Ingredients

0

　　

Burning (while sauteing or frying)

Step 1

Add a tiny bit of any kind of oil (except motor) to the butter when you see it is browning too fast. It doesn’t change the flavor, and oil plus butter doesn’t burn as easily as butter alone. Badly burned butter does have a distinctive taste, so if you have enough extra butter, why not start over? If you don’t, pour off the melted butter and taste it. If it’s truly unpleasant, then you’ll just have to use oil instead, which will be fine but will change the flavor of the finished dish. If you think the butter that you poured off might be usable—i.e., it’s not bitter and black—and you want to try for that butter flavor, mix with a little oil, put it back in the pan, and hope for the best.

　　

Need some, have none

Step 2

In baking, you can substitute 1 cup solid vegetable shortening plus 2 tablespoons water for 1 cup butter. You can sometimes substitute oil (one without a strong flavor) in baked goods, but the final product may be denser. If there are eggs in the recipe, separate them and whip the whites to add lift. (Drop cookies, however, may turn out cakier. Go figure. In this case, use a bit less oil than butter, say 1/3 cup oil for 1/2 cup butter.) If using oil or shortening and a buttery flavor is desired, add a few drops of butter flavoring. Of course, no one has butter flavoring on hand, so when you send someone out to get some, you might ask them to pick up a pound or two of butter.

　　

Step 3

Another approach entirely is the one detailed under bananas, Too Many. If you’re interested in low-fat cookery, it’s worth considering.

　　

Step 4

For purposes other than baking, see the useful suggestion under whipped cream, Overwhipped, Separated.

　　

Too hard to cream

Step 5

Shred the butter with either a grater or a potato peeler if you need only a smallish amount. If you’ve got lots of butter to cream, you can grate it with the grating disk of your food processor. In any case, warm the bowl you’re going to be creaming the butter in by holding the bowl upside down over the sink and running hot water on the outside. If you’re using sugar in your recipe, try heating the sugar before adding it to the butter.

　　

Step 6

Alternatively, you can soften butter almost instantly in a microwave. Heat an unwrapped stick of butter for 10 seconds on medium power and then let it stand for 5 minutes.

　　

Too hard to spread

Step 7

The problem is how to soften the butter without melting it. The solution is to cover the butter with a hot bowl for a few minutes: pour hot or boiling water into a stainless steel bowl, swish around, pour out, then invert the bowl over the butter. Or, microwave the butter on the lowest setting for 1 minute, and then let it stand for 5 minutes. If this is a frequent problem, check your local kitchen-supply store or online for a ceramic butter crock that keeps the butter spreadable but cool by storing it submerged in water on the kitchen counter, not in the refrigerator. Or, for the high-tech gadget junkie, there’s the Butter Wizard, a temperature-controlled butter dish with a built-in fan.

　　How to Repair Food, Third Edition