Brown Sage Butter - For Everything!

Brown Sage Butter brings an incredibly delicious nutty, earthy flavor to everything it's added to. Melt it over squash or steak, spread it on bread, baste a chicken or turkey with it. It will add another dimension of flavor that's out of this world!

Brown Sage Butter is a compound butter, which is essentially a mixture of butter and any other ingredient.

The uses for Brown Sage Butter are endless (see list below), and it's especially amazing when paired with autumnal flavors and food like pumpkin, and butternut squash.

We're talking next-level deliciousness!

What You'll Need

• unsalted butter - Use unsalted butter so you can ultimately control the level of salt in whatever you add the brown sage butter to.
  
• fresh sage - Whenever you purchase fresh fine herbs, look for perky bunches and avoid any brown, bruised or yellow leaves.

It's perfect drizzled over roasted butternut squash.

How to Make Brown Sage Butter

- Get two small bowls out, one slightly bigger than the other, and fill one with ice. Set them both aside.

- Add the butter to a small sauté pan, and place it over medium-low heat.
 Let it melt for a few minutes. Once it's melted, it will foam up a bit, then subside.
 You'll start to see the color change. Milk solids will brown towards the bottom of the pan, so be sure to stir frequently to ensure these don't stick. The upper liquid portion of the butter will become a pretty golden color.

- Turn off the heat, remove the pan from the stove, and add the sage. Stir and let it steep for a few minutes.At this stage you can drizzle it over anything with a touch of salt. Or you can move on . . . .

- Pour the brown sage butter into the empty mixing bowl. Use a heat resistant, rubber spatula to be sure you get all of the brown bits from the bottom of the pan.

- Place this bowl directly on top of the ice in the other bowl and use a whisk to gently stir until the butter has solidified.

- You can wrap the butter in plastic wrap as is, or you can make it into a cylinder, wrapped in parchment or plastic wrap, for pretty slices. (This would be a pretty presentation when you want to melt it over steak.)

Recipe Tips and Substitutions

• As soon as the butter is ready, remove the pan from the stove -- it can go from a perfect golden brown to burnt quickly.
• If your sage leaves are very small, you don't have to cut them.
• Do not simply let the melted brown sage butter cool. You must mix it the whole time it's cooling over the ice, or it will set in its separated form. (It will take less than 5 minutes.)
• In addition to the color change, you'll also know the butter is ready because you'll have an incredible toasted, nutty aroma seeping from the pan.

Uses for Brown Sage Butter

Not only can it be added to all sorts of sauces, it's a perfect sauce in and of itself with its two simple ingredients.

Following are a handful of delicious ideas . . .

• You can use it to make risotto -- it puts this Pumpkin Sage Risotto over the top.
• Spoon it over pasta, rice or gnocci.
• Melt it on a steak right out of the pan.
• It's fantastic to use to baste chicken or a Thanksgiving turkey.
• Sauté any variety of mushrooms in it.
• Drizzle it over butternut squash or pumpkin.
• Any potato preparation will welcome brown sage butter mixed into it. I'm thinking smashed potatoes with it would be dreamy.
• Use it to make a grilled cheese sandwich!
• Roast carrots with it.
• And of course it's delicious spread on rustic bread.

How long will it keep?

Brown sage butter will keep as long as any butter -- about three months in the refrigerator. It should be wrapped tightly so it doesn't absorb any other flavors around it.

I promise you, if you have a batch of Brown Sage Butter at the ready at all times, you'll be grateful.

Enjoy!

More compound butter recipes:

• Avocado Butter
• Hatch Chile-Agave Butter
• Meyer Lemon-Dill Butter

And here are a few more unique flavor combinations.

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