Chef Juliette
Ordinary or White Consommé
Beef shin, lean beef, and fowl begin in cold water and rise slowly toward a tremble. Skim before the boil, and you learn the quiet discipline that gives every clear French broth its backbone.
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Shrimp Butter
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 145, Shrimp Butter, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Beurre de crevettes turns the shrimp bowl’s scraps into coral silk: equal weights of cooked remains and real butter, ground fine and passed twice through the sieve until no shell grit survives.
Sauces & Condiments
French
Make Ahead
Freezer Friendly
Batch Cooking
1 hr 30 min
Active Time
0 min cook•2 hr 30 min total
YieldAbout 2 quarts (8 cups / 1.9 L)
Beurre de crevettes (shrimp butter) teaches the cleanest economy in the sauce canon: shells, heads, and trimmings still hold coral colour and concentrated shrimp flavour, and butter carries both into the finished sauce. The one true thing to know before touching the machine is that sieving is not cleanup after the work. The tamisage (fine sieving) is the work. If shell grit survives, the butter is not finished.
The source formula assumes a saucier on staff, a heavy mortar, a silk-fine tammy, a cool larder, and a steady supply of remains from the fish station. A stock never off the fire and a salamander belonged elsewhere in that kitchen; this preparation needs neither. The home equivalent is a food processor worked in small batches, a fine sieve used twice, and the refrigerator. The open-ended brigade quantity becomes five pounds of cooked remains matched with exactly five pounds of butter, enough for a useful freezer batch while preserving the source’s one-to-one ratio. The machine is scaffolding and may change. The ratio and the tamisage are the dish and must stay.
Keep the mixture cool enough to remain creamy and opaque. If the processor warms it into an oily paste, stop and chill the batch before continuing. Most of all, make the second pass through a clean sieve and test the butter between finger and thumb. Smoothness decides everything here. One cook, one stove, one evening, and the stove can stay cold.
Beurre de crevettes belongs to the classical Parisian saucier’s pantry, where fish-station remains moved into the sauce kitchen instead of the bin. Shells, heads, and clean trimmings were pounded with their own weight of butter, giving sauces both shellfish flavour and the coral colour that water alone could not extract. Its refinement comes from the tammy rather than extra seasoning: generations of sauce cooks understood that the plainest formula demands the most exact sieving.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
cold cooked shrimp remains
Quantity
about 20 to 24 cups loosely packed (2.27 kg / 5 lb)
heads, shells, tail shells, and clean meat trimmings, unseasoned and well drained
unsalted butter
Quantity
10 cups (2.37 L / 2.27 kg / 5 lb)
pliable but cool, about 18°C / 65°F
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| cold cooked shrimp remainsheads, shells, tail shells, and clean meat trimmings, unseasoned and well drained | about 20 to 24 cups loosely packed (2.27 kg / 5 lb) |
| unsalted butterpliable but cool, about 18°C / 65°F | 10 cups (2.37 L / 2.27 kg / 5 lb) |
Equipment Needed
- •Digital kitchen scale
- •Large food processor fitted with a metal blade
- •Kitchen shears
- •Two 20 cm / 8 inch very fine mesh sieves, or one fine drum sieve washed between passes
- •Flexible bowl scraper and sturdy metal spoon
- •Small airtight freezer containers or silicone portion trays
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the remains
Use only cooked, unseasoned shrimp remains that have been kept properly chilled. Remove paper, herbs, lemon pips, or other table debris, then drain and blot the remains thoroughly; trapped water shortens the butter’s keeping life and weakens its flavour. Clip long points from large heads with kitchen shears. Weigh the remains, then weigh exactly the same amount of butter. Divide each into five equal portions so the processor never crowds.
Weight governs this formula because a cup of hollow shells bears no useful relation to a cup of dense trimmings. For any smaller batch, match 500 g cooked remains with 500 g butter. - 2
Pound by machine
Put one portion of shrimp remains into the food processor and pulse until the heads and shells are reduced to a damp, very fine meal. Add the matching portion of butter a little at a time, scraping the bowl as necessary, then process until the mixture becomes an even coral paste with no visible streaks of plain butter. Repeat with the remaining portions. If friction makes a batch shiny, loose, or oily, stop and chill it for 10 to 15 minutes until opaque, then continue. Do not add water and do not melt the butter.
- 3
Make the first pass
Set a very fine mesh sieve over a chilled bowl. Press the coral paste through in manageable spoonfuls, working it firmly against the mesh with a flexible scraper or the back of a sturdy spoon. Scrape the smooth butter from the underside of the sieve into the bowl and continue until the coarse shell residue feels nearly dry. If the butter is too firm to pass, leave that portion at cool room temperature for five minutes; warmth should make it pliable, never melted.
- 4
Sieve it again
Wash and dry the sieve completely, or set a second clean fine sieve over another chilled bowl, then pass every spoonful of butter through again. A domestic sieve is rarely as fine as the source formula’s tammy, so this second tamisage is the honest equivalent, not an optional refinement. Rub a pea-sized amount between finger and thumb. If it feels sandy, ça se rattrape: send the entire batch through a finer sieve once more. Never disguise grit by loosening the butter with liquid.
- 5
Pack and chill
Pack the finished beurre de crevettes into small airtight containers, pressing out air pockets and laying parchment directly against the surface. Chill for about 1 hour, until firm and evenly coral. The exact yield varies with how much butter the shells retain; collect what passes through without adding extra butter to chase a number. Refrigerate what will be used within three days and freeze the rest in practical portions.
Chef Tips
- •Heads carry the deepest colour and flavour, but clean shells, tails, and cooked meat trimmings all belong. Avoid remains coated with garlic, spice, smoke, or frying fat; those seasonings would turn the source formula into another preparation.
- •Unsalted dairy butter, nothing else. Margarine and spreadable blends contain water and vegetable fats that dull the shrimp flavour and spoil the texture. We don’t apologize for butter.
- •The processor replaces the brigade mortar, but it does not replace judgment. Work in small batches so the shell pieces circulate beneath the blade and the butter stays opaque rather than turning greasy.
- •Use beurre de crevettes by the spoonful to finish shellfish sauces, enrich a fish soup, or mount into a reduction after it leaves the heat. Avoid frying it hard because the fine shell particles scorch quickly.
Advance Preparation
- •Cooked shrimp remains may be collected in the freezer until there is enough for a batch. Freeze them promptly in airtight bags, thaw them in the refrigerator, and blot them dry before weighing.
- •Finished beurre de crevettes keeps for up to three days under refrigeration. Keep parchment against its surface so it does not absorb neighbouring refrigerator aromas.
- •Freeze the butter in tablespoon or half-cup portions for up to three months. Transfer the firm portions to an airtight bag, then thaw only what is needed in the refrigerator.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 18g)
Calories
105 calories
Total Fat
11 g
Saturated Fat
7 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
4 g
Cholesterol
35 mg
Sodium
5 mg
Total Carbohydrates
0 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
0 g
Protein
1 g
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