Featured Ingredient: Compound Butters

[Jenise]

A Beurre Compose, or compound butter, is defined as butter mixed with one or more other ingredients. The other ingredients can be just about anything from herbs to anchovies to wine, the finished product can be melted for a dip (beurre fondu) or pour-over, whipped and scooped, or chilled in a cynlindrical ballotine for slicing.

Compound butters have been around just about one day less than butter itself has. And perhaps the most basic is also the most famous, the Maitre d'Hotel Butter which consists of just butter, lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper. Here's Mrs. Beeton's* original recipe for this workhorse sauce:

MAITRE D’HOTEL BUTTER
(for putting into Broiled Fish just before it is sent to Table)

INGREDIENTS - 1/4 lb. of butter, 2 dessertspoonfuls of minced parsley, salt and pepper to taste, the juice of 1 large lemon.

Mode - Work the above ingredients well together, and let them be thoroughly mixed with a wooden spoon. If this is used as a sauce, it may be poured either under or over the meat or fish it is intended to be served with.

Average cost, for this quantity, 5d.

We've probably all made some form of compound butter--heck, if you've made garlic toast, you've made a compound butter--but categorically the concept offers so much more. It's cliche to say "the sky's the limit" but here it's really true. Just glance through the compound butter entry in Larousse Gastronomique: anchovy butter, shrimp butter, hazalnut and almond butters, crab butter, crayfish butter, herring butter, horseradish butter...gosh there's even a Colbert butter. No, there are no Republicans ground and mixed in, it's a Maitre d'Hotel butter with chopped tarragon and dissolved meat jelly.

Compound butters are widely used by restaurants and good home cooks here in my neck of the woods because salmon season really needs the kind of diversity of flavors compound butters can provide. Change the butter and you change the dish.

But fish and steak aren't the only happy beneficiaries. I recall fondly, during cherry blossom season in Washington DC, being served a grilled breast of pheasant with a bing cherry compound butter that was absolutely ethereal.

And what about vegetables? At a little dinner party last night one of my guests argued against compound butters, but he was basically arguing against butter in excess and he considers compound butters a way of promoting the use of butter, and he cited the application of a cold knob of compound butter melting atop a just-grilled steak. Of course, he's right about the fact that the butter torpedoos what is already a cholesterol heavy meal.

But what he had not considered was the use of ingredients that would actually be an argument for the reverse, or at least by the everything-in-moderation crowd for whom a butterless world is simply too dreary to contemplate. Because those other ingredients can increase the bulk, intensify the flavor and reduce the overall amount of butter you would need to season something that traditionally most of us require some amount of butter on.

I'm thinking corn on the cob.

Which is exactly what I'd done for yesterday's dinner. Ever since Larry Greenly helped me fill my freezer with roasted New Mexico green chiles, I've been putting chiles EVERYWHERE. And part of the purpose of yesterday's dinner was to test-drive a bunch of ideas I'd had rolling about in my head all week--one of which was to make a green chile compound butter for grilled corn on the cob to approximate the flavor of some street food I'd had in Santa Fe. For a bakers dozen, just one cube of butter, four green chiles, a little dried oregano, lime juice, black pepper and extra salt did the trick. The result was terrific and each person had only a nominal serving of butter--less than a tablespoon-- because portion control was asserted in the kitchen when the chile-thickened butter was spooned over the peeled-back grilled corn still nested in their husks. A finishing salt of Black Hawaiian Lava provided even more flavor and a dramatic look. More flavor and less fat than usual--what's not to love?

Cheese butters are also popular. Not lower in fat, but good! Bucko puts a blue cheese compound butter on his grilled lamb chops. I sometimes make a goat cheese butter for baked potatoes. And surely somebody, somewhere, makes a cheddar cheese butter for some nefarious, diet-buster purpose.

As usual, this topic is presented in the hopes that you'll share your favorite compound butters with the rest of us, and try just one new way to perk up your repertoire with a new recipe you haven't tried before.

Jenise


*Isabella Beeton was the original Martha Stewart, the first Super Mom. Born in 1836 and dying just 28 short years after the birth of her fourth child, she created a legacy still celebrated today for her publications on household management for the Victorian housewife.

Great topic Jenise. I'm looking forward to seeing some interesting recipes.

I created this sauvignon blanc beurre blanc a few weeks ago to have with fish cakes - a classic with a New World twist. I thought it would match to a typically crisp, unoaked Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, which is what I used in the cooking, but the sauce turned out to be too acidic for the wine. It was better with a softer, more rounded, lightly oak-aged Marlborough sauvignon blanc and a New Zealand verdelho.

