What is Beurre Noisette?

Beurre noisette is made by browning butter in a heavy pot.
The French use beurre noisette in the making of croissants.
Madeleines are another French pastry that utilizes beurre noisette.
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  • Originally Written By: Cassie L. Damewood
  • Revised By: C. Mitchell
  • Edited By: Lucy Oppenheimer
  • Last Modified Date: 08 July 2015
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Beurre noisette is basically unsalted butter that’s been slowly melted and browned but not burned. It’s also known simply as “brown butter” in many English-language cookbooks. The formal name comes from French, and means “hazelnut butter” — but no nuts are used to make it. That part of the name is most likely owing to the butter’s final color, which is often a rich brown; it also has a vaguely nutty taste in many cases. Chefs frequently use it in making pastries and desserts, and it can also be a good addition to a number of main courses, particularly those involving fish or seafood. It can usually be used in place of regular melted butter in almost any recipe, and can be a good way to lend a more sophisticated, complex taste without much extra effort.

Essential Ingredients and Equipment

The most important element required to make beurre noisette is time followed closely by patience, but having the right ingredients and equipment can also make a big difference. Quality butter is a good starting place. Most cooks prefer to work with rich European cream-based butters, and unsalted is almost always best. Not only can salt alter the melt time, but not all brands and batches have equal amounts of salt, which can impact the final taste. Hand-churned specialty butters aren’t always widely available, but many experts recommend these for the most authentic taste and experience.


A heavy-bottomed sauté pan is also important. It’s possible to make brown butter in almost any sort of skillet or pot, but quality cookware that distributes heat slowly and evenly will usually give the best results. Thin-bottomed pans run the risk of scorching some of the butter before other parts have even completely melted.

How It’s Made

The process isn’t complicated, but it requires constant attention to prevent the butter from burning. In most cases there’s a fine balance between butter that is browned and that which is burned or scorched. Burnt butter has a very bitter taste. This sort of blackening is sometimes useful, and may be done intentionally — very browned butter is often known as beurre noir, or “black butter,” and is also used by French chefs in a variety of dishes — but if a recipe calls for browned butter, a blackened alternative probably won’t give the same results.

Most chefs prefer to start with sticks that are room temperature, not cold. This often requires a bit of planning for people who normally store their butter in the fridge or freezer. The butter is typically browned over medium heat, usually somewhere around 250°F (about 121°C). When the volume in the pan has reduced by about one quarter, the heat is turned down low. Once light brown flecks appear, the pan is removed from the heat and set it in cool water to stop the liquid from cooking and to cool it quickly and evenly.

Use in Pastries

Beurre noisette is perhaps most frequently used in making French pastries, cakes and cookies. Madeleines and financiers — miniature cakes frequently found in French bakeries — often call for it, for instance, and it is a key element in most traditionally-made croissants. Besides imparting a delicate nutty flavor, the browned butter gives pastries and cakes a toasty flavor and helps them brown and bake evenly, from the inside out.

As an Addition to Main Courses

Browned butter can also complement a wide range of other foods, and can be used in a couple of different ways in standard cooking. It’s a popular sauté vehicle, for instance, particularly for breaded or floured meat. Its lower water content helps the meat take on a crunchier exterior. Cooks can also add lemon juice, often in the ratio of one part juice to four parts butter, to create a flavorful sauce for finished meats, fish dishes, and vegetables. Brown butter can also be added to supplement a variety of other sauces or dressings.


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Post 3

This has actually given me what seems like a really good idea. Whenever I cook my own popcorn I melt a bit of butter in the microwave (or use olive oil) to give it some flavor. For a while I tried to use margarine because for a while people thought it was healthier for you (even though a lot of the time it isn't) but eventually I realized that margarine has too much water in it. It would melt the popcorn and make it much less crispy.

If beurre noisette has less water content and it has a nicer flavor than normal butter, then perhaps making that as the popcorn flavor would make the popcorn tastier and more crispy.

I am going to try this as soon as I have a movie night. It sounds like it could really improve my popcorn.

Post 2

@MrsPramm - Well, actually the idea that saturated fats are responsible for clogged arteries is generally based on bad science. Sugar and trans fats are much more likely to be the culprits.

You shouldn't eat too much butter, that's for sure but it tends to fill you up more and a well cooked and tended meal that tastes wonderful is more likely to satisfy you than one that's been reduced in taste so that you can avoid the dreaded saturated fats.

Moreover trans fats come from overheating vegetable oils, so actually they aren't that much healthier than saturated fats. I think beurre blanc or noisette is perfectly fine in moderation like most things. People have been eating it for generations without it doing that much harm.

Post 1

French cooking tastes so delicious precisely because they put so much butter into the food. Butter is essentially pure saturated fat which is why it tastes so good. Once upon a time it would have been the best energy source a caveman could find. But now it's responsible for clogged arteries and the growing obesity epidemic. You're much better off using a vegetable oil which you won't have to look after to make sure it doesn't burn black either and tastes almost as good.

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