Making Compound Butter

A good compound butter can change the game when it comes to making restaurant quality food at home with unbelievable flavor. This video is a quick rundown on how to make your own.

Here is a good starting point for Garlic Herb Butter:
2 sticks (8oz total) salted butter, softened at room temp
12-16 sprigs thyme, destemmed, finely chopped
3 sprigs rosemary, destemmed, finely chopped
8-10 sage leaves, finely chopped
4 tsp garlic paste, or 4 cloves chopped fine
zest of one lemon
splash of lemon juice, plus more if desired

Combine all ingredients and mix until evenly incorporated.

A great compound butter is a game-changing way to add amazing flavor to almost any food. It’s one of the secrets that restaurants use to make starches, veggies, steaks, and chops, almost anything taste better. Now, while you can make a compound butter from almost any ingredient, today I’m just going to show you a quick way you can make a garlic and herb compound butter at home. Just take some of your favorite herbs, chop them up nice and fine, and then go ahead and add them to a couple of sticks of softened salted butter. Go ahead and add some lemon zest to that, some garlic paste, and if you want a zestier compound butter, you can add some actual juice from the lemon. Go ahead and mix it up until everything’s really nicely incorporated, and then taste it and uh add what you want. I’m going to leave a recipe in the description for you to have a starting point, but taste it and adjust it to make it your own. Now, once you’ve got a compound butter you’re happy with, you’re going to take that and place it in the middle of a sheet of plastic wrap. And then you’re going to roll it up into a nice tight cylinder by grasping each end of the plastic wrap right next to the butter and actually rolling it on the counter until it firms up to a nice tight cylinder. Tie off each end of plastic and then pop it in the fridge and you can keep it in there until you are ready to use it. Now, once you’re ready to use it, you can pop it back out, slice off one of the knots, and then peel back the plastic and slice it into some discs. Uh, one great way to use it is to throw it on a freshly grilled steak and it will make it taste like it came from a really high-end steakhouse.