To make the sauce: chop up one spring onion (ie a long green onion) and place in a saucepan with the juice of a lemon and 1/4 cup of sauvignon blanc, bring to the boil and reduce to about two tablespoons. Add 1/2 cup cream (ie double cream), bring just to the boil then slowly simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, which will reduce and thicken the liquid. Transfer to a double boiler, stir in about half a teaspoon of concentrated tomato paste and add some chopped chervil. Chop up 100 grams of butter into cubes and add a cube of butter at a time, whisking and combining into the cream mixture.

I have to say the sauce was tart, tangy and absolutely delish. You could have had it as a topping on a cracker.

Cheers,
Sue

or at least by the everything-in-moderation crowd for whom a butterless world is simply too dreary to contemplate.

That would include me!

I love compound butters and use them regularly.

One of my most frequent uses is simply on good, warm-from-the-oven crusty bread or rolls served with dinner. I like to use herbs that echo the flavors of the meal.

I'll pull out some actual recipes this evening and post them.

Does Honey-Butter count? I like to whip up 1 stick softened butter with 2 Tbsp. honey and use as a spread on home made sourdough dinner rolls.

[Jenise]

Honey butter definitely qualifies as a compound butter, Howie.

Here's a dozen compound butter recipes that I published back in 2003. I also demonstrate how to make it ib small quantities.

Howie, I used to use my fork to mix some sourwood honey and butter to put on a split buttermilk biscuit. My taste buds sang! Of course, that's one of the reasons I'm doing Weight Watchers with my wife now.

Compound butters have been around just about one day less than butter itself has.

Actually compound butters are probably closer to a couple of hundred years old. And their make-up has probably changed with the ability to easily refrigerate the butter after mixing.

I found a few recipes in Audot’s La Cuisinière de la campagne et de la ville, ou nouvelle cuisine économique, which was publish originally in 1818, although mine is the 32nd edition published in 1852.

I also found two in a curious little book published anonymously in 1825 under the title French Domestic Cookery, combining economy with elegance, and adapted to the use of families of moderate fortune, by an English physician, many years on the continent. Here they are:

63. Beurre d’Anchois.—Anchovy Butter.
Wash and scrape half a dozen anchovies well; pound them, after having removed the bones with much care, then press them through a sieve. Finally, mix them with an equal quantity of cold butter; or, you may pound them with the butter. This sauce is most excellent with beef-steaks. Some of the anchovy butter should be placed under the steak, just before serving: it then mixes with the gravy, when the steak is cut.

64. Beurre d’Ail.—Garlic Butter.
Take two large cloves of garlic, pound them in a mortar, and reduce them to a paste, by mixing them with a bit of butter about the size of an egg. This garlic butter may be put into any sauce you think proper. Those who like the taste of garlic, season their roast or broiled meats with it.

I looked at earlier books and couldn’t find a recipe of a compound butter in them.[/code]

I hate to mess up a good steak but have been known to top one with a bit of Roquefort Butter from time to time.

rwj

Neat subject, Jenise.

Charles Dickens was something of a foodie, and has a note on this compound butter: "The soups known as " bisque "( owe their character entirely to this compound
butter, which may be made with crayfish, lobster, prawns, or shrimps. [He describes crayfish butter -- the technique "will serve for all."] This is prepared by drying the odds and ends in the oven. They are then pounded with butter and the mixture is then placed in a jar and held in hot water for an hour or so. The mixture is then strained through a napkin, and placed in a jar of cold water. The butter is collected, and used to thicken the soup."

Regards, Bob

Jenise, just for geeky interest, do you know if salted butter is "compound butter"?

I suppose it is, but the distinction is ignored -- one uses salted or unsalted butter, depending on the final effect one wishes to achieve when compounding butter.

Agreed?

Do Ethiopian niter kibbeh and flavored ghee count?

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Do Ethiopian niter kibbeh and flavored ghee count?

Yes, but not for you.

Does Honey-Butter count? I like to whip up 1 stick softened butter with 2 Tbsp. honey and use as a spread on home made sourdough dinner rolls.

Howie,
Your honeybutter came to my mind as soon as I saw the subject. Very good, we all enjoy it at my house.

A great topic, thanks for posting.

Seeing the compound-butter sections in many older cookbooks over the years, it long struck me that this was one of those corners of modern western cooking that had merit, and was long taken for granted, but neglected in the last generation or so, therefore ready for rediscovery. (There are many other such, some of them already revived, some not.)

