Miles Collins

How to make a compound butter..

Compound butters are incredibly versatile in the kitchen, easy to make and full of possibilities. A compound butter is a butter which is mixed with one or more ingredients and either pureed and chopped or melted and then seasoned.

We always keep a couple of different butters on stock, my favourite is ‘Cafe de Paris’ which we serve on top of grilled meats and fish or whisked into a reduction of brown chicken stock to flavour poultry and game dishes.

Probably the best known compound butter is garlic butter, I am sure everyone has made this at some point, in its most basic form it is softened butter and garlic puree mixed together. That’s a compound butter. Take it a stage further and add some minced lemon zest, some crushed coriander seeds and equal quantities of chopped fresh chervil, parsley and tarragon and you have a perfect foil to the strength of the garlic.

The possibilities are endless, take a country and pick out one or two ingredients which they are most commonly associated with then go for it. When I am asked how I come up with dishes I just say it’s all a thought process, which it is. Take green beans as an example, (I haven’t thought about this previously) as I type I am thinking about what I think of in terms of suitable flavour matches. Here’s how my mind works:

Here goes: Green beans-French-shallots-finely chopped-herbs-tarragon-chervil-lemon-black pepper-Indian-green bean mallum-shredded-turmeric-fresh coriander-lemon-crushed coriander seed-Greece-oregano-fennel-diced tomato flesh-orange-olive oil-Mediterranean-black olives-garlic-rock salt-verbena-anchovies….

That’s what goes on in my head for most of the day, I think about a base ingredient then let ideas come in, these are written down on scrap paper and then formed into something (hopefully) worth eating.

Flavoured butters are a good way of working on your culinary imagination, don’t over complicate matters, stick to two or three flavours and you’ll not go wrong. When you’ve mixed your butter and flavourings of choice together then it’s time to roll-literally.

Whilst the butter is still soft lay out a square of cling film/wrap. Form the butter into a cigar shape then lay on top of the sheet close to the edge nearest to you. Take the cling film and roll over once, form the butter into as neat a cylindrical shape as you can. Keep hold of both ends and continue to roll until all the cling film/wrap has formed around the butter. Get a good grip of both ends then roll it backwards and forwards on a flat surface until the butter is tight and uniform.

Stick it in the fridge to set then slice pieces of as required.

Happy mixing!