Butta Butta Butta for Technique of the Week and Culinage Cookbook!

95.746 - 129.242 Neil Saavedra

and we've talked about this actually many many times on the show but i thought it'd be nice to get back into butter and explain what people refer to as culinary gold it's something often referred to as ghee or clarified butter small differences depending on you know ghee comes from india And their process, I think, is really one of the best for clarified butter. It gets a little extra nuttiness.

130.084 - 160.677 Neil Saavedra

So what ends up happening is you cook out certain parts of the butter and then you sieve them out so you cook it down separate it and sieve them out and in that process you end up having something that is just pure butter fat Mmm. You don't have the milk solids. You don't have those things. And that will be part of our discussion today.

160.978 - 186.338 Neil Saavedra

But I thought instead of just focusing on ghee or clarified butter. I'd go through all the different types of butter. So I'll get into this and I'll explain how to make it coming up in a moment. But let's start with the basics. Unsalted butter. Often you'll see it labeled sweet cream butter. Same, same and super versatile. It's used a lot in cooking and baking.

186.959 - 221.89 Neil Saavedra

The reason why it is used often in cooking and baking so that the person baking or cooking can control the level of salt in baking i understand there's a lot of control there i've always thought this notion was silly you're talking about like a quarter of quarter teaspoon of salt that's what's in a stick of butter

223.878 - 250.655 Neil Saavedra

I think a lot of this – I've read article after article after article that some people – There was kind of a conversion problem when some of the old, old recipes were kind of brought into modern day. But for whatever reason, people swear by this. And that's because different makers might put different amounts of salt in it. And I get all of that.

461.706 - 489.395 Neil Saavedra

Smoke point is important in oils and fats because the smoke point is when they start to break down. that's when they lose some of their properties. That's when they start to get nasty smelling and things like that and end up bringing a foul odor and taste to something rather than the loveliness that they're supposed to. Butter comes in at about 325, 375. That's when it starts to break down.

489.435 - 512.503 Neil Saavedra

That's when it starts to smoke really heavily. And that's why sauteing in butter, usually you'll cut it with some olive oil or something like that. The olive oil has a higher smoke point, kind of takes care of that and buffers the butter. But what you can do is saute. When you're doing steaks, if you're going to sear them off, you're roasting vegetables, you can use clarified butter or ghee.

513.404 - 540.608 Neil Saavedra

And that'll boost that smoke point up to around 485. So you get about 100 degree higher heat out of clarified butter that doesn't have that milk fat. Also, a lot of it has the lactose, the casein that is the lactose and all of that kind of wicked out. And so those that are intolerant or have a milk allergy usually can handle clarified butter even better.

540.588 - 567.495 Neil Saavedra

So you melt that butter, allow the things to separate, water evaporates, solids float to the surface, you skim them off, put them through a sieve and a cheesecloth. And what's left over is this beautiful, pure butterfat with a higher smoke point, still has a great flavor of butter, has a little nuttiness, great on popcorn, all of these things. it's a great thing to do.

567.776 - 583.119 Neil Saavedra

But every once in a while, everybody starts praising it again, and it's been around forever. So we'll get back to butter, more different types of butter, organic, whipped butter, European style, all these things when we return with Technique of the Week. It is The Fork Report. I'm Neil Saavedra. Let's get the latest news now with KFI Newsroom.

722.131 - 735.318 Neil Saavedra

I know that might seem contradictory to some, but I just tell you the antibiotics in there, the growth hormones, all that stuff is more garbage than we need. So organic butter is is raised without those things, antibiotics, growth hormones.

735.358 - 762.86 Neil Saavedra

They're given 100% organic feed, grown without toxic pesticides, synthetic fertilizer, all of that, and you can find it in unsalted and salted, and you use it just like conventional butter. Whipped butter. This has air or other gas, like nitrogen, and it's added to make it less dense than standard butter. So, kind of a little goes a long way.

762.88 - 785.648 Neil Saavedra

This increased volume is, you know, less calories per tablespoon. It could even be half. and it's got a lighter texture, but just keep in mind it's got less calories because it's got more air in it. Best for spreading on toast, finishing dishes. It's not recommended for baking or cooking at all. It's just a spread.

786.029 - 810.945 Neil Saavedra

It's just a spread, easier to spread because it's got the air in it, and it's lighter and whipped and all that. European-style butter, which a lot of people love. I do, too. This is why French croissants are so... lovely and airy and delicious. It's got extra milk fat 82 to 85% for most brands. So your European style butter has less moisture.

810.965 - 839.096 Neil Saavedra

It's got less of that water in there than standard butter. And it's got all that milk fat in it. So this is like the opposite. The clarified butter makes pastries tender, fluffy cakes. It's often it's made with fermented or cultured cream. So it has a little bit of tang to it and it could be used for any sort of cooking task. Spreadable butter is regular butter and some vegetable oil added in.

1403.71 - 1431.345 Gregory Carr

Step one. So the moment you sign up, whether it's a gift or whether it's for yourself, our AI actually generates four weekly prompts for you. We do it every month. And the prompts are based off of your cultural background and the cuisines you like to cook at home. And it also takes into account the time of year. So right now we're in the holiday season.

1431.446 - 1451.448 Gregory Carr

So the questions are all kind of based around, you know, what's that one dish that everyone asks you to make for the holidays? Or like, what's one tradition that you do every holiday and a dish that you like to make for it? So the first thing you do when you first sign in, whether you're a gift recipient or personal use, is you get that question.

1452.589 - 1473.087 Gregory Carr

And you can start writing your recipe right away, or you can actually upload an image of a handwritten card or printed out recipe, whatever it might be. And the AI actually extracts everything for you. Even in cursive? Even in cursive. Dun, dun, dun, which the good ones are always in cursive. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So...

1473.067 - 1498.622 Gregory Carr

Once you come up with an answer to the prompt and what dish you're going to write down, it brings you right into a video recording experience. You could choose to either video record or voice record, or type it in yourself. But I found that the video recording brings more of a natural conversation about the dish. And that ends up being like your introduction.

1498.642 - 1512.034 Gregory Carr

It gets transcribed automatically for you. Wow, how cool is that? Yeah, and it's supposed to be just super easy to use. You don't have to type a word if you don't want to. And that was kind of the user experience I wanted to go for.