To make garlic butter sauce, gently melt butter with minced garlic until fragrant, then finish with chopped herbs and a squeeze of lemon. Keep the heat low so the garlic sweetens instead of browning. It comes together in five minutes.
What is garlic butter sauce?
Garlic butter sauce is the fastest genuinely good sauce a home cook can make: butter melted with garlic, lifted by a herb and a little acid. It is a loose, pourable take on a compound butter, the classic French idea of flavoring butter with aromatics, and it dresses bread, pasta, shrimp, steak, and vegetables alike.
Its whole character lives in how you treat the garlic. Cooked gently it turns sweet and mellow; rushed over high heat it browns and turns bitter. Master that one move and you have a sauce you will reach for more than almost any other.
What goes in garlic butter sauce?
- ·4 tbsp butter
- ·3 cloves garlic, minced
- ·1 tbsp chopped parsley
- ·A squeeze of lemon juice
- ·Pinch of salt
- ·Pinch of chili flakes (optional)
Four tablespoons of butter to three cloves of garlic is a generous, garlicky balance you can scale up freely. The herb and acid are finishers, added off the heat so they stay fresh. There is no roux and no thickening; the sauce is simply flavored melted butter.
How do you make garlic butter sauce?
- Melt the butter in a small pan over low heat.
- Add the minced garlic and cook gently for one to two minutes, until fragrant but not browned.
- Take the pan off the heat and stir in the parsley, lemon juice, salt, and chili if using.
- Use right away, while warm and pourable.
What should you know before making garlic butter sauce?
- Keep the heat low. Browned garlic turns the whole sauce bitter in seconds.
- Finish acid off the heat. A squeeze of lemon at the end keeps the sauce bright.
- Use fresh garlic. Jarred garlic tastes flat and dull next to a freshly minced clove.
- Brown the butter for depth. Letting the butter go nut-brown first adds a toasty layer.
Where did garlic butter sauce come from?
Flavored butters, the beurres composés, are a long-standing part of the French repertoire catalogued by Auguste Escoffier in 1903. Garlic butter is the most popular of them, a melted, sauce-like version of that classic technique.
Drawn from the public-domain text of Auguste Escoffier, Le Guide Culinaire (1903).
What can you make from garlic butter sauce?
Common questions.
How do you make garlic butter sauce?
Melt butter over low heat, add minced garlic and cook until fragrant but not browned, then finish off the heat with herbs, a squeeze of lemon, and salt.
Why is my garlic butter bitter?
The garlic browned. Cook it gently over low heat just until fragrant. Once garlic turns golden it tips quickly into bitterness.
What can I use garlic butter sauce on?
Garlic bread, pasta, shrimp and other seafood, steak, roasted vegetables, and as a dipping sauce. It is one of the most versatile quick sauces there is.
Can I make garlic butter ahead?
Yes. Chill it as a compound butter log and melt what you need, or keep the melted sauce in the fridge and warm it gently to pour.
How long does garlic butter keep?
About a week in the fridge as a sauce, longer if shaped into a compound butter, and it freezes well in log form.