Brown Sage Butter Recipe

Small wooden bowl with brown butter and sage leaves inside.

5 from 3 votes

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!

Makes about ½ cup / serving size: about 1 tablespoon

Prep Time5

Cook Time10

Total Time15

Course: Condiments, Sauces, Dressings and Vinaigrettes

Cuisine: American

Keyword: great for Thanksgiving, great for basting

Servings:

Calories: 204kcal

Author: Valentina K. Wein

Equipment

whisk

Ingredients

8 ounces unsalted butter
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh sage, washed and dried

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Prep an ice bath. Get two small bowls out, one slightly bigger than the other, and fill one with ice. Set them both aside.
Brown the butter. Add the butter to a small sauté pan, and place it over medium-low heat. Let it melt for a few minutes. It will foam up a bit, then subside. You will 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 and remove the pan from the stove.
Add the chopped sage. Add the sage, stir and let it steep for about 5 minutes, while the butter is still hot. (To use it as a sauce, stop here and spoon it over pasta, gnocchi or squash.)
Cool and solidify the butter. 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. (This should only take a couple of minutes.)
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. Either way refrigerate it. You should let it harden in the refrigerator for a few hours if you want to slice it.

Notes

Watch the butter: It goes from golden brown to burnt quickly, so take it off the heat as soon as it smells toasty and nutty.

Keep whisking: Stir constantly over the ice, or the butter will set with the brown bits separated.

Use it warm: Skip the ice bath and spoon it right over pasta, gnocchi or squash.

Storage: Refrigerate up to 2 weeks, or freeze up to 3 months.

Nutritional information is automatically calculated, so it should only be used as an estimate.

Nutrition