Flavored culinary butters add thrill to any cuisine.
Rich and sultry, compound butters generously lend a delectable flavor and silky texture to almost any dish. They can be slathered onto baked roots, fresh bread, and crackers or used to roast veggies or meat. Fruity, sour, and sweet butters are delicious with pancakes, muffins, or waffles. When you set the table with buttery herbal spreads, every occasion instantly feels special—from Sunday brunch to your best friend’s birthday dinner.
Despite compound butter’s stodgy-sounding name (borrowed from the French, beurre composé), flavored butters reliably add thrill to any cuisine. You may be familiar with compound butters if you’ve ordered steak at a swanky restaurant. After grilling meat or fish, the chef melts a melon ball-sized pat of compound butter on top, the flavor percolating in a pool of lavishness.
Compound butters can be frozen, giving you an elegant method of preserving fresh culinary herbs, especially those that don’t dry well like chives, cilantro, or parsley. Use the butter immediately or roll into logs, wrap in wax paper, and freeze for later use. Simply slice off a round when you’re ready to use the butter, or thaw out smaller portions to have on hand in the refrigerator.
If you avoid dairy, try one of the many non-dairy “butters” or, for a sweet butter, try coconut manna. These plant alternatives will have a different consistency than butter—you might not be able to roll them into a log, and instead, can serve them in a small bowl.
A bowl of Herbes de Provence herbal compound butter.
A bowl of pomegranate molasses compound butter.
Learn more about the ingredients
For information on the medicinal benefits of herbs featured in these compound butter recipes, visit our articles on:
Looking for more feast-worthy recipes?
Try making our Hibiscus Chutney—it’s the ultimate herbal twist on cranberry sauce—and these show-stopping Herbal Finishing Salts (see pic below).
A close up of herbal finishing salt made from fresh sage, rosemary, orange zest, and juniper berries.
