How to make French kneaded butter or beurre manié – The Sauce Rescue-er without the shlep!



Beurre mani – French Kneaded Butter – The Sauce Rescuer! Is Magic Stuff! A MUST HAVE Kitchen Knowledge!





In classical French kitchens this is an instant sauce rescuer. Especially when using cornflour to make your roux and thicken sauces – When cornstarch is reheated or overcooked it begins to break down and thin out. Well, here comes Beurre mani to the rescue!
In fact you don’t even need a recipe for this – I just knead as much cake flour into the butter as I can. I then just stir in balls, the size of marbles into my sauce until thickened to my liking 😉 Make sure that when kneading in the flour that it is very well incorporated into your butter, otherwise it will cause lumps. This will save you from going to the trouble of making another roux all over again.
Beurre manié is a flour butter paste which is also known as French kneaded butter and is a dough consisting of equal parts of soft butter and flour, used as a last-minute thickener for sauces. By kneading the flour into the butter, the flour particles are coated in butter. When the beurre mani is whisked into your hot sauce – the butter begins to melt, releasing the flour particles without creating lumps. 

Notes:
Use an equal weight in grams or a ratio of 3 parts butter to 4 parts flour – ie; 75 g butter for every 100 g flour – In other words, knead in as much flour as you can into the butter and do it smoothly without any lumps. The butter must be very well kneaded into the flour. As soon as sauce is ready for serving, whisk or stir in pea sized marbles or blobs of beurre manie until sauce reaches desired thickness. As soon as it does. Remove from heat or you will run the risk of it breaking down and thinning out again.

Ingredients (approximately):
3 oz (90 ml) butter
4 oz cake or all purpose flour
- OR -
25 g (1 oz) 2 Tbs Butter
25 g (1 oz) 4 Tbs Flour - Cake or All purpose flour

Method:
Knead the flour and butter together with your fingertips or use a teaspoon so that the flour particles are well coated with the butter.
Break off small pieces and roll them into individual little balls – the size of marbles.
Whilst constantly stirring or using a balloon whisk – gradually drop in the balls one at a time until your sauce reaches its desired thickness.
The balls should be added, a little at a time to your sauce mixture whilst constantly stirring or whisking. You may use a balloon whisk.
As soon as sauce reaches desired thickness it is done. Remove from heat. Don’t let the sauce cook any further or it will begin to thin out once again.

Serve and Enjoy! 🙂

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