Pimp the butter!

Butter is essential. But it's even better when it's prepared with flavors that will enhance your dishes and color your tables. Butter can be transformed into classic maître d'hôtel butter to enhance a beautiful steak, but it can be used with all flavors, from herbs to flowers, including spices and fish such as anchovies.

Flavored butter, full of flavors

Better still, these preparations – this is our little hack for your kitchen – can be kept once made, in the fridge of course, for a few days but also in the freezer, in a classic ice cube tray or in a foil packet formed into a roll . Practical, you can prepare these butters in advance and only take out what you need. Ideal for preserving fresh herbs from your garden until winter for example!

What can flavored butters be used for?

They of course go wonderfully with rare meats but also with fish and winter vegetable purees. You can place these butters in small plates or ramekins on an aperitif table or on your meal table, individually or in a more convivial way to share. The cold makes it easy to work with butters and slice them cleanly.

Choose churned butter or raw butter

The butter we recommend is churned butter from Lehmann . It is exceptional of course. It is raw, meaning it is obtained exclusively from raw, unpasteurized cream. It is undeniably the butter with the richest taste. In short, real butter!

Make a softened butter

For your preparation, use softened butter . Ban melted butter. This would bring your ingredients to the surface and thus prevent all of your butter from being fragrant. Softened butter allows them to be better distributed throughout the butter mass.

What about semi-salted butter? This is the other pain au chocolat vs chocolatine du gras debate. Let's get everyone to agree. If semi-salted butter is valuable in various circumstances, no, we do not advise you to use semi-salted butter for your flavored butters. We obviously prefer mild for the balance of flavors that the already mixed salt would tend to overshadow.

To make your softened butter, nothing could be simpler: take the butter out of your refrigerator one to two hours depending on the room temperature, before using it. Cut it into cubes on a plate. When the butter is well softened, you can spread it like an ointment on the plate with a spoon or with a marquise then crush it with a fork before putting it in a bowl which you leave outside. Now you just need to flavor this base with your preparations by mixing everything together before cooling it.

Some proposals, classic and contemporary.

The butler butter

Ingredients: 250 g of unsalted butter + the juice of a small lemon + 3 tablespoons of finely chopped flat-leaf parsley + salt + pepper. Use: beef, lamb, fish, vegetables.

Garlic butter

Ingredients: 250 g of unsalted butter + 5 to 6 cloves of garlic, peeled and grated + 1 small shallot, peeled and finely chopped + 3 tablespoons of chopped fresh herbs (parsley, chives, tarragon, chervil, etc.) + salt + pepper . Use: red and white meats, vegetables, slices of bread spread then grilled.

Wine merchant butter

Ingredients: 250 g of unsalted butter + 4 shallots, finely chopped and reduced with 250 ml of red wine until a thick mixture is obtained + 2 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley + salt + pepper. Use: beef, offal.

Roquefort butter

Ingredients: 125 g of unsalted butter + 125 g of Roquefort + 1 tablespoon of cognac or Armagnac + 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley + pepper. Use: beef, lamb.

Anchovy butter

Ingredients: 250 g of unsalted butter + 16 fillets of anchovies in oil mixed with 2 cloves of garlic or 1 small shallot + 1 tablespoon of powdered almonds + 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Use: beef, lamb, fish.

Curry butter

Ingredients: 250 g of unsalted butter + 1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped + 3 tablespoons of curry powder or other masala + 2 tablespoons of yellow or green lemon juice + salt. Use: lamb, pork, white meats, fish, seafood.

Chilli and coriander butter

Ingredients: 250 g of unsalted butter + 1 teaspoon of ground cumin + 1 teaspoon of sweet pepper + 3 tablespoons of chopped coriander leaves + 2 tablespoons of lime juice + salt + a few drops of pepper liquid. Use: beef, pork, white meats, vegetables.

Dried tomato butter

Ingredients: 250 g of unsalted butter + 1 peeled and grated garlic clove + 4 tablespoons of finely chopped dried tomatoes + 4 tablespoons of chopped basil + salt + pepper. Use: red meats, white meats, lamb, fish, vegetables.

Orange and Espelette pepper butter

Ingredients: 250 g of unsalted butter + 2 tablespoons of finely grated orange zest + 2 tablespoons of orange juice + 1 tablespoon of lemon juice + Espelette pepper. Use: white meats, fish, seafood.

Bercy butter

Ingredients: 250 g of unsalted butter + 1 chopped shallot reduced in white wine + 500g of beef marrow, poached then diced + 2 tablespoons of finely chopped flat-leaf parsley + 1 pinch of fine salt + 1 pinch of just cracked pepper + the juice of half a lemon. Use: red meats, vegetables, slices of bread spread then grilled.

Wakame seaweed butter

Ingredients: 250 g of unsalted butter + 3 tablespoons of dehydrated wakame seaweed previously rehydrated then lightly dried with absorbent paper + 1 chopped shallot + 1 pinch of fine salt. Use: white meats, fish, vegetables, aperitif sandwiches.

Organic shiitake butter

Ingredients: 250 g of unsalted butter + 25 grams of dried shiitake mushrooms, previously rehydrated and cooked for 15 minutes in boiling water, then dried with absorbent paper, sliced ​​very finely + 1 tablespoon of finely chopped flat-leaf parsley + 1 pinch of salt END. Use: white meats, red meats, fish, vegetables, appetizer sandwiches.

Did this article not answer all your questions? Check out our FAQs or contact us directly. Our customer team will be happy to answer you.