Butter is a favorite food at our house. It is packed with fat soluble vitamins and beneficial fats that support many aspects of health.
I put butter in my coffee (and my homemade vanilla lattes) and often use it in cooking and on vegetables. (We never use margarine or vegetables oils as a substitute- here is why).
Compound Butter Recipe
On a recent date for our anniversary, my husband and I went to an awesome restaurant and I ordered steak. It came topped with an herb-infused compound butter and the flavor of that with the steak and vegetables was one of the best things I’ve ever had.
Since gourmet restaurant meals are definitely not in the budget very often, I decided to recreate the herb-infused compound butter at home and have enjoyed experimenting with different flavors and options. I could literally eat this stuff plain (and I might occasionally do that).
For savory dishes, compound butter adds extra flavor and the health benefits of various herbs, and it makes a gorgeous presentation. I use compound butter to top sweet potatoes, steak, chicken, steamed broccoli/cauliflower, wilted spinach, and many other dishes.
If you’ve never tried it, take a few minutes and spice up your butter!
A few notes I’ve found along the way:
- It is important to make sure that the butter is really soft but not completely melted before mixing it with herbs. This helps intensify the flavor and makes the process easier
- Adding a teaspoon of high quality olive oil makes a more spreadable compound butter and also adds great flavor.
- This will not store long in the fridge because it is often eaten within hours at our house.
Herb Infused Compound Butter Recipes
Ingredients
Instructions
- Soften butter to room temperature and place in a medium bowl.
- Finely chop all herbs and add them to the bowl with the butter.
- Mince garlic as finely as possible and add it to the bowl.
- Add the olive oil to the bowl if using and mix with a fork until all the herbs are evenly incorporated.
- Place the mixture into a piece of parchment paper or wax paper and form into a roll/stick.
- Place in the refrigerator for at least four hours (or overnight if possible).
- Serve on meats, vegetables, or whatever sounds good!
- See variations below.
Notes
- The zest of one organic lemon and one organic lime (great on fish)
- 3 TBSP toasted pecans or walnuts, finely chopped and 2 TBSP honey
- 1 TBSP each fresh parsley, chives, rosemary, and tarragon, finely chopped
- 2 TBSP fresh mint, finely chopped and 1 TBSP lemon zest (great on lamb)
- 3 TBSP fresh dill, finely chopped and 1 TBSP orange or lemon zest (great on fish or vegetables)
Nutrition
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Ever spiced up your butter? What is your favorite combination.
Is the butter used for the herb recipes salted or unsalted? Or does it matter?
I use unsalted so I can control the type and amount of salt. You could use salted if that’s all you had though 🙂
Love what you do and thank you for the wonderful healthy information you provide! Real quick – have you heard of the magical butter machine?!
Description on their site: MagicalButter Makes Herbal Butters, Oils, Tinctures, Soups, Sauces, Salad Dressings, Skin Care Products, Pet Medicines, and more.
Thoughts?!
I may have just not seen it’s inclusion someplace but, my Little Bride and just had our 44 th anniversary and had the chance to eat at nice Steak house. They have a Wonderful Cinnamon spiced Butter for their Sweet potatoes, and I’m not sure what they had on the meat. But I did not see a recipe for such a Butter as the CinnamonSpiced Butter. Any chance you may know what to do with this one ?
Hello,
Where do you buy your organic grassfed butters I am having a hard time finding them here where I live. Thanks
I buy mine from Tropical Traditions: https://wellnessmama.com/go/tropical-traditions/
I had the most AMAZING maple and sage butter at a wedding this summer. Best butter I have EVER tasted!!! It’s crazy that I haven’t made my own version yet…
I saw a cook on TV put softened butter in their mixer with maple syrup and whipp it and at the last few seconds put in a few blackberries. I made it and I love the whipped butter I loved the additions too but the texture of whipped butter is amazing!
maple, cinnamon and vanilla in the butter is GREAT for breakfast!!
by any chance do you have the correct amount of measurements? I’d like to try this with artisan bread, toast it with scrambled eggs. Thank you 🙂
Good Morning 🙂
Aside from my desire to become a pro chef/baker I was just thinking about looking for some sort of recipe for a compound butter to add to freshly baked french bread for any sort of Italian dish and this sounds great and i’m going to try it. Thank you for your help.
Kind regards 🙂
I make and freeze basil butter and dill butter every summer to use the fresh herbs I grow. It’s great to have these as spreads and ingredients in the middle of winter.
I also make Martha Stewart’s spice butter and keep it in the freezer. It’s unusual and makes a nice hostess gift when you’re invited to dinner. It’s not an herbal infused butter, but very versatile. Just combine 1/2 pound of butter with —
2 teaspoons coarse salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Hello, thanks for these recipes. Awesome!!! Please could you give a recipes for eliminating black spots on the face which also lightens the face at the same time. A Lot of my peeps need this. Thank you
It’s called Kräuterbutter in Germany, where I learned to make several types. Love the stuff.
For one stick of butter, I find it’s just as easy to do it all by hand, rather than get out the equipment and then clean the equipment. For larger batches, though, I like to use my food processor and pulse until everything is thoroughly mixed.
Then I pack some into the Butterbell and the rest into the freezer.