No. 16

Clarified and Purified Butter

Beurre Clarifie et Epure

Clarified.—To clarify butter it should first be melted so as to extract all the buttermilk, letting it cook slowly; skim and when well despumated from all its impurities and it begins to smoke then it is ready; strain it through a fine piece of linen and keep to use when needed.

Purified.—Melt some butter in a deep saucepan, boil it for two or three minutes, remove, let stand to settle, then skim and pass it through a fine sieve pouring off the top only so to leave the sediment on the bottom.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer gives two grades: clarified butter cooked until the milk solids brown and the fat smokes, and a gentler "purified" butter simply boiled, settled and decanted. Both are straightforward with a heavy pan and patience.

The hinge: low, undisturbed heatThe whole operation depends on the butter never getting hot enough to scorch the milk solids before the water has boiled off. Use the lowest steady flame and do not stir once the foam rises; stirring drives the solids back into suspension and clouds the finished fat.
What "despumated" meansIt is simply skimmed clear of foam. The white froth is casein and whey protein driven to the surface as the water evaporates. Lift it off with a spoon or fine skimmer as it appears.
"Begins to smoke" is a doneness cue, not a targetRanhofer's smoke point signals that the water has gone. Pull the pan the moment you see the first wisp; taken further the butter turns nutty and then bitter.
StrainingA fine piece of linen means a doubled square of cheesecloth or a coffee filter in a sieve. For the "purified" version, do not pour to the last drop; leave the milky sediment behind in the pan or strain again.
YieldA pound of butter gives roughly 12 ounces of clarified fat, or about 1 1/2 cups. Expect to lose a quarter of the weight as water and solids.
Why botherClarified butter has a smoke point usually given as near 450F against about 300F for whole butter, which suits it to sauteing and to the roux of white sauces where any speck of browned solid would show.
KeepingRanhofer says "keep to use when needed". With the milk solids removed it keeps far better than whole butter: sealed in a clean jar it holds for months refrigerated. If your kitchen is warm, refrigerate rather than leaving it out as a nineteenth-century larder would have.
Not gheeIndian ghee is cooked longer, so the solids caramelise and perfume the fat. Ranhofer's clarified butter stops just short of that, and his purified butter stops well short of it, staying neutral.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) opens with a long section of "Elementary Methods": stocks, brines, aspics and clarified butter are the standing preparations a kitchen makes once and draws on all week. Clarified butter, beurre clarifie, was foundational to the French service Ranhofer ran at Delmonico's in New York. The two versions he gives differ not only in degree of cooking but in handling -- the clarified is cooked to the smoking point and strained through linen, the purified merely boiled, settled and decanted -- and the term "purified" has largely fallen out of English culinary usage, modern books generally collapsing both into "clarified butter" and reserving separate names for browned beurre noisette and for ghee.