Brown Butter Is The Secret To Better Basted Steak
Basting a steak in butter is a well-known and delicious technique that makes for a rich, juicy, and perfectly-seared piece of meat. But basting with brown butter will take the flavor to the next level. Regular butter is delicious and creamy, but it does not boast the same level of taste that brown butter has. Using that toasty brown butter when basting will add extra depth and complexity to the notes of your steak without hardly any extra effort.
Brown butter is butter that has been warmed in a pan so that the milk solids toast and caramelize slightly, creating a golden-brown color and rich, nutty taste. It's a technique that's used for cooking and baking in a wide variety of recipes from savory dishes to sweet treats, and it makes the ideal companion for a perfectly cooked steak.
The only ingredient you need is butter — unsalted is best to control sodium intake — and the process of making it is simple, though it requires a few minutes of patience. The reward will be a steak that has all the benefits from basting plus the added depth of flavor from the brown butter, whether it's a bone-in ribeye or New York strip.
How to level up your steak with brown butter
Before basting your steak, you'll need to know how to make the brown butter. You'll want to start by heating a few tablespoons of unsalted butter per steak until it simmers and bubbles. The milk solids will separate from the fat after a few minutes and begin to toast up at the bottom of the pan. Once that happens, you've got brown butter. Just be sure not to leave it in the pan alone for too long to avoid going from brown to burnt.
From there, all that's left to do is baste your steak in the delicious brown butter you've just made. In a hot pan, spoon the butter repeatedly over your steak as it cooks until you've reached your desired level. For bonus flavors, you can add aromatics to the pan, like garlic and herbs. Either way, once the steak is cooked, rested, and ready to be eaten, you'll enjoy the extra nutty and toasty flavor thanks to the brown butter that's pooled on the seared surface of the steak and steeped into every juicy bite.