Adding chile to lime compound butter. Photo: Marxfoods.com, Flickr.
With butters incomparably more flavorful than their American counterparts (ah, the subtle sour tang of Président!), the French have absolutely no need for beurre composé. Yet the invention is nonetheless a good one: Creaming butter with a variety of ingredients -- namely herbs or spices, but also garlic, shallots, wine, etc. -- is a boon for finishing touches or adding complexity to a dish in a pinch.You need simply to bring good-quality, unsalted butter to room temperature before mixing in whatever additions you desire. Once the butter is softened, you can mash the flavorings (chopped or ground, if necessary) into the spread with a fork. Once evenly dispersed, the butter can be kept in the refrigerator in a covered bowl or formed into a log and wrap it with wax paper or parchment.
Here are some of our favorite combinations, both savory and sweet:
- Black sesame seed butter
- Cayenne butter
- Chile-lime butter (great for grilled corn)
- Chinese five-spice butter
- Chive-and-scallion butter
- Cilantro-lime butter
- Cinnamon butter (perfect with morning pancakes, muffins, waffles and more)
- Dried mushroom butter
- Fleur de sel butter
- Lavender butter
- Lemon-parsley butter
- Lemon-zest butter
- Old Bay seasoned butter
- Poppyseed butter
- Roasted garlic butter
- Roasted red pepper butter
- Sage butter
- Sun-dried tomato butter with parsley, basil or oregano
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