Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Norwegian Butter Sauce – Better Know as Sandefjordsmør

My Norwegian pronunciations aren’t any better than my French ones, but as challenging as saying, “Sandefjordsmør,” may be, this amazingly simple butter sauce is not very challenging to make. 

People get nervous about butter sauce, since many types can easily “break,” which means the butter separates, but because of the cream, this is extremely stable, and very user-friendly. As long you don’t dump all the cold butter cubes in at once, and just toss them in a few at a time, your sauce will not break. 

Along the same lines, if you make the sauce early, be sure to keep it in a warm spot, since if it gets cold and solidifies, and then you try and reheat it, the butter will most likely separate. Above and beyond being easy, and relatively sturdy, this Sandefjordsmør is also quite versatile.

Not only is it wonderful on all types of fish, but also works beautifully with shrimp and lobster. Speaking of versatility, the same goes for changing up the herbs. So, no matter how you flavor it, or what you spoon it over, I really hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!


Ingredients for 4 servings:
2 lemons, juiced
1/2 cup heavy cream
5 tablespoons cold unsalted, grass-fed butter, cut in cubes
salt and cayenne to taste
2 generous tablespoons chopped Italian parsley

27 comments:

Bethany said...

I was hoping you would make a lemon butter sauce. Thank you for your blog and videos. Happy Valentine's Day Chef John!

Da,a said...

Is is possible to make this ahead of time, refrigerate it and than reheat it?

Unknown said...

I'm definitely giving this one a try, might try it on chicken too. By the way, I didn't quite catch that: did you say your middle name was: "Armin"; or: "Armand"? Just curious, doesn't really matter, after all, my middle names are: "Robert James". Therefore, my full name is: "Dale Robert James Percy". You think your small spoon is freakish? Try living with four first names.

Anyway, will try the recipe sometime soon. Cheers!

Edward said...

Sort of a Hollandaise with cream instead of eggs. Is there an advantage to having the butter cold instead of melted?

Anonymous said...

OOOO....I'm about to learn the latest Norwegian swear words!!

inchrisin said...

THIS is a techniques video.

arwiv said...

I just went to the store and bought salmon just so I could try this sauce tonight.

Spyce said...

I saw this recipe this morning and since I'm working at home today, I decided I would make it for lunch. Huge mistake! As I was pulling the ingredients together, I thought mashed potatoes would be a nice addition for the sauce, along with sautéed spinach. It was delicious!Now I am full and ready to call it a day! Or maybe I'll just sit in the bed and finish working, LOL!

Unknown said...

Would also be interested to see a recipe from you that uses Norwegian Brown Cheese.

Matt Langston said...

I used this on a piece of lobster, alongside a bit of beef tenderloin with the ol' beurre noir sauce for a "Blanc et Noir" Valentine dinner. The cream made the recipe forgiving enough to do it all at the same time without biffing something! Love and butter were in the air last night.

Unknown said...

Tried this with dill and it was amazing. Saved my Valentine's Day. Keep up the excellent work Chef.

Unknown said...

Chef John, you are the absolute BEST! I am such a fan of your videos and humor. My teenage daughters love you too. Now, I made the sauce and I promise you,it was the bomb.com! I wish I could leave a photo. I'm a home chef and your techniques are so easy to follow, I rarely look at a recipe. Thank you for all you do!

Unknown said...

Not specific to this recipe, but a big Thank You to Chef John and all you do here. I found your site bout 5 months ago and have enjoyed making many of your recipes. You have helped to transform our kitchen into a more wonderful place. From our family to yours... Cheers!

Unknown said...

As a Norwegian, with at least some experience in the kitchen, this receipe seems to either use mini lemons, or has to end up the most acidic Sandefjordsmør I've ever heard of.

Something seems off here.

leila's dad said...

Chef J! How do you keep your enamelled cast iron so clean!!?

Love your videos so much. I think I've seen them all xoxo

Jenny

Anonymous said...

I just tried making this and am chowing down at this moment. I have to agree with Alexander above, the juice of 2 lemons made this a bit tangy for my tastes. I'd suggest maybe cutting back to 1 lemon.

Aside from that, I'm using dill instead of parsley, white pepper in place of cayenne (as suggested) and had to use half-and-half in place of heavy cream. (I doubled the amount of half-and-half to compensate and it turned out just fine.)

I'd make this again in a heartbeat.

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Elena said...

Thank you for the recipe chef John - my husband and I are big fans of your videos! The sauce came up just like in the video. I think we'll use half of the amount of lemon juice next time tho, the taste was a bit too acidic for me and I could barely taste the butter.

Bob said...

Do we store the sauce in the fridge or room temperature? And how long can we store it for?

John said...

Lemon sauce rather than Norwegian. 2 lemons are too much acidity as I found out. Couple of spoons of sugar helped.

Unknown said...

I just made this with two lemons and it was tooo lemony. Suggest use one.

Beeeater said...

I suggest half a glass of dry white wine and half a lemon to begin with... Try it ...

Unknown said...

I just made this lemon butter sauce today, and I agree with the other reviewers that it is too acidity with two lemons. Next time I'm going to do what reviewer, Beeeater suggested and use a half a lemon to begin with.

B.K. Hlady said...

Following up to say a single lemon, along with equal amounts of white wine as suggested by Beeeater turned out really well. Everybody agreed they wouldn't want it more lemony.

I used dried thyme, and served it over chicken, along with rice pilaf and steamed green beans with butter and the zest of the lemon I squeezed.

Waste not, want not.

StephanWShemenski said...

Hi Chef John, I just made your Norwegian butter sauce. Awesome is an understatement.
My wife, a filipina, is digging in and loving the butter sauce with salmon.
Thank you for giving us an awesome treat.

LovelyLady78 said...

Great recipe. But don't use salted butter. That was my mistake.

LovelyLady78 said...

BTW I couldn't find Norwegian butter, but the closest one I could find is a brand called Lurpak from Denmark.