What Herbs Do I Use To Make A Compound Butter

Combining herbs and butter makes a highly flavored condiment known in the culinary world as a Compound Butter. This flavor packed treat is used to flavor or finish a dish. You haven’t lived, until you have tried a pat of this herbal butter on a hot steak. When making the herbal or compound butter, remember to mince the herbs as small as possible, to expose the most essential oil(and therefore, flavor)as possible.

As long as you are not sensitive to sodium, adding a pinch of salt will enhance the recipe, so add it if you can. Use a Sea Salt and you can actually use a smaller amount than if using table salt. This will also keep the sodium level under control.

In no particular order, here are 5 herbs that would make fabulous additions to your herbal butter. Use fresh or dried herbs, depending on what you have, but do allow the butter/herb mixture to sit in the refrigerator for at least an hour for the flavors to combine.

After trying these 5 herbs, why not create your own compound butter with herbs that you love? Some ideas:

• Use the compound butter on crackers.
• Combine with cream cheese for sandwiches.
• Top warm vegetables, toast and crusty bread.

Once you make your compound butter, wrap with parchment and roll into logs. Twist the ends and place in the refrigerator or freezer. I like to freeze mine, knowing they have to be used up within the next couple of weeks. I place my logs of butter into a ziplock style freezer bag to store them together, and pull out the one I need about 30 minutes before it needs to be cut.

For an elegant touch, slice rounds of this lovely butter, and serve them in a fancy butter dish so guests can help themselves.