Making Compound Butters & Quick Butter Sauces

If you’ve ever eaten at a restaurant before, chances are, you’ve likely experienced compound butters without even knowing it. Maybe it was something as simple as Shrimp Scampi, Marsala Potatoes, or Buttered Noodles. Fact is, compound butters are a great way to create sauces that introduce lingering flavors into food, without completely taking over the dish. They’re surprisingly simple to make, and in addition to being oh so delicious, they also have the added benefit of having a great shelf life; which means you can use it for a very long time and it won’t lose its flavor!

Let’s give a little context to the flavor of the matter. You may have experienced some of the more popular butter combinations like garlic butter, honey butter, lemon herb butter, or cilantro lime. But did you know that the combination of flavors could be almost endless? In it’s most basic form the flavors usually involves the blending of butter with ground spices, but you can add texture and more concentrated flavors in the form of ingredients that have been dried or chopped really fine and blended when the butter is softened.

You can also add concentrates, syrups or liquids that have been reduced or thickened. The trick is to make sure you have the proper butter to “stuff” ratio so that the mix is well balanced and holds its texture. A basic rule of thumb is to work within the 3:1 ratio, that is to say, 3 parts butter and 1 part “other stuff” but of course this is just a rule of thumb.

The simplest way to make you own is with a food processor... It’s quick, it’s efficient, BUT, culinarily speaking, it won’t give you the best texture or flavor. The reason is because the whipping process allows more air to get into the butter the same way whipping a cake helps the flavors to be more pronounced. The same way whipping air into eggs makes for a fluffier omelet or making whipped cream opens up the flavors added to cream, or proofing dough adds floater and texture to the bread. The secret is in the air. Having the air trapped in the structure of the composition allow it to highlight and accent the flavors that are introduced into the said structure. This results in the flavors being bolder behind a creamier texture, making it easier to spread or melt into other foods, whether they’re served hot or cold.

When the butter is put strait into the food processor and blended from a cold state, the whipping process is bypassed. A caveat to this is to leave the processor blending until the butter becomes soft. Even then the blades don’t whip air into the structure, but the heat from them does allow the butter to soften to a point that it receives the other ingredients easier. In order to achieve the whipping affect, the butter has to be softened and whipped using a whisk or a paddle, similar to mixing a cake. If you don’t have a food processor, simply allowing the butter to soften at room temp and whisking in the other ingredients is always a viable alternative.

Either way, you don’t want the butter to melt. Once the butter melts it will become more of a flavored oil than a compound butter. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but part of the fun is having it melt or spread onto your food instead of simply being a drizzle over top of it.

Sometimes chefs opt to form the butter into a roll, thats then sliced and presented as a pat on a plate or in a nice presentation. But honestly, thats not really necessary, you can simply put the compound butter into a container and scoop it out when you’re ready to use it.

And now that you understand compound butters a bit better, you’re ready to move on to butter sauces.

Butter sauces are great way for complimenting foods like fish, grains, and vegetables or for finishing rich, acidic sauces.

One of the simplest ways to make a butter sauce is to do what we chefs refer to as tightening. The processor tightening is fairly simple as well. In short, it gos like this... You know how searing or high heat cooking in a pan leaves a little “broth” in the pan once the heat has been turned off? Well, the spot where the flavor happens. Once the heat has been turned off, adding a little “cold” butter to the pan and giving it a swirl allows the butter to melt into the sauce and thicken it just slightly, when lends to the ever famous, tightening affect. But take just a second to think about this... What would happen if you were to add a little compound butter to your broth, to tighten it and turn it into a sauce; how flavorful would that be?

Ok now imagine using that compound butter as a foundation to building flavors and creating a sauce around it. A sauce that you can use for poaching shrimp or scallops, or for folding into rice or mashed potatoes or even drizzling over vegetables. Starting to get the picture? Below are a few combinations to put together and try at home! Remember, be mindful of the butter to “stuff” ratio and don’t forget to chop the thicker more textured ingredients so that they’re small enough for mixing into the butter. Give it a shot and see what you can create on your own, and when you do, drop us a line and let us know how it turned out!

Rosemary Garlic Butter Orange Zest & Maraschino Cherry Butter

Jalapeño Honey Butter Green Onion & Smoked Salt Butter

Bacon Parmesan Butter Coriander, Brown Sugar & Whisky Butter

Toasted Almond & Amoretto Butter Caramelized Onion & Black Pepper Butter

Ranch & White Cheddar Butter Citrus Spice & Port Wine Butter