In the US, the Gourmet Cook Book (the original and well-known one, 1950) has a subchapter on compound butters with a few dozen recipes. (Apropos of upthread, a copy of it happened to be resting against Mrs. Beeton when I looked for it just now.) Also, Brillat-Savarin's famous book (1826) has an evocative anecdote "The Curé's omelet," about a not-very-austere "meatless" meal* enjoyed by an aging cleric. At one point in the mouth-watering account, butter with lemon, parsley, and chives is prepared on a hot platter, to receive the succulent omelet before serving. (A compound butter, used as a matter of course.) More than one reader has been moved to cook the dish after reading that story ...

Compound butters also figure often (as intermediate ingredients) in de Gouy's classic sandwich book cited Here.

* Have to mention a parallel episode, when the diocese of a wine-tasting friend, who is also a cleric, received as charitable goods a consignment of post-pull-date caviar from a specialty grocery chain. The diocese could not find a use for it among the needy (and as I later ascertained, the caviar was just starting to turn a little). My friend ended up with it, just before hosting a wine tasting. Seeing the refrigerator crowded with caviar jars, I remembered Brillat's story and said something about the austere ecclesiastical life, vows of poverty, etc. etc.

Might as well offer (touching on both sandwiches and compound butters -- with echoes in de Gouy's later writing) this snippet, as review and recommendation of (in turn) Tatyana Tolstaya's 1993 book review of Joyce Toomre's translation of the epic 19th-c. Russian national cookbook, Elena Molokhovets’ A Gift to Young Housewives. Full book review in NYRB 21 Oct 1993 pp. 24-26, which I strongly recommend.

Before shifting to a tirade about how Americans don't understand vodka (and don't understand that zakuski, the uncountable appetizer specialties, are inseparable from it), Tolstaya gives an awed summary of the vast meals Molokhovets suggested for ordinary households of moderate means. Sample:

--
After that, it’s not long until evening tea with five types of bread, veal, ham, beef, hazel grouse, turkey, tongue, hare, four sorts of cheese. This is not counting rolls, different sorts of cookies, babas, jam, oranges, apples, pears, mandarins, dates, plums, and grapes; as if that were not enough, for "tea" one must offer rum, cognac, red wine, cherry syrup, sherbet (a kind of sugary fruit halvah or sweet drink), cream, sugar, and lemon. Plain butter and lemon butter, parmesan butter, butter from hazel grouse, with fried liver, with almonds, walnuts, pistachios. With green cheese. And shredded corned beef. (Molokhovets notes that this "may replace dinner." What? Meaning, it might not replace dinner? ...)

[Jenise]

Brillat-Savarin's famous book (1826) has an evocative anecdote "The Curé's omelet," about a not-very-austere "meatless" meal* enjoyed by an aging cleric. At one point in the mouth-watering account, butter with lemon, parsley, and chives is prepared on a hot platter, to receive the succulent omelet before serving.

Max, this inspired me yesterday morning. I had gotten up earlier than my husband (a rarity) and so he was saved from his usual bachelor breakfast of cereal. I had farm fresh eggs, and I made a little omelet that I cooked in a compound butter that contained dill and garlic, which I'd served on steamed asparagus a few nights ago. I don't think I'd have thought to use that as a breakfast butter but for this post. I served the omelet on a slice of toasted dark rye, no doubt further inspired by your description of Elena Molokhovets’ reccomendations for a Russian afternoon tea. A bit of lox would have been more en pointe as an additional protein, but lacking that I added proscuitto to the omelette for a bit of color and striation. Bob being more conventional of appetite than me, I thought he might find the garlic and dill elements odd at 6:00 a.m., but in fact without knowing where in the world those extra flavors came from, he raved about the difference as well as the presentation en croute.

"Max's fault," I said.

Seeing the refrigerator crowded with caviar jars, I remembered Brillat's story and said something about the austere ecclesiastical life, vows of poverty, etc. etc.

Very amusing. We had a Catholic priest among our wine tasting group in Anchorage, once upon a time, and we were all bereft when he announced that he was being transferred to a warmer clime. So we had a good bye dinner for him at my house at which I allowed cigars to be smoked, and Father Peter brought a '47 Cheval Blanc and a vintage '52 cigar. "They're my dad's", he insisted, blushing.

A Beurre Compose, or compound butter, is defined as butter mixed with one or more other ingredients. The other ingredients can be just about anything from herbs to anchovies to wine, the finished product can be melted for a dip (beurre fondu) or pour-over, whipped and scooped, or chilled in a cynlindrical ballotine for slicing.

