Compound Butter Is the Chef Secret for Transforming Savory and Sweet Dishes—Here's How to Make and Use It

Compound butter is one of our favorite ingredients to take regular cooking and baking up a notch. It’s super simple to make and is a quick and clever way to add a burst of bold flavor to just about anything you’re making, from quick weeknight dinners to elaborate brunch spreads. It’s essentially flavored butter, made by mixing seasonings such as garlic, spices, seeds, mustards, and fresh or dried herbs into room-temperature butter. The options are endless when it comes to flavors—ahead, we spoke to food experts about this chef secret and share some ideas to get you started.

Tips for Making Compound Butter

Making compound butter is easy and endlessly variable. Keep these pointers in mind:

Start with the right ratio: You can begin by adding 2 to 3 teaspoons of flavoring to one stick of butter. You may want to add more or use less depending on the flavors you are working with, but this is a good general guideline.

Select the ingredients you want to use for the flavored butter: If you’re not sure how you want to use the compound butter, go savory and keep it simple. Use ingredients that will go with a variety of foods, like meat, fish, and vegetables. Classic seasonings like minced garlic, lemon zest, parsley, and a pinch of red pepper flakes are a great place to start. 

Make sure the butter is at room temperature: This will ensure all the ingredients incorporate seamlessly into the butter. If the butter is still firm and cold, it will take forever to mix the compound butter. 

Mix: No special equipment is needed; you can mix the butter and seasonings together in a bowl using a spoon, fork, or flexible spatula. Simply mix until everything is evenly combined.

Form: Place the butter mixture on the center of a sheet of plastic wrap. While pulling the plastic taut, push with a straight edge (such as a bench scraper) to mold the butter into a neat cylinder, pressing to remove any air pockets. Wrap the plastic around to cover the butter completely, then twist the ends to seal. This can be done with parchment paper instead of plastic wrap if preferred.

Flavor Variations

We asked Anna Painter, a food editor and author of The Official Netflix Cookbook, and recipe developer Theo Kaloudis, to share their favorite ways to use compound butter for savory and sweet recipes. They both agreed that compound butter is best used as a finishing touch to a dish.

Savory Compound Butter

Parsley and shallot butter: "My absolute, hands-down favorite compound butter is the parsley-shallot butter that used to be on the lunchtime cheeseburger at restaurant Prune in New York,” says Painter. The shallots and fresh parsley paired perfectly with the chargrilled burger patty, and any melted drippings were great for dragging French fries through, she says. This butter is also great on grilled steaks, boiled new potatoes, roasted chicken, and grilled, roasted, or steamed vegetables. 

Garlic and smoked paprika butter: This is another one of Painter’s favorite flavor combinations. She tosses it with roasted potatoes right on the sheet pan to make a riff on the much-loved Spanish potato dish, papas bravas.

Sesame and miso paste butter: Another powerful compound butter that is one of Painter's go-to combinations, she uses sesame seeds with miso and likes to toss the butter with blanched snap peas and green beans. It's a great way to make even the pickiest eaters enjoy their vegetables. 

Fresh ginger and scallion butter: Kaloudis says fresh ginger adds a subtle heat to butter. She mixes it with scallions—sometimes fresh, other times grilled—and uses it to finish seared steaks. It's also a great addition to en papillote cooking. The butter will melt gently over the fish or vegetables inside the parchment or foil packets. 

Hot honey butter: For a spicy, sweet addition to your meal, try hot honey butter, another of Painter's favorites. She uses it on roasted salmon fillets fresh from the oven to add a gentle kick of heat to her family dinners. 

How to Use Savory Compound Butter

• Savory compound butters are a great way to add a bit of extra flavor to otherwise boring pots of rice, grains, or pasta. Choose a compound butter that will complement the rest of your meal. 
• A pat of compound butter is a guaranteed way to bump up the flavor of a basic pan sauce. Pan sauce is usually finished with a bit of butter anyway, so we recommend using a flavored butter that brings even more to the dish.
• Both savory and spicy compound butters are a surefire way to enhance the flavor of meats like grilled porterhouse, roasted chicken, and thick-cut pork chops; seafood like a side of salmon, grilled swordfish, or shrimp; and vegetables prepared any way, be it roasted, steamed, or grilled.

Sweet Compound Butter

As with savory or spicy, the options for sweet compound butters are endless. Kaloudis is a fan and loves to stir all kinds of sweet ingredients into butter. Her go-to favorites are jam, honey, maple syrup, and pumpkin spice mix.

Cinnamon sugar butter: Painter says it's a natural for toast.

Strawberry and lemon butter: Like all the other compound butters, this is easy to make; simply mash fresh berries and a touch of lemon zest into the softened butter. Painter spreads it over waffles—you can also try adding a dollop to a short stack of pancakes or French toast. 

Ways to Use Sweet Compound Butter

Any of these sweet compound butters can be spread over warm bread (toasted or not), split muffins, sweet scones, and flaky buttermilk biscuits. 

How to Store Compound Butter

If you plan to use the compound butter within an hour or two of making it, keep it at room temperature, covered with a piece of plastic wrap. For longer storage, use plastic wrap and form the butter into a log—this way, you can slice off rounds of butter as needed. Then refrigerate it; refrigerated compound butter will last up to 1 week when tightly wrapped. 

Freezing

To freeze the butter, form it butter into a log wrapped in plastic wrap, then place the log in a freezer-safe resealable bag. You’ll need to thaw the butter before using, so allow the log to defrost in the refrigerator overnight. Frozen compound butter will last up to 3 months.