Why Cooking Your Hash Browns In Butter Might Ruin Breakfast
When it comes to classic, diner-style American breakfasts, there's hardly a more beloved side than crispy hash browns. A delectable combination of a crunchy, well-seasoned exterior and a soft, pillowy interior, hash browns pair perfectly with eggs, however you like them, and all the best breakfast meats.
But hash browns are delicate because of their thin nature, and easy to get wrong. One cooking method you may be using, frying them in butter, only makes it easier to mess up, and it's because of butter's 350-degree Fahrenheit smoke point. At that smoke point, you risk the butter and your hash brown's exterior burning before you get that nice crust and softened insides. This doesn't mean you can't use butter to fry your hash browns, especially if you love the flavor it imparts, but it does mean you need to get creative in the kitchen if you do want to use it.
Ways to cook hash browns in butter with less risk
The easiest way to cook your hash browns in butter is to cut it with some oil to raise the overall smoke point. Not extra-virgin olive oil, which has a similar smoke point to butter, but with a high-smoke-point oil. Canola and vegetable oils are good choices since they have smoke points between 400 and 450 degrees Fahrenheit, plus they don't have much flavor to mess with the butter flavor.
A trickier option is to cut your butter with animal fat instead of oil. It's trickier for two reasons: First, common frying animal fats such as duck and pork have smoke points barely much higher than butter. Secondly, animal fats are bursting with flavor. If you just want pure butter flavor, it's the wrong way to go, but you should at least try frying your hash browns in butter and leftover bacon grease once. You may find a new favorite flavor combo.
The final, most time-consuming though not too difficult method is to first remove the elements in butter that cause the low smoke point: milk solids and water. Doing this transforms your butter into ghee, or clarified butter. Besides raising the smoke point from 350 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, it also lasts longer than regular butter. You can buy ghee at the store, but it can cost several times more than regular butter, so you may as well make your own.