Hash Browns Using Clarified Butter
This was fun… sort of. I was watching Kent Rollins (cowboy cooking in cast iron) and he was making hash browns, using clarified butter. He said how important it was to do as once it’s clarified you can heat it to a higher temperature without it burning or spattering. It’s worth the extra work.
Shred your potato on a cheese grater. Watch out for your fingers. Greg bought me a glove that’s cut proof, thank you!! I guess he was tired of eating my grated skin? Oh that’s gross…
Soak the shredded potatoes in water, drain, repeat until the water is completely clear.
Now you need to squeeze all the water out. I used a tea towel. Works like a charm. The potatoes have to be really dry to brown up.
I used my BSR Chicken fryer. I love this skillet so much! It’s got a wobble, so if you were to use it on a flat top, you’d have a spinner on your hands, but on a gas stove grate, there’s no issues!
Heat it on 2 for about 10 minutes, add 3 tablespoons clarified butter. Turn the heat up to 4. You want it hot. (4 doesn’t seem hot but I only turn my temp up higher if I’m popping corn, then I get up to 6.)
Take your potato loose in your hands, form it a bit, and put it in the skillet. Don’t pack it down, and let it be in a pile about 1 inch thick. Salt and pepper. Put the lid on, set the timer for 5 minutes. Don’t peek! It might kill you, but don’t cave. At 5 minutes, lid comes off, use a metal spatula and get under as much as you can. Flip gently. Cook another 3 minutes or so uncovered. I ended up flipping a few times to get it as evenly browned as I could. They are amazing. If you like Hickory Sticks, you’ll love these. They are buttery delicious!
Instructions for Clarifying butter below.
Why Clarify Butter?
You can heat butter to a higher temperature when it’s clarified because you remove the milk solids, which can burn, and you remove the water, which will boil at 100°C and cause spattering. See the last picture for some of the milk solids I filtered off, there was a lot more!
When your butter starts to melt, stir.. keep stirring or it will burn. You’ll notice after 7 minutes or so they butter is changing from bubbles to a different colour and it will stop foaming and you’ll see the butter. I started too hot, and turned the heat to about 2 to finish it off. I used a coffee filter to strain. That was painfully slow, but I realized part way through it was because all the solids were blocking the flow. I used a spoon and removed some, and it started straining again. I made lots so I had some on hand.
