Any edible herb can be made into a herb butter, either alone or combined with other herbs and flavouring. The butter can be used to enliven simple dishes, such as steamed vegetables, baked fish or grilled steaks. By choosing appropriate herbs, such as sage or rosemary, the butter can also make rich meats easier to digest. Herb butters can be used whilst cooking the food or added just before serving, so they melt into the food, releasing a delightful savoury aroma.

Image via Wikipedia

Herbs should be gathered when full of flavour (this usually means gathering before the plant flowers) and used while fresh. Ideally gather them from your own garden immediately before use. Young tender leaves will give the best texture. If used individually, each herb will have a strong, distinctive taste. If combined with other herbs, the result will be mellower and the total quantity of herbs can be higher.

The butter must be real block butter, not a synthetic substitute or low calorie version. Soft spreads usually contain water and other added ingredients which will spoil the texture of many foods. If you wish to reduce the calorific value, use more herbs in relation to the quantity of herbs. This will give a stronger flavour, so less butter will be required. For a finished butter that is easy to spread, add olive oil to the finished product.

Image via Wikipedia

The butter should be allowed to soften, but not melt, before use. The herbs must be prepared by stripping the leaves away from any tough stalks and then chopping them finely, or in the case of garlic, finely crushed. Cream the required quantity of butter, with salt and pepper if these are to be included, in a bowl using a wooden spoon to ensure it is soft, then fold in the prepared herbs as lightly as possible. Mix until they are evenly incorporated, but no longer. If using olive oil, this should be added a few drops at a time, before the herbs are included. This butter should then be allowed to stand for at least half an hour, to allow the flavour to develop.

Once made, the butter can be used straight away for spreading onto bread to create garlic or herb bread, or used as a flavourful fat to cook food. More frequently it is chilled until solid, rolled into a thick sausage shape and then cut into individual pats. These can be frozen for later use and herbs preserved in this way retain much more of their flavour, colour and aroma than if dried or frozen without butter.

Image via Wikipedia

Garlic butter is probably the best known herb butter. If chopped parsley is added to the crushed garlic, the butter will have an attractive appearance and the smell of garlic won’t linger on the breath. This butter is an important ingredient of garlic bread, but also delicious on grilled meats and steamed or barbecued vegetables.

Sage butter, possibly with the addition of finely chopped shallot or onion is excellent with pork, chicken or goose; thyme is also good with those meats. Mint or rosemary are superb with lamb. A parsley butter, perhaps including lemon zest is lovely on white fish, as is dill, tarragon or fennel butter. To give an Indian flavour, try any combination of fresh coriander leaves, fenugreek and garlic. Coriander, garlic, cumin seeds and chilli will give add hint of Mexican flavour, whilst coriander, lemon grass, basil, chilli and garlic will suggest Thai cuisine as the inspiration for the meal.

Chive butters give a subtle taste of onion which won’t overpower a dish. Basil gives a more robust flavour and strong aroma. Other suitable herbs include marjoram, hyssop, savory and sorrel. Herb butters may be made with any combination of ingredients and a little experimentation will teach you which you and your dinner guests prefer.