Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Making Butter Better

I know it is not good for me, but I love butter.  I freely admit that, but did you know you can actually make butter better?

There is this awesome thing in the culinary world called compound butter.  It is simply butter that you add herbs, spices, and flavorings to.  You have probably had it before and not even realized, like lemon tarragon butter on top of a grilled piece of salmon or that steak that was dripping in garlicky herb butter heaven.  Even a good garlic butter is a compound butter.

They often seem like they would be difficult to make, but they aren't.  You don't even need a machine to make it.  All you need is softened butter and what ever you want to flavor it with.  My favorite is a garlic sage butter that I put under the skin of my turkey.

Here is how I make the sage garlic butter.  No matter what flavor you are making the  process is the same.  Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix together.  If you want to add lemon, use the zest and slowly add a small amount of lemon juice. You do not want the butter to break.  A machine makes adding the lemon juice (or any liquid ingredient MUCH easier.

To make the sage butter, I need 1 cup of softened butter, 3 garlic cloves, 10 sage leaves, and a teaspoon of kosher salt. Also I need a medium size bowl and either a whisk or a fork.

The sage needs to be a chiffonade, or cut into ribbons.  To do this I stack my leaves on top of each other, then slice them about 1/8 " thick or finer.

I minced the garlic then added it to the bowl along with my softened butter, kosher salt, and my sage chiffonade (about 1 1/2 Tbsp).

Mix it together with a whisk or a fork until smooth. 

To store it, I put it on a piece of plastic wrap and (using the plastic wrap to help you) roll it into a log and keep in your refrigerator.  When you are ready to use it just slice it.  This would be good on vegetables or even placed on top of a boneless chicken breast before or after baking (if you are grilling, only put on afterwards.


Sage Garlic Butter The Food Nerd Way

1 cup soft butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 Tbsp. sage chiffonade (see how to make it above)
1 tsp. Kosher salt.

Mix together. Use immediately or wrap in plastic wrap to store.  May be frozen.  This can also be put in a piping bag with a large star tip and piped onto parchment paper, freeze, then remove from paper and store in a ziploc bag.




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