butter is not the ideal medium for searing food—it simply can’t get hot enough without burning For this reason, many chefs make clarified butter, butter from which the water and protein have been removed It’s the primary cooking fat in India, where it’s known as ghee You make it by melting butter, carefully skimming the white milk proteins off the top, and then pouring off the golden liquid fat, discarding the watery layer of proteins on the bottom Once clarified, butter can be heated to much higher temperatures without fear of burning As I mentioned earlier, clarified butter is used to make a classic hollandaise, the thinking being that the water constituent in whole butter will dilute the sauce A much easier way to avoid this water in your finished sauce is to just pour the melted butter slowly out of the pan until all that’s left is the watery layer at the bottom, which you can then discard To test the theory, I heated up a couple of sticks of butter on the stovetop (the microwave also does just fine) to 200°F, then slowly drizzled the butter into my egg yolks and lemon juice, which I had running in the blender (adding a bit of water to the yolk mixture helps prevent it from sticking to the walls of the jar) A quick dash of salt and cayenne pepper, and there it was: perfect hollandaise without the headache To make it even more foolproof, I tried it again using an immersion blender and its jar I put the egg yolks, lemon, and water in the jar, stuck the wand of the hand blender down in there, poured in all the melted butter, and turned on the blender As the vortex drew butter down into the whirling blades, a thick, stable emulsion formed like magic, until all the butter was incorporated and my sauce was thick, rich, and light, the way a great hollandaise should be .. .the hand blender down in there, poured in all the melted butter, and turned on the blender As the vortex drew butter down into the whirling blades, a thick, stable... blades, a thick, stable emulsion formed like magic, until all the butter was incorporated and my sauce was thick, rich, and light, the way a great hollandaise should be