Argh, dear girl. A ballotine is an outer wrap, usually of meat, fish or fowl, rolled around some sort of stuffing, cooked and later sliced, so butter even with additives doesn't qualify (unless something else is wrapped around IT).

For this misuse of terms you may be sentenced to prepare a true ballotine for T5, the 2008 All Terrine event!

I like your subject, though, as you can prepare a bunch of flavoured butter ahead, freeze it and whack off as much as you need for the recipe you are preparing, returning the mother lode to the freezer.

I shall think of what recipes to offer on this subject. Let's see, there is is Last Tango Butter (Novocaine and unsalted)....er, no, that's another sort of party....

Something as simple as a citrus butter, with lemon, lime, orange, can add quite a lot to many different preps - meat, seafood, vegies....

[Jenise]

Ah, dear boy, I did not adopt the use of that word on my own, rather, as I was hunting around in books and on the internet for some history and current thinking about compound butters, someone else used it and I liked it so I used it too. I cannot now retrace my steps and attribute it exactly, but I can assure you it was someone well respected and authoritative--if, in your eyes, incorrect.

However I can accept that sentence. That is, if I do not decide to do a sushi terrine of alternating layers of raw tuna and salmon encased in a leek wrapper and surrounded in a lovely, gleaming aspic--plans I had for this year which were dashed by Les' grabbing the coveted seafood slot right off the bat.

Understood - I shall not blame you for the infelicitous and incorrect usage of that term, (but only for perpetuating it).

I really do think we should attempt to branch out into ballotines and galantines, but I shall not condemn you to such if you'd rather be fondling a wet fish. I suppose I'd best lead by example and essay such a dish myself. Now where can I get a camel to stuff that sheep into.......

[img]http://naturespixel.com/images/20060301100905_camel.jpg[/img]

[Jenise]

Understood - I shall not blame you for the infelicitous and incorrect usage of that term, (but only for perpetuating it).

Well, I'd say there's the classic meaning of the term, which I respect, and then some of the ways in which it has fallen into common usage. For instance, I've seen the term used to describe foie gras formed into a cylinder, using cheesecloth or cling film as a wrapper, with the ends twisted to secure the contents and allow it to be rolled/shaped. It is not stuffed nor is it a stuffing, but we do not have any other singleton word with which to convey that procedure. And that was, of course, the same way I, and whoever else it was before me, used it as shorthand to describe the technique of forming the butter.

But yes, none of us has done much with the overall category of galantines. I would be happy to join you in rectifying that.

Well, I'd say there's the classic meaning of the term, which I respect, and then some of the ways in which it has fallen into common usage. For instance, I've seen the term used to describe foie gras formed into a cylinder, using cheesecloth or cling film as a wrapper, with the ends twisted to secure the contents and allow it to be rolled/shaped. It is not stuffed nor is it a stuffing, but we do not have any other singleton word with which to convey that procedure. And that was, of course, the same way I, and whoever else it was before me, used it as shorthand to describe the technique of forming the butter.

But yes, none of us has done much with the overall category of galantines. I would be happy to join you in rectifying that.

Well actually there is a more appropriate word for that method of preparing foie gras - a tourchon. Ballotine just isn't right for that application! (he said, pedantically)

[Jenise]

I hear you, Bill, but I've seen it used. Next time I trip over one such usage, I'll bring it to your attention.

I hear you, Bill, but I've seen it used. Next time I trip over one such usage, I'll bring it to your attention.

I must support Spohn (hi Bill), albeit less obsessively (law practice slow just now, Bill?) because of a deeper principle.

Obviously the (and I think they're relatively recent) idiomatic usages of "ballottine" are ordinary metaphors. Like a "flight" of wines (not birds). Bill also is very right that "torchon" is the common figure for molded FG in high-end restaurants and food writing in recent years. But "ballottine" used for any old wrapped cylinder is annoying to people seeing it for decades longer as a sometimes awesomely complex French specialty in cookbooks. (Example: photo of "Ballottine of Chicken Régence" in the US Gourmet Cook Book, 1950.)

Anyone writing who wants to know what is meant by a galantine (or its variation, a ballottine) can look that up, as always, in an appropriate reference (like the Larousse Gastronomique which has entire articles on the subject, or even a large general dictionary).

If someone uses it in a really howling way, my friendly suggestion Jenise is to bring that to their attention, not Bill's.

--
Today ballottines; tomorrow -- who knows? -- parameters, "hackers," other big pop misusages.