Why You Should Always Have Brown Butter Stored In The Freezer

We won't go crazy and say brown butter makes everything better, but it does make a whole lot of cookies and baked goods better. Brown butter is such a simple ingredient — just cooked-down butter — but it has so much depth of flavor compared to regular butter that it can give basic recipes a complete makeover. It's slightly sweet, nutty, and decadently rich, yet it's versatile enough that it can be subbed into so many of your favorite baked goods without overpowering them. Banana bread made with brown butter is still fundamentally banana bread, but it's the best version you are ever going to make.

There is no denying the power of brown butter, either, because it really is everywhere these days. According to Salon, brown butter has invaded the culinary world in the last decade, with dishes from burgers to roasted vegetables getting the brown butter flavor bump. It's now just as likely to be seen in recipes for eggs benedict as it is in recipes for cake. But unlike spices or hot sauces, brown butter isn't something you can usually buy premade; it's something you make, usually on the spot while you're actually cooking your dish. That can mean a lot of standing over your pan trying not to burn your brown butter when you want to be focused on other kitchen tasks. And that is where your freezer can help you out.

With brown butter's huge popularity recently, you may end up needing it quite often. Or maybe you just want to be able to experiment and toss some brown butter in the pan with your steak to see what happens. Either way, having quick access to brown butter can be a game changer because it gives you all the flavor with almost none of the extra work. According to Epicurious, you can accomplish this by making larger batches of brown butter ahead of time and then freezing them. Then, as with stock in ice cube trays, you can simply pull out some brown butter whenever you need to instead of spending an extra 15 minutes over the stove with every recipe.

To make your brown butter cubes, simply cook the butter like normal, but ideally in larger amounts to minimize your later work. Then let the brown butter cool to room temperature before pouring it into either an ice-cube tray or a freezer-safe container. Just before you pour it out, you'll want to stir up the butter so that all the tasty bits get evenly distributed in each cube. Chill the brown butter in the fridge to let it get solid before transferring it to the freezer in a sealed container, where it will keep for up to three months. Now you are seconds away from brown butter, solid or melted, whenever you want. There is nothing better than when taste and convenience meet like this.