Chef Juliette
Ordinary or White Consommé
Beef shin, lean beef, and fowl begin in cold water and rise slowly toward a tremble. Skim before the boil, and you learn the quiet discipline that gives every clear French broth its backbone.
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Melted Butter
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 151a, Melted Butter, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Beurre fondu asks for three minutes and complete attention: real butter, barely melted, sharpened with salt and lemon, then sent straight to boiled fish before its milky emulsion separates.
Sauces & Condiments
French
Weeknight
Quick Meal
Comfort Food
2 min
Active Time
3 min cook•5 min total
YieldAbout 1/2 cup (120 ml), enough for 4 servings
Beurre fondu, melted butter, teaches restraint. Its one true thing is this: melting is the finish, not the beginning. You want butter just warm enough to become fluid while its water and milk solids remain held in the golden fat. Let it sit over heat until it clears, and you have beurre clarifié, useful elsewhere but stripped of the fresh flavor and soft grace this sauce owes boiled fish.
The original entry assumed a saucier could make an unmeasured service portion at the last instant while another hand drained the fish. At home, the honest equivalent is a small saucepan, 1/2 cup of butter for four people, and every plate ready before the flame is lit. The entry's little salt and few drops of lemon are measured here for consistency; no stockpot, reduction, roux, or salamander belongs to this preparation. Those are scaffolding for other sauces. Here the last-minute melting is the dish. One cook, one stove, one evening.
Keep the heat low and pull the pan away while the final pieces are still visible. Residual heat finishes them. If a clear ring forms, cold butter and the lemon drops can bring the emulsion back. Ça se rattrape. The step that matters most is serving the beurre fondu before it has time to separate.
Beurre fondu belongs to the national French classical table rather than to one regional larder, and it was used chiefly with fish boiled gently in salted water or court-bouillon. Grand kitchens classified it among the simplest butter sauces, but sauciers did not hold it beside reductions: its cloudy, just-melted state was the desired finish, while beurre clarifié was a different preparation for different work. At the bourgeois table the scale shrank to a small pan, yet the service rule remained unchanged, make it last and send it at once.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
unsalted butter
Quantity
1/2 cup (120 ml / 113 g)
cold and cut into 8 equal cubes
fine table salt
Quantity
1/8 teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.7 g)
fresh lemon juice
Quantity
4 to 6 drops (about 1/16 teaspoon / 0.3 ml / 0.3 g)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| unsalted buttercold and cut into 8 equal cubes | 1/2 cup (120 ml / 113 g) |
| fine table salt | 1/8 teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.7 g) |
| fresh lemon juice | 4 to 6 drops (about 1/16 teaspoon / 0.3 ml / 0.3 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •Small 1-quart (1-liter) saucepan
- •Small whisk or heatproof flexible spatula
- •Small warmed sauceboat
Instructions
- 1
Prepare for service
Have the boiled fish cooked, drained thoroughly, and waiting on warm plates before you begin. Fill a small sauceboat with hot tap water to warm it, then empty and dry it completely. Beurre fondu cannot wait while you search for plates; water left on the fish or in the sauceboat will thin its flavor.
- 2
Melt only just
Keep one butter cube cold and put the other seven in the smallest saucepan you own. Set it over the lowest heat and rotate the pan slowly, turning the softening pieces through the liquid without letting the butter sizzle or foam hard. When most of it is fluid but two soft pieces remain, take the pan completely off the heat. Add the reserved cold cube and swirl until every piece has only just disappeared. The beurre fondu should look uniformly butter-gold and softly cloudy, with no clear oil floating above white sediment.
An electric hob keeps giving heat after it is switched off. Move the saucepan to a cold burner or trivet while the final pieces melt. - 3
Season and rescue
Stir in the table salt and 4 drops of lemon juice. Taste; the lemon should sharpen the butter without announcing itself, so add the final 2 drops only if needed. If a clear oily ring appears, clarification has begun. Remove the pan from all heat and whisk firmly while adding the reserved cold cube and the lemon drops; the cooler butter and tiny aqueous phase should restore the milky body. Ça se rattrape. If the butter remains completely clear and divided, keep it for cooking and begin the sauce again, because it is no longer beurre fondu.
- 4
Send it at once
Pour the beurre fondu into the warm, dry sauceboat or spoon it directly over the drained fish. Serve immediately, while the sauce is fluid, fragrant, and still unified. Do not hold it over a warming flame and do not let it stand while the fish cools. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Use fresh unsalted butter. The flavor has nowhere to hide, and unsalted butter lets the source's little measure of table salt remain under your control. Butter, not margarine; the preparation depends on butter's own water and milk solids.
- •Choose a small saucepan that fits the quantity closely. In a wide pan, this modest amount spreads into a thin layer and moves from barely melted to clarified before you can call everyone to the table.
- •Boiled cod, hake, turbot, and other plainly cooked fish are natural partners. Drain the fish well, because water trapped beneath it dilutes the sauce before the first bite.
- •Beurre fondu is not a holding sauce. If leftovers set, chill them promptly and use within three days for cooking fish, potatoes, or vegetables, but do not reheat them and pretend the original grace has returned.
Advance Preparation
- •Up to 1 hour ahead, cut the butter into cubes, measure the salt, and squeeze the few drops of lemon juice. Keep the butter cold until the fish is ready.
- •Warm and dry the sauceboat just before cooking. Do not melt the butter ahead; the entire preparation takes about 3 minutes and belongs at the very end of the meal's cooking.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 29g)
Calories
205 calories
Total Fat
23 g
Saturated Fat
15 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
7 g
Cholesterol
60 mg
Sodium
75 mg
Total Carbohydrates
0 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
0 g
Protein
0 g
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