How To Make Compound Herb Garlic Butter - Best Steak Topping

How to cook the perfect steak: gentl.mn/cook-perfect-steak

In case you missed part I and II of our steak series:
Steak Cuts Guide - gentl.mn/2MGwnoM
Steak: A Buying Guide - gentl.mn/2wrynH0

#gentlemansgazette #steak #howtocooktheperfectsteak

So first of all, what is compound butter? In Germany, it's very popular for steaks and it's called Kraiter Butter which means as much as herb butter. It basically consists of a high-fat content butter because typical butter in Germany or in France has a higher fat content than for example, in the US. So you always want to start with either European butter or European style butter. Why? Because fat absorbs flavor and enhances them and that's what you want on your steak.

For the first step, I simply chuck up the butter and let it sit outside of the fridge so it can soften so I can easily mix it up later.

Now it's time to get some fresh herbs. We always keep some around in our garden and for a compound butter, I really like chives, thyme, oregano, sage, dill as well. At the end of the day, you can really do it with all kinds of herbs. It's just important they're fresh. If you use dry herbs, they're not flavor intense enough. If you use frozen herbs, they're simply too moist which is not good for the butter, so only go with fresh ones.

All I do now is use a sharp chef's knife and really finely chop up my herbs. Usually, for a stick of butter, I get a good handful of herbs. Now I add a pinch of Mesquite salt to it and a little bit of Hungarian paprika. Don't overdo it, you don't want it to be a dominant taste but just a side flavor of the compound butter.

My secret ingredient for the butter is fish sauce because it adds that savory umami flavor that makes things taste so good.

Finally, I chop up a small clove of garlic. Alternatively, I could also add a little bit of shallot because that rounds out the flavor of the butter.

Once it's all minced up I add it to the bowl and stir it with a wooden spoon trying to mash it up so everything is evenly distributed.

By now, the butter should be noticeably softer so you can easily mix everything up so you create an evenly green mass. Once everything is mixed, I get out a piece of parchment paper and put the butter in the middle. now I simply twist the ends so I create a little log that almost looks like a sausage. At this point, the butter is relatively soft and I add it back to the fridge so it can harden again.

Later on, when your steak is ready you can simply cut little rounds out of it and add them on top of the steak and it will melt slowly and create an additional flavor enhancement for your steak.

That being said, compound butter never goes unused in our household because we use it on so many things, maybe eat it on bread so it's really something that you can make a lot of. I find that it gets better the older it gets and so it's just always something you can have in your fridge without worrying about it getting too old.
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