Crayfish Butter

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide 4-quart heavy saucepan with a tight lid
• •Digital kitchen scale
• •Heavy-duty food processor
• •Rolling pin or small heavy saucepan
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Butter muslin or tightly woven cheesecloth
• •Firm silicone spatula

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the crayfish

   Warm the prepared Mirepoix (No. 228) in a wide, heavy saucepan over medium heat until it sizzles and smells rounded, about 2 minutes. Add the crayfish, turn them through the mirepoix, and cover tightly. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes, shaking the pan twice, until every shell is bright red and the thickest tail is opaque and reaches 145°F (63°C). If the mirepoix begins catching before the crayfish release their liquid, add a tablespoon of water and lower the heat. Ça se rattrape. Let them cool for 5 minutes, just until your fingers can manage them.

2. 2

   Save the tails

   Twist off the tails, peel them, and lift away the dark intestinal vein. Cover and chill the tail meat for garnishing toast. Keep the tail shells, claws, and hard body carapaces, but discard the gills, grit, and loose soft matter. Blot the shells and weigh out exactly 4 ounces (113 g). The book permits pounding the whole crayfish, but reserving the tails gives you the garnish it intended and keeps the butter clean-tasting.

   If you have less than 4 ounces (113 g) of shell, reduce the butter rather than adding tail meat. The formula is two parts butter to one part cooked shell by weight.
3. 3

   Pound the shells

   Wrap the measured shells in a folded sturdy kitchen towel and crack them firmly with a rolling pin or the base of a small saucepan. Transfer every fragment to a heavy-duty food processor and pulse until the shells resemble coarse sand, stopping to redistribute stubborn pieces. This is the step that decides the butter. Large fragments surrender little colour and make the sieving miserable; patient pounding exposes the rose-red shell beneath the surface.

4. 4

   Work in the butter

   Add the softened butter to the powdered shells and process for 3 to 4 minutes, scraping the bowl several times, until the mixture is evenly coral-red and smells distinctly of crayfish. The butter should remain creamy, not liquid. If the machine warms it into an oily mass, scrape everything into a metal bowl set over ice water and stir until opaque and creamy again, then continue. Ça se rattrape.

5. 5

   Pass it twice

   Rub the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve with a firm silicone spatula, pressing hard and scraping the clean butter from beneath the mesh. Discard the dry shell grit. Dampen a square of butter muslin with cold water, wring it thoroughly, and stretch it over a clean bowl. Rub the sieved butter through the cloth in small spoonfuls. If it firms and refuses to pass, warm the spatula in hot water, dry it completely, and continue. The first pass removes shell; the second removes grit. Neither is brigade theater. Both belong to the dish.

6. 6

   Set the butter

   Pack the beurre d’écrevisses into a shallow crock while it is still pliable, press parchment directly against the surface, and chill for 1 hour. Let it soften for 10 to 15 minutes before spreading it on crisp toast and topping each piece with reserved tail meat. For sauce Nantua, whisk cold pieces into the finished sauce away from the heat; boiling after the butter goes in dulls its colour and encourages the fat to separate. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Weigh the cooked shells, not the whole crayfish. For every 2 ounces (57 g) of shell, use 4 ounces (113 g) of butter. This proportion is the book’s formula and scales cleanly in either direction.
• •If whole raw crayfish are unavailable, good frozen whole cooked crayfish are the honest preserved choice. Thaw them in the cold, reserve the tails, and warm the shells with the Mirepoix (No. 228) for 5 minutes before pounding. The result will be slightly quieter because the shells have already given some perfume to their first cooking.
• •Leave the butter unsalted. As a foundation for sauce Nantua it must not dictate the final seasoning; when serving it directly on toast, add salt to the finished toast if it needs it.
• •The source permits pounding the entire crayfish, but saving the tails is usually the wiser course. Their sweet meat belongs on the toast, while the shells do the more interesting work in the butter.
• •Keep the butter cool but pliable during sieving. Cold butter will not pass, melted butter carries fine shell grit through the cloth, and margarine has no place here. We don’t apologize for butter.

Advance Preparation

• •Make the beurre d’écrevisses up to 3 days ahead. Press parchment directly against its surface, cover, and refrigerate; let it soften for 10 to 15 minutes before spreading.
• •For longer keeping, shape the strained butter into a small parchment-wrapped log and freeze it for up to 2 months. Slice off what you need while frozen and return the remainder promptly.
• •Keep the reserved tail meat separately covered in the cold and use it within 1 day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 14g)