6 Incredibly Delicious Compound Butter Recipes (2024)

FAQs

Should you melt butter for compound butter? ›

Bring your butter to room temperature.

Cold butter won't blend with your mix-ins, and melted butter won't keep its consistency to hold them in place. Room temperature is like Goldilocks and the Three Bears: not too cold and not too hot.

So, compound butter is butter combined with at least one additional ingredient. However, most compound butter recipes will include several ingredients. Depending on the ingredients you add, you can make your compound sweet or savory.

Compound butter or “beurre composse” in French is simply unsalted butter mixed with other ingredients that add sweet or savory flavor, like honey, herbs, or garlic. This creamy spread can be easily added to meats, and sauces sides to add extra flavor.

Etymology. The name of beurre maître d'hôtel is derived from the manner in which it was commonly prepared from scratch by a restaurant's maître d'hôtel at diners' tables. It is also referred to as maître d'hôtel butter.

Compound butter can be kept refrigerated for several days. They can also be frozen for several months by being wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in plastic freezer bags.

How To Store Compound Butter. You should store compound butter in the fridge or freezer in an airtight container. Depending on the ingredients you've added to the butter, it should last in the refrigerator for one week and a maximum of one month. In the freezer, compound butter will last for months.

Every cooked meat, every protein, benefits from a good compound butter because it allows the fat to baste and add additional flavor. It's typically incorporated with fresh or fragrant aromatic herbs. As it heats up, the oils and fat heat up, releasing the oils and aromatics for an additional depth of flavor.”

There are a lot of fat soluble vitamins in butter, including vitamins A, E and K2. We all know about A and E; they are antioxidants that are also good for your eyes, skin and hair. If you're eating a healthy diet, including animal and plant foods, then you are probably getting enough of those already.

It's brimming with butterfat

“I think restaurant butter often tastes better because it has a higher butterfat percentage,” says Luke Ilardo, head baker and owner of Doppio Pasticceria in Baltimore. “Most grocery stores offer 80% butterfat, but through our distributors, we can pretty easily find up to 86% butterfat.

European-style butter

European butters have a higher butterfat percentage than American butters, and have become the butters of choice for many chefs, bakers, and passionate home cooks.

What is another name for compound butter? ›

Jump to Recipe Save. A wonderfully fresh and flavourful butter that is perfect for topping just about anything. This french butter is the original compound butter, known as maître d'hôtel. It takes it name after the head waiter in a restaurant, who would create the butter at the table in front of the guests.

III Forks Prime Steakhouse - Top your steak with King's Butter, a tasty combination of black truffles, foie gras, honey and sea salt. | Facebook.

While American butters are downgraded for having a pronounced “feed” flavor, the best French butter intentionally tastes like what French cows eat. Many European butters are also cultured (meaning they're made with added live cultures, resulting in a lactic flavor), which can further enhance the tanginess.

To properly cream butter and sugar, you want to start with softened butter. Chilled butter is too hard to break down and fully blend with the sugar. Overly soft or melted butter will whip up into frothy air bubbles, which eventually collapse into a greasy, wet batter and bake into a heavy and soggy baked good.

Softened butter and melted butter are not the same. Using melted butter will change the texture of whatever you're baking. If you only want the butter to soften for spreading, microwave it on the Defrost setting (30%) in 5-second increments until it's softened as desired.

Using Compound Butter

Compound butter adds richness and pungency to simple grilled meats, fish, vegetables, beans, pasta, breads and eggs. A few ways to use it: Spread it on baked goods such as bread, rolls and biscuits, …

Creaming butter and sugar gives cake and cookie batter a better structure. Even after dry ingredients are added, the batter's structure is maintained. The result is fluffy and moist cakes and desserts. For successful creaming, allow the butter to soften slightly to room temperature.