How To Make Flavored Butters

A simple way to add flavor and excitement to any meal is a flavored butter. Also called a compound butter, a flavored butter has ingredients added to an unsalted or salted butter to complement other foods. Savory flavored butters are excellent added to top a seared steak or baked potato, while sweet compound butters are dreamy atop a stack of pancakes or French toast. Of course, you can slather flavored butters on a slice of sourdough toast, too.

Compound butters make great gifts to bring to a party. Wrap the ends of parchment with ribbon and write the ingredients on a tag. Bring along with a loaf of homemade sourdough or a batch of scones.

HOW TO MAKE A FLAVORED BUTTER

The best thing about making compound butters is that you can add any ingredients you like with a simple template. 

Basic template for flavored butters:

Combine 1 stick (4 ounces/113 grams) room temperature salted or unsalted butter and up to ½ cup mix-ins (up to 3 tbsp total liquid or paste ingredients) in a medium mixing bowl. Mix together with a spatula until incorporated. 

Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately. Or, if you’d like to make round pats, place a piece of parchment paper on a work surface. Scrape the butter into a log-shape on the parchment, then roll it into a log and twist the ends to wrap it tightly. Refrigerate until cold, then slice into coins for serving.

Things you might like to include in your compound butter include:

• Spices: Start with up to 2 teaspoons of ground spices. Try peppercorns, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, or chili flakes.
• Herbs: Stir in 1 to 2 teaspoons dried herbs or up to ⅓ cup finely chopped fresh herbs. Delicious options include fresh parsley, fresh sage, dried oregano, and fresh rosemary
• Jellies and jams: try stirring in 2 to 3 tablespoons of your favorite jellies and jams. Great picks include fig jam, marmalade, berry jams
• Sauces and pastes: start with 2 teaspoons of your favorite sauces and pastes and increase to taste. Try out mustard, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, fish sauce, soy sauce, miso paste, quince paste, pesto, maple syrup
• Other flavorful additions: Don’t be afraid to get creative with your compound butter. Try stirring in a small amount of espresso powder, pumpkin purée, chopped garlic, or cornichons or pickles.

SAVORY FLAVORED BUTTER IDEAS

Having a few types of savory compound butter to hand can take any meal up a notch. Stir in a pat to your fried eggs, or add it to a bowl of steaming noodles. Any bowl of brown rice will be doubly delicious with a spoonful of compound butter, too.

Here are ideas for mixins for savory compound butters using 1 stick salted or unsalted butter:

• Mexican breakfast butter: 2 tbsp chopped chipotles in adobo + ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro + 2 tsp cumin powder: Mix together and adjust flavoring accordingly. Serve with fried eggs, tortilla chips, and sliced avocado
• Baked potato butter: 3 tbsp chopped fresh chives + 1 tbsp very finely chopped bacon + 3 tbsp finely grated Cheddar + 1 tbsp sour cream:  Mix together and adjust flavoring accordingly. Serve over split baked potatoes
• Steakhouse butter: 2 tbsp steak sauce + 1 tbsp coarsely ground black peppercorns + 1 small clove minced garlic: Mix together and adjust flavoring accordingly. Serve over seared steak.

SWEET FLAVORED BUTTER IDEAS

A sweet compound butter can take a homemade scone to the next level and rescue a stale loaf of bread. Serve your stacks of pancakes with coins of compound butter to make weekends extra special.

Here are ideas for mixins for sweet compound butters using 1 stick salted or unsalted butter:

• Cinnamon sugar butter: 1 tbsp ground cinnamon + 2 tbsp granulated sugar: Mix together and adjust flavoring accordingly. Spread onto toast, add to oatmeal, or serve it with pancakes.
• Lemon lover’s butter: 1 tbsp lemon zest + 1 tbsp lemon juice + 2 tbsp confectioner’s sugar: Mix together and adjust flavoring accordingly. Use it to top French toast or a Dutch baby.
• Pumpkin spice butter: 2 tbsp pumpkin purée+ 1 tbsp pumpkin spice + 1 tbsp confectioner’s sugar: Mix together and adjust flavoring accordingly. Serve it with maple oat scones or poundcake.