To understand how clarified butter enhances the flavor of hash browns, it is important to look at what clarified butter is. When butter is cooked to a degree that its milk solids and part of its water content are removed, what remains is a clear liquid that is yellow in color. It has the same richness and is quite similar in taste to regular butter, but it has the distinct advantage of having a higher smoke point, as it’s devoid of milk that burns when cooked. This allows it to be cooked at higher temperatures.
Using clarified butter in place of regular butter means that your hash browns won’t have any burned portions for you to deal with. Secondly, the clean and intense flavor of clarified butter is a bit less sweet, which also works in favor of a truly delicious hash brown.