Monday, January 10, 2011

Quick Tip: Grated Butter? Yeah, It Rocks.

So, it's been a while!  I thought I'd jump in here and mention an idea that I had a while back that works pretty well.

If you like to use real butter, like I do, you know how difficult it is to slice off and spread onto food when it's cold.  Here's how I get past it:  I put a stick of butter and one of those tower-shaped cheese graters in a Ziploc bag in the freezer.  When I want butter on something like steamed broccoli, a heated skillet, etc., I grate it like cheese directly onto the food/skillet/whatever.  Frozen butter grates like a hard cheese, and if the grater is frozen too, the butter won't melt and stick to it.  When done, shake the butter shavings off and put the grater and the butter back into the bag and into the freezer for next time.  Works great!

This technique also works very well for browned butter. When you make browned butter, all of the moisture leaves the butter, so when I gets cold it's about as hard as candle wax.  Using a grater with it works very well.