drawn butter vs. clarified butter? - Page 2

Drawn butter is different from clarified butter in that instead of being pure milk fat, which is clarified butter, drawn butter is a hot emulsion of the whey proteins and milk fat, like a beurre monte. The emulsion is stabilized by the liason of flour.

1/3 cup butter
11/2 cups hot water
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Melt one-half the butter, add flour with seasonings, and pour on gradually hot water. Boil five minutes, and add remaining butter in small pieces.  

I like the idea of the butter and its watery content being beaten together to make an emulsion as what differentiates drawn butter from clarified butter. 

However, i suspect the term ORIGINALLY meant clarified. 

The reason is the word "drawn"

Drawing, as far as i can understand, has many meanings, (making a picture, pulling something, like a drawer or clothing - "drawers" meaning pants-  and pouring for instance to draw some water).  I don't know a meaning of "draw" that could imply beating or combining or emulsifying (you who have the complete Oxford English Dictionary might be able to find this)

Now the process of clarifying butter is one where you draw off the melted fat and leave the solids behind.  So my guess (based on logic and not on how these terms are used today in restaurants) is that "drawn butter" is only another term for clarified butter, and probably an older term. 

But if i were having lobster, I would definitely prefer the emulsified butter, which would have some more substance to it, be thicker, and more likely to coat the lobster more nicely. 
 

As for Wikipedia: it's just a bunch of people writing in to a site, and is FULL of inaccuracies and mistakes.  Not the place to go to resolve a dispute.  It IS a dispute. 

Since we're on the subject of clarified butter, I used to make clarified butter from left over hollandaise sauce. good for sauteing seafoods.

This can be done and I have seen it done. However you could be looking for trouble in contamination as yolks of egg has come in contact with the butter and sat at tepid temps for a while.Ifeel it is not worth the risk.