Elevate your steak with these flavourful compound butters!
Adding a punch of flavour to your meal can be easy with the addition of compound butters! We are sharing three steak compound butter recipes that you can easily whip up and have on hand in the fridge or freezer.
Compound butters can be sweet or savoury and served with meats, vegetables, breads and more. The original compound butter was referred to as Beurre Maître d’Hôtel (or the Maître D’ butter) and was made tableside with lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper.
Now you can find compound butters made with a variety of ingredients such as herbs, spices, oils, syrups, honey, mustard, horseradish, citrus zest, or even finely diced vegetables. The butter is often formed by hand into a log that can be sliced once chilled. They make for a beautiful presentation when serving your dish.
For the best flavour experience for you and your guests try using fresh herbs. When washing your fresh herbs just be sure that they are completely dry before mixing them with the butter. And if using dried herbs cut the quantity back by a third, as dried herbs tend to be more intense then fresh – experiment and see what mixtures and quantities you favour the best.
The butter should be real butter, not margarine. We use unsalted butter so that we can control the amount of salt. Some of the recipes below use just enough salt to bring out the flavours of the aromatics. After all, we want to be able to season our steak to our liking without over-salting with the addition of the compound butter.
For the freshest flavour, use the herb butters within several days when storing in the fridge or within 6-8 weeks from the freezer. If freezing, place your wrapped chilled butter on a piece of foil, roll to close completely, twist ends and label and date.
Herb & Garlic Compound Butter
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp fresh chives, finely chopped
1 tbsp thyme, finely chopped
1/2 tbsp rosemary, finely chopped
1/8 tsp salt
Place the butter, garlic, herbs and salt into a bowl. Using a wooden spoon blend the ingredients together until the herbs are evenly distributed.
Spoon the mixture onto parchment paper, wax paper or saran wrap and roll into a log. Twist the ends to seal.
Chill in the fridge before serving.
Wild Leek & Parmesan Compound Butter
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
20 large wild leek leaves, washed
¼ cup fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano, finely grated
1 tsp lemon zest, finely grated
1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper
Prepare to blanch the wild leeks by bringing a pot of salted water to boiling and have a separate bowl of very cold ice-water. Add the wild leeks to the boiling water for just 30 seconds, quickly remove and plunge into the ice-water. Drain the water and pat the leeks dry. Lay them out to dry further on paper towel.
Finely chop the wild leeks. Place the wild leeks, butter, lemon zest, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and pepper into the bowl of a stand-mixer with a flat beater attachment. Beat the ingredients until incorporated.
Spoon the mixture onto parchment paper, wax paper or saran wrap and roll into a log. Twist the ends to seal.
Chill in the fridge before serving.
Mushroom & Thyme Compound Butter
3 cups mushrooms (mixture of cremini and shitake), cleaned and thinly sliced
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature plus 2 tbsp butter for mushroom duxelles
2 medium shallots, thinly sliced
4 sprigs of thyme, finely chopped
½ tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
The first step is to make a mushroom duxelles. Put the mushrooms and shallots in a food processor with a chopping blade. Pulse the mixture until finely chopped (do not over-process).
Melt 2 tbsp of butter in a pan over medium heat. Add the mushroom mixture, salt and pepper. Once the mushrooms begin releasing their moisture, turn the pan to low. Stir the mixture occasionally and continue cooking until the mushroom mixture looks dry, approximately 20 minutes. Remove from heat and add the thyme. Allow the mixture to cool.
Place the remaining 1 cup of butter and mushroom duxelles in a bowl. Using a wooden spoon blend the ingredients together until incorporated.
Spoon the mixture onto parchment paper, wax paper or saran wrap and roll into a log. Twist the ends to seal.
Chill in the fridge before serving.
