Quote:
Originally Posted by ED BUCHANAN  I agree with Mushroom Girl, although depending on where you are from has a big bearing on defintion. If you serve clarrified butter with lobster in some places, I have had it sent back and they wanted whole melted butter, it does have more flavor so I cannot disagree .  |
This goes to the culinary point of making
beurre monte or a
beurre monte type "drawn butter." The emulsification keeps the milk solids suspended in the melted butter (indeed, the solids are the emulsifiers). Otherwise the butter would clarify as the solids sank to the bottom because of their relative density, and might also burn or toast as result of being held hot.
To make
beurre monte you bring a little water to a simmer and start melting butter into it. After about a 1/4 pound of butter into a 1/4 cup of water you start whisking like a madman (or madwoman, if the shoe fits) while adding more butter. Figure the final ratio at about 20 or 25 to 1 by weight. A 1/2 cup of water will hold about 5 pounds of butter. Two cups of water will hold about 20 in a restaurant which uses a lot -- for "butter poaching" for instance. The French Laundry, who do a lot of butter poaching, probably use 50 pounds of butter a night this way.
I learned to make this as "drawn butter," in the Blue Fox in San Francisco in the early seventies. The BF was in line with the American traditions of "Continental cuisine" and top flight "French," and was known as the best restaurant in SF (or maybe even California) at the time. As many of you know, I never went to cooking school but learned from books or on the job (earn while you learn!) at a few exceptional restaurants. While I can't give you chapter and verse on the origins of
beurre monte or its application as "drawn butter," or even its regional associations in the U.S. of A., if 'twere done at the BF, it was considered
comme il faut at the time.
BDL
