The Simple Tip To Remember When Making Deep Fried Butter At Home

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Of all the deep-fried delicacies we enjoy at a fair, perhaps the most eye-popping cuisine is deep-fried butter. It can easily be dismissed as fried food being taken too far, but folks following that line of thinking are missing out on a beloved Southern staple that graces many a fair booth during the late summer months. Still, you don't have to wait for the fair season to enjoy this savory delight anytime you like. It is a reasonably straightforward concoction to make, but like many other simple recipes, the devil is in the details. In particular, there is one step you can't skip if you want the dish to come out right.

The key to creating the luscious treat is making sure the butter is manageable when you dip it into a tasty batter, and the best way to accomplish this is to freeze it  for a minimum of one hour before moving on to the coating step. It doesn't need to be frozen solid throughout, but it should be firm. Depending on the recipe you are following, you may want to sweeten the butter with ingredients like cinnamon and brown sugar, then put it back in the freezer for a couple more hours before it gets battered. The cold will insulate the butter from your natural body heat as you handle it, giving you enough time to ensure it gets completely coated before it starts to melt.

You don't necessarily have to acquire the best butter money can buy at the grocery store when you plan to fry it, but it is best to use unsalted butter rather than salted to control the salinity. Some people like to use a melon ball scooper like the OXO Good Grips Melon Baller to get bite-sized balls of the ingredient, yet others go to the extreme and fry a whole stick for a concoction that is almost a meal in itself. Whichever method you go with, freezing it beforehand is essential so the butter doesn't melt while you're attempting to batter it.

With cold, firm butter in hand, you are ready to get it battered — this is where you get to let your creativity shine. Keep it savory by incorporating some paprika into your flour mixture, or make it sweet by adding your favorite type of sugar to the blend. Top it with store-bought powdered sugar when it is done frying, or be ambitious and make a doctored-up powdered sugar for an extra boost of flavor. You could even create an elevated pancake batter with pantry staples like maple syrup and cinnamon for a satisfying accompaniment to a memorable eggs and bacon breakfast. As long as the butter is chilled in the freezer before you go to coat it, any type of batter you think would complement the richness of the star ingredient will result in a tasty dish you won't soon forget.