The 5 Best Uses For Browned Butter According To Experts

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Rich, nutty, and packed with flavor, making browned butter is shockingly simple — you melt butter in a pan over medium heat and stir it until it turns a rich golden shade and you notice tiny brown bits forming on the bottom of your pan. Lisa Herlinger, founder of Buji Brown Butter, said browning butter helps concentrate the flavor, adding depth: "Brown butter simply elevates the whole flavor experience by adding a warm, nutty, caramelized flavor that is all natural."

Once you have some of the deliciousness on hand, the world is your buttery oyster. If you don't already use browned butter to take your home cooking to the next level, it's time to start. There are a ton of dishes you should be using browned butter in, from burgers and baked goods to breakfasts, and several experts spoke exclusively with Chowhound to share exactly how you can start incorporating the good stuff into your favorite recipes.

Smash burgers — thin, super-flavorful, and just the tiniest bit crispy — are a fantastic vehicle for the warm, nutty flavors of browned butter. Instead of smashing burgers into their own grease, add a bit of browned butter to the pan before you add a patty and hit it with the back of a spatula. "The brown butter enhances the umami flavors already present in the beef, making for a richer, meaty flavor," says Lisa Herlinger. Another option to elevate the flavor of your burgers with browned butter is to mix re-solidifed browned butter directly into your ground beef before you create your burger patties. 

To speed up the process, you can make browned butter once and use it for months by simply storing it in the fridge or freezer. That way, you can scoop out what you need when you need it, without having to wait for it to brown and chill.

Robert Bleifer, executive chef, Lisa Steele, author of "In Season: 125+ Sweet and Savory Recipes Celebrating Simple, Fresh Ingredients," and Molly Madigan Pisula, trained pastry chef-turned-recipe blogger at Vanilla Bean Cuisine, all recommend using browned butter to add rich flavors to baked goods. They're not alone — browned butter is Martha Stewart's secret to great apple pie. 

Bleifer, Steele, and Madigan Pisula all mention using browned butter to elevate cookies. "It gives a subtle caramel flavor to baked goods. And, of course, it makes your entire kitchen smell amazing!" said Madigan Pisula. Steele mentioned adding browned butter to cake batter, which can add a rich, nutty flavor. An important note: when baking, you can't use browned butter as a 1:1 swap for standard butter. Some of the liquid in butter evaporates during the browning process, so you need to replace that liquid. Madigan Pisula recommends adding a bit of milk to the mix to make up for this lost liquid; Steele says it's key to measure the butter after you brown it, not before, to make up for the lost volume; and Bleifer takes an uber-precise approach, recommending weighing your butter before and after browning and adding water to make up the lost weight.

If you want irresistibly savory mashed potatoes, Lisa Steele says browned butter is key. While browned butter adds richness you don't get from standard butter, you can jazz up your mashed potatoes even further by browning butter with ingredients that create more depth. For an infusion of herby flavor, for example, add a few sprigs of fresh rosemary during the browning process. Just remove the sprigs from the butter (or run the butter through a strainer) before you add the butter to the mashed potatoes so you don't end up chewing on woody rosemary pieces.

You can also add garlic to browned butter for even more of a flavor boost. Just take extra care not to burn it. Since garlic can burn in less than a minute – there's a scientific reason garlic burns so quickly – it's smart to brown garlic, remove it from the pan, brown butter, then mix the two together before adding them to your potatoes.

Browned butter isn't just for desserts and dinners. It can work marvelously in breakfast dishes, especially egg-based recipes. Lisa Steele says you can boost the flavor of both scrambled eggs and omelets by whisking some browned butter into the egg mixture before it hits the pan (try starting your scrambled eggs in a cold pan for the best results). Add umami-rich ingredients (think dried tomatoes, mushrooms, and cheese) to a browned butter-infused omelet for a rich, satisfying flavor experience.

You can also ramp up the flavor of eggs Benedict with browned butter. "Not that hollandaise sauce needs any elevating, but browning the butter before whisking it into the egg yolks takes the sauce to another, more complex level," Steel says. This doesn't add a ton of time to your prep process; simply follow a classic eggs Benedict recipe, sub in browned butter for standard butter when making your hollandaise sauce (plus a little liquid, like we mentioned with baked goods), and enjoy an even richer flavor than you get from butter on its own.

Browned butter can add a little je ne sais quoi to miso sauce. "The nuttiness of the butter adds such incredible depth, it tastes as though you've added more ingredients to the sauce," says Robert Bleifer. There are a ton of different ways to make miso sauce; taste as you go to make sure you're getting the flavor you're after.

Adding a bit of toasted sesame oil helps bring out the toasty flavors of browned butter. "I do love to work a splash of maple into [miso] sauce, although it isn't necessary," adds Bleifer. Mixing some maple syrup into browned butter-infused miso sauce helps create a sweet-and-savory flavor profile that works well with a ton of dishes, including salmon, chicken, or even salad. You could even try adding a bit of sweet heat by adding a spice-infused version of the breakfast condiment.