Tip - Chefs Better Butter

 From LA Times 3/1/2000

Chef's Better Butter

Just add water and you have beurre monté, a versatile kitchen ingredient.

By THOMAS KELLER and MICHAEL RUHLMAN, Special To The Times


Butter is our favorite fat, but it is rarely used to its fullest advantage
in the home kitchen, where it's confined to gentle sautés and as a spread
for vegetables and toast. One of its best uses, common in the professional
kitchen, is as a simple preparation called beurre monté. It's easy to make
and will expand exponentially a home cook's dinner party repertoire.

Beurre monté is an emulsion, something too many home cooks seem to fear. An
emulsion is only a uniform mixture of two substances that don't readily
combine by themselves, like oil and water. A vinaigrette is an emulsion. So
is mayonnaise.

In fact, a stick of butter is an emulsion. You can see that when butter
melts, separating into clear fat, milk solids floating on top and water at
the bottom.

Beurre monté is butter that has been whisked into a couple of tablespoons
of liquid, piece by piece, to maintain the emulsion. When it is done, it
will look creamy and fluffy, almost like a hollandaise sauce.

Beurre monté is an extraordinary ingredient that can be used in numerous
ways. It's a stellar cooking medium: Lobster tail, removed from its shell
and poached in beurre monté, is like none other you've tasted--sweet, rich
and remarkably tender. The addition of water gives the lobster a silky
texture wholly unlike that of lobster fried in plain butter.

It is also the perfect baste for pan-roasted meats. A few spoonfuls of
beurre monté over a pork tenderloin, filet mignon or chicken breast keeps
the meat moist, flavors it, helps to ensure even cooking (since fat
conducts heat so uniformly) and gives it a beautiful browned color.

You can even use it as a warm butter bath to rest meat in before it is
served. A sautéed veal loin resting submerged in beurre monté maintains the
perfect temperature and does not dry out; the density of the surrounding
butter prevents juices from leaking out of the meat. You can then add some
of that same beurre monté to a saucepan with some sweated shallots and,
say, a purée of watercress, for an elegant sauce to serve with the veal.

The keys to working with beurre monté are simple:

Cut the butter into chunks before you begin. You don't want to have to
interrupt the whisking.

Make sure the liquid into which you're emulsifying the butter is near or at
a boil (but don't let it boil away).

Once the butter begins to melt and a liquid emulsification is formed, lower
the heat so that the beurre monté doesn't boil; if it boils, the
emulsification can break.

Once the beurre monté has been made, cover it with plastic wrap or a
tight-fitting lid and keep it in a warm place; it can be kept for hours
until you're ready to use it. Any that is left over can be stored in the
refrigerator, where it can be clarified to be used for frying.

It can also be eaten straight as a dipping sauce for bread. That's what we
do with it in my kitchen. No wonder the staff keeps gaining weight.