream inoculated with live cultures that are allowed to slowly incubate before churning. The flavor is richer and tangier than with standard butter. Many European or European-style butters are cultured.
Clarified butter: This is butter that has been slowly boiled, then separated from the water and milk solids. Clarifying butter increases its smoking point, which is the temperature at which it begins to smoke and burn. This purified form of butter keeps refrigerated for 3 to 4 weeks or frozen for several months. It is ideal for browning foods, such as potatoes or fish, over moderately high heat.
Ghee: Used in Indian cooking, ghee takes clarified butter a step further by simmering it until all the moisture evaporates and the milk solids begin to brown. Ghee has a nutty, caramel-like flavor and aroma. It can be refrigerated for up to six months; frozen for up to a year.
Recipe
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