Jump to content

  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Herb butters

kkeym

By kkeym
in Cooking

 Share

Recommended Posts

kkeym

kkeym

Posted
Posted

I like to keep a few herb butters on hand, but have run out. Seems I've also run out of inspiration. I'm doing a fresh basil and garlic one, and a roasted red pepper with black pepper.

Any other ideas? I've hit a brick wall on inspiration. What combinations have you done that you love?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
purplewiz

purplewiz

Posted
Posted

Chive flowers, thyme flowers, salt and pepper to taste. My favorite - and very pretty with the pale yellow butter, the white thyme flowers, purple chive flowers, and a few green thyme leaves.

I make lots of this in the spring and freeze it for use all year.

Marcia.

Don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he wanted...he lived happily ever after. -- Willy Wonka

eGullet foodblog

Link to comment
Share on other sites
andiesenji

andiesenji

Posted
Posted
Here are several and all are delicious.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
annachan

annachan

Posted
Posted

We actually had some interesting compound butter at a restaurant last night. One was with dried herbs, but I couldn't make out what exactly. The other ones were salmon and tangerine, both quite tasty.

A roasted garlic one would be good. Caramelized onion, shallot, chives, thyme, olives and green onion would be good ingredients, too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
kkeym

kkeym

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

thanks everyone! some good inspiration -- I'm waiting for my herbs to flower so I can make Marcia's, and I've made a few others in the meantime...

I love roasted garlic butter but it doesn't keep so long...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
sadistick

sadistick

Posted
Posted

The go to herb butter in my family consists of Lots of fresh chives, a bit of thyme, garlic (roasted or fresh) salt and pepper - and lemon juice.

That being said, I have made some funky butters as well...

Blood Orange juice/Thai Chilli/roasted red pepper/chives

Mushroom butter - Sautee desired shrooms first (the better the mushroom the better the butter) add salt and pepper to taste.

Wood Oven roasted tomato butter - this one is one of our favourites as well, the flavour of wood oven roasted tomato shines here, and is just heaven.

Many more, but lets hope these get your creative juices flowing ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Elrushbo

Elrushbo

Posted
Posted (edited)

I made five kinds of flavored butter for Thanksgiving, they were a big hit, especially for how little work it took.

Sundried tomato & ancho chile- stick of salted butter softened, maybe two or three sundried tomatoes finely chopped(not the kind simmering in oil, the raisin-dry kind)& 1 teaspoon of ancho chile powder(or to taste).

Emeril's Walnut Butter(recipie on website) Excellent

Chocolate-I put about a tablespoon of Valhrona cocoa powder(unsweetened) and about a teaspoon of sugar in a stick of salted butter, very rich chocolate taste, sweet enough, the light bitter taste is actually suprisingly good, went perfectly with the saltiness of the butter. This one rocks, highly recommend it!

Try adding curry powder to your herb butter

The one mentioned above with the blood orange juice sounds good!

Edited by Elrushbo (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites
jgm

jgm

Posted
Posted

What a great thread!

I've never done this; often thought about it, though.

A couple of questions:

How long do these tend to keep in the fridge?

How long in the freezer?

How do you store them; in containers, or in a log wrapped in plastic wrap, or ...?

Anything else I should know?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jgm

jgm

Posted
Posted
The go to herb butter in my family consists of Lots of fresh chives, a bit of thyme, garlic (roasted or fresh) salt and pepper - and lemon juice.

That being said, I have made some funky butters as well...

Blood Orange juice/Thai Chilli/roasted red pepper/chives

Mushroom butter - Sautee desired shrooms first (the better the mushroom the better the butter) add salt and pepper to taste.

Wood Oven roasted tomato butter - this one is one of our favourites as well, the flavour of wood oven roasted tomato shines here, and is just heaven.

Many more, but lets hope these get your creative juices flowing ;)

The mushroom butter and the roasted tomato butter :wub: - are you chopping these ingredients really fine, or pureeing them first?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jgm

jgm

Posted
Posted

Bumping this back up, with yet another question:

I found a website where a guy is selling compound butters; it looked like his customers are probably restaurants. He says that he blanches all of his herbs for 2 minutes in boiling water, to kill any bacteria, before mixing them into the butter.

Is this necessary? Seems to me like it would release some of the oils in the leaves and dilute the flavor of the herbs.

If it is a good idea, how about doing this sous vide, so as to preserve as much flavor as possible?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
moosnsqrl

moosnsqrl

Posted
Posted
Bumping this back up, with yet another question:

I found a website where a guy is selling compound butters; it looked like his customers are probably restaurants.  He says that he blanches all of his herbs for 2 minutes in boiling water, to kill any bacteria, before mixing them into the butter.

Is this necessary?  Seems to me like it would release some of the oils in the leaves and dilute the flavor of the herbs.

If it is a good idea, how about doing this sous vide, so as to preserve as much flavor as possible?

I think this is one of those things that is a best practice (for food service) but not something I would do at home. I'm sure it would stabilize and extend the shelf life but doggone it, I want that fresh flavor and can't imagine that blanching, even if you shock it after, wouldn't knock it down about 50%.

I missed this thread previously but glad you bumped it because the chive blossoms are tasty right now and it never occurred to me to put them in compound butter (duh). And a little later in the year, one of my favorites is tomato-basil butter (on corn, zucchini, actually just about anything).

Judy Jones aka "moosnsqrl"

Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.

M.F.K. Fisher

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ChefJB

ChefJB

Posted
Posted
Bumping this back up, with yet another question:

I found a website where a guy is selling compound butters; it looked like his customers are probably restaurants.  He says that he blanches all of his herbs for 2 minutes in boiling water, to kill any bacteria, before mixing them into the butter.

Is this necessary?  Seems to me like it would release some of the oils in the leaves and dilute the flavor of the herbs.

If it is a good idea, how about doing this sous vide, so as to preserve as much flavor as possible?

I think this is one of those things that is a best practice (for food service) but not something I would do at home. I'm sure it would stabilize and extend the shelf life but doggone it, I want that fresh flavor and can't imagine that blanching, even if you shock it after, wouldn't knock it down about 50%.

As a foodservice professional I usually blanch and shock herbs going into compound butter only to set the color, shelf life is moot because they get used up or frozen.

I did a cumin, lime, and cilantro butter today to put on my pork tenderloin as it rested. It was S.W. day in my kitchen :biggrin:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
moosnsqrl

moosnsqrl

Posted
Posted
As a foodservice professional I usually blanch and shock herbs going into compound butter only to set the color, shelf life is moot because they get used up or frozen.

I did a cumin, lime, and cilantro butter today to put on my pork tenderloin as it rested. It was S.W. day in my kitchen  :biggrin:

I gather, then, that my guestimate of flavor loss was high? Or do you think customers tend to value the visual enough to compensate for the flavor loss? I guess I'll have to do some 'sperimenting (not to be confused in spearminting :biggrin:). I've read/heard of this before but could never bring myself to do that to herbs. This time of year they're so pretty I can hardly bring myself to chop them!

Judy Jones aka "moosnsqrl"

Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.

M.F.K. Fisher

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jgm

jgm

Posted
Posted

That's why I was thinking about vacuum packing them and doing a sous vide kind of thing, only using boiling water instead of a lower temperature.

As soon as the garden herbs are ready, I'll try a few different things. The herbs from the grocery are too expensive to experiment with!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...