Butter Explosion

Hyperbole is used far too much in food writing. How many times have you read about a “flavor explosion” or something that “explodes in your mouth”? There are a host of products on supermarket shelves that promise such explosions, too. Some of what food manufacturers are able to do with science is remarkable.

Right now I’m thinking of those pretzels that recreate the mouthfeel of a juicy Buffalo wing. But even when I wrote about those I didn’t say they exploded with flavor.

For better or for worse, I take words very seriously. I think words matter. So when I tell you something is a butter explosion, you better believe it’s a butter explosion. Some of you might be thinking today’s post is about Chicken Kiev. That would be understandable, but that’s more like a burst of butter.

I want to tell you about a butter explosion.

Perhaps you remember how I’ve recently become obsessed with the idea of making an improbably difficult Indian dessert. Well, the very first step of this multi-day process is to make ghee, which is essentially a glorified clarified butter.

I’ve made it before by fastidiously following the instructions from Modernist Cuisine at Home. No, I probably didn’t have to use such a big and elaborate book for such a simple dish, but its attention to detail is compelling.

This time it didn’t quite work out so well.

After some of the water boils out of the butter and the solids are strained through cheesecloth, a pound of unsalted butter should yield a scant two cups of ghee. I ended up with less than a quarter of one cup. The rest of the butter was dripping down like rain from the inside of the stove’s hood into several golden shimmering pools covering the range. One burner was engulfed by fire. Streaks of butter cascaded down the walls. Butter splattered all over the floor. And all of my cooking tools within arms reach were thoroughly buttery.

The good news is that I wasn’t looking into the pot when it exploded, so I didn’t get a face full of boiling oil. The fire was easy to extinguish. Nobody got burned. And miraculously, despite boiling fat flying all around me, I didn’t get a drop on my clothes.

That last part is still a mystery.

What’s no longer a mystery is what went wrong. It turns out that I’m not the first experienced cook to encounter this phenomenon. The Internet is filled with other similar tales, although many involve a microwave. Man, I wish the mess had been contained to a microwave. That would have made my life so much easier.

Remember how I said the point of clarifying the butter is to remove some of the water? Well, it turns out sometimes a few water droplets can get trapped under the weight of the melted butter. And as the heat increases, they expand until… BOOM! A more technical description can be found on wikipedia for those who are interested.

I love this homey solution from Chowhound about leaving a spoon in the pan to break the surface tension. Most likely, though, I may just alter my technique so I don’t heat the butter so long. Yes, I’ll miss out on a bit of complexity in the flavor, but really I just need to get the solids out of the butter so they won’t get all toasty and change the flavor and color of my finished dishes.

This is a good wake up call to be cautious out there while cooking. Knives, fire, boiling fats, molten sugar and raw meat are rife with peril. Don’t be scared of them, but do treat them with the respect they deserve.

Hopefully, someone can learn from my mistake and can be spared another butter explosion (and the hours of resulting cleanup it demands).