Yesterday I did a short online food session for the Nebraska Bed and Breakfast Association; a good portion of the topic was on Compound Butters. Last year I had written a blog post on Compound Butter Tips and Ideas for Innkeepers. I wanted to elaborate a bit more on some of the questions we had yesterday on some accompaniments and uses for compound butter for hospitality people and any home cooks who want to up their game a tad in the kitchen.
I’ll start with the butter itself. I had in the past post mentioned Kate’s Homemade Butter (still a favorite!). It was introduced to me quite a few years ago by an innkeeper friend. When you are ready to make compound butter, you want the butter soft enough to push a finger into but not melting. I prefer to use a whip rather than a paddle as I find it makes the butter much airier.
Whip butter on high for about twenty minutes, I use a Kitchen Aid mixer, but a hand mixer will also work; just be prepared for your hands to get tired holding the mixer up. 🙂 You want the butter to be light and easily spreadable, and it will change color to a much lighter shade.
What pairs with compound butters? My flat answer for that one is well, everything, what can you mix with butter to make compound butters? My flat answer is well, pretty much anything edible (within reason). But that flippant answer doesn’t generally help anyone. If you do not have a trained palate and it’s become easy to just “know” that this ingredient will go well with another ingredient, that’s great, but I realize it’s not so easy.
In terms of what goes well with what. Think ground level, any sweeter compound butters, like a few listed on the afore mention compound butter blog; like Toasted Pecan and Maple Butter, Orange Honey Butter, Ginger and Grapefruit Butter, etc. will pair well with any sweets, especially breakfast sweet dishes like waffles, pancakes, french toast, muffins and quick breads.
Can you use sweet butters on savory dishes? Yes, but I’d limit them to some vegetable dishes (to balance out any acidity or tartness in the dish) fish, or poultry. It’s not a hard and fast rule of thumb, because a nice maple ginger compound butter is fantastic on a grilled steak, but it’s also a matter of personal taste and preference.
Savory butters like Roasted Cerignola Olive and Rosemary Butter, Chipotle and Smoked Paprika Butter and Jalapeno, Lime and Cilantro butter for example, will go very well on pretty much any savory dish, vegetable, meat, poultry, or fish.
Crossover butters or ones where there is a fine line between sweet and savory are more weighted towards using them just for savory dishes, but some like Chocolate Balsamic Butter, Honey Sriracha Butter and Macha Tea and Ginger Butter, go very well on muffins, sweetbreads, and pancakes or waffles. Especially if you are doing a pancake or waffle recipe like a sweet potato pancake. Honey Sriracha Butter is awesome on Sweet Potato Pancakes. Why? Because of the base ingredients. Honey and Sweet Potato pair well. Sriracha and Sweet Potato pair well.
When thinking about what ingredients will work well with others, if you don’t know, do some experimenting. Taste the base ingredients by themselves and see if the flavors meld. And I mean don’t make a recipe with the ingredients. Try a small taste of a fresh tarragon leaf for example, and then try a vegetable or a small taste of another spice. Much of cooking is a matter of preference.
I love Anise but loathe Tarragon (which has a slight anise flavor), so it’s never and will never be in my pantry. But that’s a personal taste preference. I do know what it pairs with though because I’ve explored that in depth. The same with doing compound butters and pairing them with dishes.
Do a little experimentation. With the exception of herbs like cilantro, which to some people it tastes like soap, if something tastes good to you, there’s a pretty darn good chance it will taste good to someone else.
When you are making compound butter, don’t be afraid to make it in larger batches, whether rolled into a small tube in parchment paper and chilled and then sliced and frozen, it is a great added taste (and texture) addition to a lot of dishes.
For a little more variety, don’t just add ingredients “to” the butter; what else compliments it? This weekend I made several compound butters. The rosemary, basil and black garlic butter I rolled in some fresh cracked black pepper.
This butter will be a lovely accompaniment to some nice tuna steaks we had in the freezer. The matcha and honey butter rolled in toasted sesame seeds is being reserved (frozen) for the next time I make spicy Asian stir-fried shrimp. And last but not least, the maple lime butter I rolled in Hoosier Hill Farm granulated honey (Yummy!) and had it on fresh biscuits this morning.
Short butter roll/long butter roll (above) rolled in parchment paper
What about those ends of the butter logs, what to do with? I freeze them until I have enough to make a pie dough with. Most home cooks won’t care what the ends of butter rolls look like, but for me, it’s a force of habit to save them. The chocolate Grand Marnier logs I had made and had bits and pieces and ends of will go into a nice chocolate and toasted pecan pie crust soon.
What about amounts? Use your taste buds on this one. I don’t do set in stone amounts with compound butters unless the ingredient is one that does not vary in flavor. One chopped teaspoon of fresh garlic to 1 cup butter may be great midsummer, or if you have a particularly pungent bit of garlic, but what about midwinter, when it takes almost twice as much garlic to get that garlic flavor you are looking for?
Even brands can change the taste significantly amount wise. We have a fondness for Kikkoman Lime Ponzu and Chili Ponzu, and I’ve tried other brands, they are not as citrusy or as tasty to use in my opinion, so the amount would vary. Plus in those cases if I was making a ponzu flavored butter I might be adding more citrus zest if having to use an alternative brand.
Just like experimenting with flavor paring, taste your butter. Does it taste good? What else does it need if anything. If you don’t taste the added ingredient and you just taste butter, add more.
Last but not least, salted or unsalted butter for compound butters? If you are not adding salt to the rest of the ingredients for a compound butter (like a sea salt or other flavored salt), use salted butter. Use unsalted only if adding salt flavor to it, like Kosher, sea, flavored or an ingredient that might already be slightly salty, ie, some types of olives, soy sauce etc.
But but but, what if it’s for a sweet dish? Salt enhances the flavor of pretty much any sweet dessert, even nonbaked ones. When I make my chocolate mousse, I add a pinch of salt. When used in moderation, it does what it is supposed to, enhances the flavors already there.
Actually one more thing (sorry I lied :), when using spices, not dried herbs but spices, toasting spice mixes lightly in a cast iron pan can add some lovely additional flavor to your compound butter mixes. Just make sure your kitchen has good ventilation, especially if toasting any hot spices.