Fat Washing with Brown Butter

So you want to infuse your booze with brown butter?

Welcome to the big phat world of fat washing!

Fat Washing is the technique of infusing something fatty into something boozy. Basically, you infuse your alcohol with your chosen fat, let it infuse for at least a full day, then place your booze in the freezer so that the fat separates and rises to the surface and can be easily scraped off and strained.

The flavor of the brown butter remains in the alcohol but most of the fat does not.

First things first, get your ingredients in order. 

Butter: We used good quality Australian butter with a very intense butter flavor, whereas back home in the States if I were making this again I would up the butter as the flavor is much more subtle, or just splurge on a better quality butter. 

Booze: This infusion would work great with aged rum, whisky, brandy, or cachaca. Because fat washing has the potential to bring in only subtle flavor, it’s important not to get a low-quality liquor otherwise the alcohol may overpower your infusion rather than work along with it. A clean decent quality liquor will work but we chose to use a local Rhum Agricole because the grassy/funky banana flavor of the Rhum complemented the Banana Nutella Roti cocktail we were making perfectly. And because fat washed rum cannot be beaten.

Browned Butter Fat Wash How-To:

We used about 3 Tablespoons (40g) of butter to make 1.25 cups (300 ml) of brown butter rum. Depending on the quality of your butter and the intensity of its flavor, you may need a bit more butter.

Brown the butter. This should be a low and slow process. Don’t go blasting the heat thinking you’re going to be a wise guy because your brown butter will become burnt butter and that’s actually not a very good flavor. You should stand over the stove for the entire process, lovingly swirl the butter in the pan and just let it know you are there for it. Be supportive and loving. Soon you will start to see the milk fat separate and it will slowly start to turn golden brown. When that happens, it’s time to pull it off the heat. Whisper to your newly browned butter “good job”.

After just a few minutes of cooling, pour your butter into a sealable bottle or container with your chosen booze.

Let the two infuse and get to know each other for no less than 24 hours at room temperature. Gently shake at least once or twice during the infusion time.

Once the rum is infused, throw your container in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour. Once the fat has fully solidified you can fine strain the fat from the booze.

There you have it! Brown Butter Fat Washed Booze.

You could use this technique with just about any flavorful fat (bacon fat, coconut oil, etc). Want butter whiskey or butter washed rum? Just melt the butter and pull it from the stove before it browns.

Be sure to leave us a comment on what alcohol you ended up using and how it went.