Knowing how to make a good sauce is one of those ways to give most anything a good up level in flavour and always makes meals a little more interesting. To me a perfect combination to for your cooking to be more delicious.

I’ve talked about the magic white sauce and the multipurpose chimichurri, today I want to jump into one of the sauces I probably make most often; Buerre Monte.

Or as I like to call it, the workhorse butter sauce.

Buerre Monte to put it in the simplest of terms is just a combination of water and butter.

Add cold butter to hot water and you get an emulsification of the two, ending up with this beautiful, glossy sauce that you can drizzle as a simple finishing sauce or use a base for other things. It also works as both poaching liquid and sauce for shellfish or vegetables.

Two simple ingredients, a little seasoning and you’ve got a delicous starting point that you can then get creative with in your own way.

It’s also a great example of why temperature matters with your ingredients: add melted butter and you don’t get the emulsification and lose that slight thickening that happens which is what you’re looking for to have it drizzle and cling perfectly to whatever you’re adding it to.

That slight little difference and it changes everything.

Cooking really is magic.

Buerre Monte Basics:

I’m not sharing a recipe but instead, where I start as far as ratios for this because to be honest, I’m never usually measuring this and I hope that you don’t either. It’s all about eyeballing it and then paying attention until I get the consistency I like.

To start, my ratio is usually about a 1 to 3 of liquid to butter (example 1 tbsp water to 3 tbsp butter) but again this is all about using your senses and finding that sweet spot. You might like yours a little thicker or thinner - and it’s something to think about depending on what you’re using it for as you may want it thicker or thinner.

A few important things I make sure of: first, that the liquid is hot and the butter is cold. I usually cut the butter into cubes and add a few at a time then still until they melt. This is how you can control how thick it gets. And last, when I’m adding the butter I take my pan off the heat as soon as the water has boiled and whisk a few cubes of butter in right away which helps to get that consistency. You want to allow for that emulsification to happen and I feel that this happens best when the butter is able to melt a little slower. Once you’ve whisked in a few cubes of butter you’ll see it starting to thicken slightly and from there just add until you hit what looks good to you for thickness. I know I’m close when I can ‘draw’ in it with a wooden spoon, meaning when you swipe the sauce in the pan with the spoon you can see the bottom of the pan where your spoon was for a second or so. If you find you went a little too far with the butter you can always course correct by adding a little more liquid - just be sure it’s warm. A little warm water fixes so many things!

This is why I love learning the technique then adjusting and making little tweaks to make it work for you and your cooking.

And speaking of tweaks, let’s run through some of the ideas I have that you can play with in terms of changing/adding flavour:

Change the liquid:

Use wine (red or white) and you’ve got a buerre blanc or rouge. I do this alot for a pan sauce where I’ll deglaze a pan that I’ve seared or roasted something in with wine and then reduce it down and finish with butter. I love to use orange or grapefruit juice - reduce it down so it’s almost syrupy and then finish with the cold butter. This one’s especially good on chicken, fish or with crispy tofu. Any kind of stock works great. Or try balsamic vinegar which balances amazing with the butter. I will also cook down local blueberries in the summer then add a splash of balsamic for a fruity version that I love on salmon! You see how the ideas are endless?!

Add ins:

A little bit of mustard, or a some of my favourite pastes like; miso, Gochujang, or a good storebought curry paste. Fresh herbs at the last minute or even just a splash of lemon, lime or any citrus at the end to brighten things up. Parmesan or any sort of hard cheese is great too. If you wanted to do some aromatics, sauté minced garlic or shallots in the pan before adding your liquid.

These are just a few of the things I’ve done with it but you can see it’s never ending the ways you can change it up and make it your own. And it’s why I’m alway talking techniques first. Because when you know them, it opens up so much space for your own inspiration and creativity. which is endless!

This is the kind of cooking I love and want for you to be confident doing it as much as I am.

This is what cooking gets to be - creative and inspired by you!

Tell me in the comments when you make your own version. I can’t wait to hear about what you create :)

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