Smoked Butter

VegetarianMakes 1 small jar

Smoked butter is melted butter infused with smoke from a hot coal, then strained clear. It has a rich buttery flavour with a smoky aroma.

Ingredients

250 g

dairy

30 g1 piece

other

Melt 250 g butter in a saucepan that has a lid, then take the pan off the heat and set it aside.
Set a gas hob to high. With tongs, hold 30 g coal in the flame and turn it occasionally until it is hot and glowing.
Switch off the hob. Put the hot coal into the melted butter; it will start to smoke.
Cover the pan and leave the coal in the butter for 1 hour to flavour it.
Line a sieve with muslin cloth and set it over a sterilised jar.
Pour the butter through the muslin, leaving the coal behind, then discard the coal.
Keep the jar in the fridge and use the butter for basting as needed.

Butter

Unsalted butter
Use 100% of the weight. If the original recipe relies on salted table butter, add a pinch of salt to balance.
Ghee
Use 80% to 85% of the weight. Ghee is pure butterfat with moisture removed; it yields a deeper, nuttier flavour and handles high heat better.
Vegetable oil
Use 80% of the weight for frying or tempering. The dish loses sweet dairy richness but remains glossy and light.

Coal

Charcoal
Use the same weight. Light until glowing and smoking; it gives the same tandoor/smoke effect.

Same: Homemade Ghee and this dish are both clarified butters made by melting butter and straining out the solids.
Different: Homemade Ghee uses 750 g unsalted butter and no coal, and it is slowly simmered until the milk solids separate; this dish uses 250 g butter plus 30 g coal and is infused with smoke from a hot coal.

Same: Paneer and this dish are both dairy-based and made from a short ingredient list.
Different: Paneer is made by curdling whole milk with lemon juice and draining the curds, while this dish melts butter and infuses it with smoke from hot coal, then strains it clear.

Same: How to Make Homemade Paneer and this dish are both dairy-based preparations that are heated and then strained.
Different: How to Make Homemade Paneer uses whole milk curdled with lemon juice, drained, and pressed into firm cheese, while this dish melts butter and infuses it with smoke from hot coal before straining it clear.

Same: Kalakand shares a dairy base and a butter or ghee fat with this dish.
Different: Kalakand adds khoya, sugar, and pistachios and is set into a fudgy sweet, while this dish is only butter smoked with coal and strained clear.