Well-Stocked: Compound Butter
Compound butter is one of my go-to solutions for nights when we’re low on groceries and I’m trying to stretch things out with a basic grain or wondering how to cook a piece of fish for myself. It’s got all your great seasonings and fats rolled into one, so you don’t have to spend the time chopping and building a sauce on a weeknight.
You don’t really need a specific recipe for compound butter–it’s really just a stick of room-temperature butter mashed together with whatever herbs or flavors you happen to have around, then rolled into a log and frozen.
I could keep going–it would be so easy to do an Indian-spiced butter if you’re a curry fanatic, or even an Old Bay butter to keep in your beach house all summer for shrimp, crabs and clams. Leave your ideas in the comments, and we’ll add to the compound butter library. But here are a few of my favorites:
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Garlic-Rosemary Compund Butter
Prep time:30 minutes
Total time:30 minutes
Makes 1/4 cup compound butter
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small shallot, finely chopped
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- Puree from 1 head roasted garlic
- leaves from 2-3 sprigs rosemary, finely chopped
- kosher salt to taste
Method:
Heat the olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the shallot and cook until soft but not brown, then remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
Process all ingredients in a food processor or mash by hand until well incorporated. Refrigerate until firm enough to hold its shape, then spoon out onto a piece of waxed paper and roll into a log, twisting the ends to get any extra air out. Wrap that log in foil and place in the freezer. Just slice off as much as you need when you need it.
This one is devastatingly good with your summer beans, an easy topping for pan-roasted cod, and of course makes some awesome garlic bread if you have a loaf of ciabatta.
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Bagna Cauda Compound Butter
Prep time:30 minutes
Total time:30 minutes
Makes 1/4 cup compound butter
Ingredients:
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- kosher salt to taste
Method:
Heat the olive oil in a small skillet over low heat. Add the garlic and anchovies and cook until the anchovies dissolve and the garlic is golden. Let cool to room temperature.
Process all ingredients in a food processor or mash by hand until well incorporated. Refrigerate until firm enough to hold its shape, then spoon out onto a piece of waxed paper and roll into a log, twisting the ends to get any extra air out. Wrap that log in foil and place in the freezer. Just slice off as much as you need when you need it.
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Chili-Lime Compound Butter
Prep time:5 minutes
Total time:5 minutes
Makes 1/4 cup compound butter
Ingredients:
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 lime, zested and juiced
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 small shallot, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon honey
- kosher salt to taste
Method:
Process all ingredients in a food processor or mash by hand until well incorporated. Refrigerate until firm enough to hold its shape, then spoon out onto a piece of waxed paper and roll into a log, twisting the ends to get any extra air out. Wrap that log in foil and place in the freezer. Just slice off as much as you need when you need it.
I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t want to slather this all over grilled corn, but it’s also amazingly tasty melted over popcorn or on cornbread.
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Casey Barber
Casey Barber is the owner and founder of Good Food Stories LLC and a visual storyteller whose work often focuses on the intersection of food and culture. She is also the author of the cookbooks Pierogi Love: New Takes on an Old-World Comfort Food and Classic Snacks Made from Scratch: 70 Homemade Versions of Your Favorite Brand-Name Treats, and she couldn’t get anything done without the help of her executive assistant cats, Bixby and Lenny. Her favorite color is obviously orange.
Co-editor Danielle would like to endorse the unbelievable goodness of the bagna cauda butter. It’s also perfect just slathered on some bread as an easy side to fish or a piece of meat.
Mmm…Old Bay butter.
gurgling like Homer Simpson…
One of the more useful posts! Recommended to many friends so thanks for the SEARCH BAR which takes your directly to extraordinary ideas for compound butter!