Compound Butters

Natural fats are an important part of the low carbohydrate high fat diet (LCHF). It is the addition of natural fats such as butter, lard, duck fat (and other animal fats), olive oil, coconut oil, peanut oil, and avocado oil to your diet that helps you feel full and decreases those urges for you to binge eat or crave certain foods. Of all these fats the one that is most commonly used is butter. Butter is a star in the LCHF community as it is a good fat that is easily digested by the human body. Because of it's flavor, butter is the preferred cooking fat for most purposes, and it has no equal when it comes to sauce making.

Butter has been a mainstay in the culinary world ever since Auguste Escoffier wrote the first culinary textbook 'Le Guide Culinaire'. Not only used as a sauce itself, butter is used to enrich the flavor and mouth feel of sauces in traditional French cooking. As an integral part of French culinary cuisine, I learned more about butter when I was in culinary school that I thought was possible. One of the things we used to do every evening before the restaurant shut down for the night was make compound butters to be used for the next days service.

Compound butters, are butters that are flavored or seasoned and then rolled into a log in plastic wrap or wax paper and then placed in the fridge to cool. This butter was then sliced and not only used as a condiment for cooked meats or vegetables and finishing sauces, but as a cooking fat for more delicate items such as shrimp and other seafood. It used to be that no restaurant of any caliber would be caught without having a few compound butters in their fridge, but in the early to mid 1970's butter became the scourge of the health industry and compound butters began to fall out of favor. Fast forward 40 years and we see that a large amount of medical and dietary research has revealed that butter is not the cause of cardiovascular problems that it was once thought to be. Modern research has shown that butter is actually safe and is a vital component of a healthy diet. Go figure.

Anyway the purpose of this article is to teach you how to make your own compound butters at home in order to give you some additional flavoring options to use in your recipes. Compound butters allow you to add unique flavor profiles to meats, fish, and vegetables without increasing the carbohydrate count. In addition to the classic 'Maitre d' Hotel Butter', I have included some additional recipes for some unique compound butters.

Types Of Butter

Before we get to the recipes, lets quickly talk about the butter most of you will find on your supermarket shelves. Fresh butter consists of about 80 percent milk fat. Here in the United States you will find two distinct types of butter on your supermarket shelves: salted and unsalted.

Salted Butter – Technically this butter is only lightly salted. Regulated by the USDA here in the states, salted butter can only have a maximum of 2% salt. It generally has a slightly better shelf life than unsalted butter.

Unsalted Butter – Is butter without the salt. It has a fresher, slightly sweeter taste that salted butter, but it is also more perishable. Unsalted butter is the workhorse of the fat world in the kitchen. It;s neutral slightly sweet flavor is exactly what you want when making sauces, compound butters, and clarified butters. Personally I only buy unsalted butter. Usually we buy 2 – 3 boxes at a time and freeze the butter giving it an almost unlimited shelf life.

Compound Butters

As I mentioned earlier, compound butters, are simply unsalted butters that are flavored or seasoned with herbs, and spices and then refrigerated until ready to use. Most of these recipes can be made in the bowl of your mixer using the paddle attachment in just a few minutes. You can mix your compound butters by hand, but you will need to make sure your butter is softened for best results (at room temperature). Of all of the compound butters, Maitre d' Hotel Butter, was the most common type of compound butter that we made and used on a regular basis in the restaurant. It was the first compound butter that all aspiring chef's had to learn to make. This all-purpose compound butter goes great with veggies, meats, seafood and can be used to finish a sauce, although I prefer to use plain butter in my soups and sauces.

Maitre d' Hotel Butter

1lb unsalted butter

4 teaspoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons dried parsley or 2 ounces chopped fresh parsley

2 teaspoons salt

pinch of white pepper

Place your stick of butter into a bowl and allow to softened to room temperature, then add the remaining ingredients and using a spoon or spatula mix all the ingredients into the butter until they are throughly combined and the butter is smooth and creamy.

Chef's Note: In a pinch you can add cold butter to the bowl of your stand mixer and using the paddle attachment of your mixer, beat the butter at low speed until smooth and creamy. Add the remaining ingredients and continue to beat until the butter is completely mixed.

Remove to butter from the bowl and place on a sheet of parchment paper, wax paper or plastic wrap and roll the butter into a cylinder about 1 inch in diameter. Then place in the fridge and chilled and firm. To use cut slices of the ¼ to ½ inch thick and place on broiled or grilled meat, seafood, or vegetables just before serving.

Chef's Note: A technique that I learned when making garlic and onion butters, was to add the onions, shallots and or garlic for your compound butter in a small saucepan and heat just until the butter melts and simmer for 30 to 60 minutes to allow all of the flavors to permeate the butter. Remove from the heat, strain out the solids, then add any herbs, spices or liquids of your choice and allow to cool. Once the butter has re-solidified, but is still soft, place it on plastic wrap and roll into a log and refrigerate overnight. For the home chef, this technique is a bit much, but I just wanted to share it with you.

Variations

There are lots of recipes for compound butters, I have included the basic recipes for some of the more popular ones that we used to make the restaurant, and a few that I make at home. These recipes can be combined to form different flavors, or you can add ingredients to come up with you own unique flavor profiles. All of these are easily made by adding the following ingredients to 1 pound of unsalted butter. If you use salted butter, omit the salt.

Anchovy Butter – Add 2 teaspoons salt, plus 2 – 3 anchovy fillets, mashed to a paste.

Chipotle Butter – Add 2 teaspoons salt, plus 1 chipotle pepper (smoked jalapeño) minced with seeds removed, plus 1 teaspoons adobo sauce.

Curry Butter – Add 2 teaspoons salt, plus 4 – 6 teaspoons curry powder heated gently with 1 ounce of butter, then cool and add to the remaining butter and mix.

Garlic Butter – Add 2 teaspoons salt, plus.1 tablespoon garlic, mashed to a paste..

Escargot Butter – Add 2 teaspoons salt, plus 2 – 3 anchovy fillets, mashed to a paste.

Herbed Butter – Add 2 teaspoons salt, plus 1 teaspoon each dried thyme, dried parsley, and dried rosemary.

Jalapeño Butter – Add 2 teaspoons salt, plus 1 – 2 jalapeños minced seeds removed.

Mustard Butter – Add 2 teaspoons salt, plus 2 – 3 tablespoons Dijon-style mustard.

Scallion or Shallot Butter – Add 2 teaspoons salt, plus ¼ cup minced scallions or shallots.

Shrimp Butter – Add 2 teaspoons salt, plus ½ lb cooked shrimp and shells ground very fine. Then force shrimp butter through a fine sieve to remove the pieces of shells.

Conclusion

Compound butters can add a unique flavor to veggies, meats, soups and sauces. They are easy to make and use and butter is one of the best healthy fats to use for cooking. One thing you must keep in mind when making compound butters is that some of the ingredients that you use may contain a trace amount of carbohydrates, so if you are on a strict LCHF diet the use of a lot of compound butters may add up over the day, but for most people this is not an issue. As always, if you have found the information in the article interesting or useful, we ask that you share it with your friends. Don't forget to send us a friend request on Facebook or add us to your circle on Google+.

References:

Child, Julia, Beck Simone, Mastering the Art Of French Cooking, New York, Alfred Knopf, 1978.

Gisslen, Wayne, Profession Cooking, 7^th Edition: College Edition, Hoboken, New Jersey 2011, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2011.

Labensky, Sarah, Hause, Alan, On Cooking 2^nd Edition: A Textbook Of Culinary Fundamentals, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 1999.