Cooking and Baking with Butter – Useful Tips and Techniques

Is it purely a coincidence that “butter” and “better” only differ by one syllable? We think not! It might be safe to say that we all love butter, and that we all agree that butter makes things better! A kitchen is simply incomplete without a few sticks of butter. The French use it all the time, and most top chefs will agree that butter is one of their favorite ingredients. If you want to be inspired with more ways to use butter, then we have a couple of neat ideas for you.

Use it to sauté veggies

What’s better than buttery veggies? When heated, the milk solids in the butter start to caramelize, causing a nutty flavor to develop. Add butter to a hot pan, wait until it foams, and add your veggies. Sauté until just cooked. If you want to sauté at a higher temperature, add a splash of vegetable oil, which will increase the smoking point.

Make pastry

Ever wondered why a croissant is so flaky? It’s all thanks to butter! Flaky pastries rely on the addition of cold butter throughout the dough. When the pastry is baked in the oven, the butter melts, causing small pockets of air to form. It’s important use the butter as cold as possible, otherwise the butter will melt while you are working the dough, and the pockets of air won’t form when it goes into the oven.

Create sauces

If you are making a pan sauce, add a knob of cold butter just before serving. It adds richness to the sauce, and creates a velvety texture. Do the same for soups, adding a teaspoon of butter just before serving. Everything is better with butter, right?

Moist chicken breasts

Home cooks are often discouraged to make roast chicken since chicken breasts are prone to drying out. But with butter, this problem will be a thing of the past. Before placing your whole chicken into the oven, loosen the breast skin a little, and spread butter between the meat and chicken skin. This will keep the breasts moist.

Mashed potatoes

Can you even make mashed potatoes without butter? We don’t think it’s possible. When making mash, always add butter first. The fat in the butter coats the starch in potatoes, preventing the mashed potatoes from becoming gummy when you add the milk.