Compound Butter Basics (2024)

FAQs

Should you melt butter for compound butter? ›

Bring your butter to room temperature.

Cold butter won't blend with your mix-ins, and melted butter won't keep its consistency to hold them in place. Room temperature is like Goldilocks and the Three Bears: not too cold and not too hot.

Compound butter adds richness and pungency to simple grilled meats, fish, vegetables, beans, pasta, breads and eggs. A few ways to use it: Spread it on baked goods such as bread, rolls and biscuits, …

a flavorful butter sauce made by mixing cold, softened butter with flavoring ingredients such as fresh herbs, vegetable purees, dried fruits, preserves or wine reductions.

In cookies, softened butter will result in a cakier and airier cookie than using melted butter. This is due to the fact that softened butter will create air bubbles that expand in the oven during baking. Melted butter will make your cookies delightfully dense on the inside and crisp on the edges.

Compound butter can be kept refrigerated for several days. They can also be frozen for several months by being wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in plastic freezer bags.

A compound butter ("beurre composé" in French) is simply butter mixed with other ingredients that add sweet or savory flavor, like honey, herbs, or garlic.

Compound butter, or finishing butter, is a type of butter that is mixed with herbs, spice blends, and other ingredients that give it a savory or sweet flavor. The term compound butter encompasses countless recipes and flavor profiles.

Compound butters (beurre composé in French) are simply made of butter mixed with different ingredients to add flavor to meats, similar to a sauce.

How To Store Compound Butter. You should store compound butter in the fridge or freezer in an airtight container. Depending on the ingredients you've added to the butter, it should last in the refrigerator for one week and a maximum of one month. In the freezer, compound butter will last for months.

Every cooked meat, every protein, benefits from a good compound butter because it allows the fat to baste and add additional flavor. It's typically incorporated with fresh or fragrant aromatic herbs. As it heats up, the oils and fat heat up, releasing the oils and aromatics for an additional depth of flavor.”

Can compound butter be left out? ›

According to the USDA, butter is safe at room temperature. But if it's left out for several days at room temperature, it can turn rancid causing off flavors. The USDA does not recommend leaving it out more than one to two days.

To properly cream butter and sugar, you want to start with softened butter. Chilled butter is too hard to break down and fully blend with the sugar. Overly soft or melted butter will whip up into frothy air bubbles, which eventually collapse into a greasy, wet batter and bake into a heavy and soggy baked good.

First, let the butter soften to room temperature.

Instead, put a stick of butter on the counter, walk away, and let it soften for an hour or so. Before long, it'll be smooth and spreadable – exactly how it should be when you're making compound butter.

And, sometimes, melted butter actually produces a more desirable texture. If, for example, the idea of a cakey or fluffy cookie makes you cringe, seek out recipes that call for melted butter, which produces denser, lower-profile results.

No, melted butter won't make a fluffy frosting that spreads easily. To make a nice, soft buttercream frosting that is stiff enough to hold peaks, and soft enough to spread on a soft cake, use room temperature butter, and cream the sugar into the butter.