Orange-Rosemary Compound Butter

Prep: 15 min | Cook: 0 min | Total: 2 hrs 15 min | Servings:8

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Compound butters are flavored butters. They come in as many varieties as there are combinations of ingredients! I've been to fancy restaurants where the bread basket arrives, brimming with warm crackers, bread sticks and mini-loaves of whatever goodness may have danced through the baker's imagination the night before. It's not uncommon to see this cornucopia of carbs to arrive with a variety of flavored butters! Sometimes they are sweet, sometimes savory, sometimes they are spicy. Sometimes they are infused with cheeses and herbs. Other times they are very very simple and really only used as a vehicle for some new ashy sea salt that's making the rounds. One of my favorites comes from a restaurant in San Francisco. It's an homage to Winnie the Pooh. The breakfast dish is sweet corn hushpuppies and pooh butter (Whipped Butter, infused with Honey ... get it?). This is a fairly simple and basic compound butter, more to serve as an introduction to compound butters. It's simply orange zest (the orange part of the skin (not the white part)), rosemary (most any fresh herb would be great, though!), salt, pepper and ... of course ... butter. This is fantastic on fish, steak, pork, chicken, as a sandwich spread, tossed with fresh hot veggies, etc. There isn't many places where a little fat and a slight burst of fresh herby-citrus essence wouldn't be welcome. Make a log and bring it to your next neighborhood block party! (just make sure you have a way to keep it cool ... otherwise ... it gets messy, quickly!) Mix it, form it in plastic wrap, roll it, tighten it, chill it, slice it, serve it!

Method:

1. With an electric mixer, whip your softened butter.
2. When it begins to lighten in color and increase in volume (because you're adding air to it), add the rest of your ingredients.
3. Taste it and adjust the seasoning.
4. Take a sheet of plastic wrap, roughly 18 inches, by 12 inches, and lay it very flat on your countertop. Try and stretch out any folds or creases, so that you have a very clean, flat sheet of plastic wrap.
5. With a spoon or spatula, make a "log" of butter, near one edge of the plastic wrap. You don't want to place it in the middle, but follow about 1 inch inside the widest edge of the plastic wrap. The log should run parallel to this edge.
6. The butter will be very soft at this point. Carefully cover the butter log with the 1-inch flap of plastic wrap. Continue, carefully, rolling the butter log, being sure not to apply any pressure to the center of the log. This may cause the butter to leak out the ends of the log.
7. Once your butter log has been formed, grab the two ends of the plastic wrap and pick up the log.
8. While holding both sides of the log, swirl the butter log in front of you, like a jump rope. Do not let the ends of plastic twist within your fingers. The goal is to twist the butter log around and around, while tightening the ends of the plastic wrap. This will squeeze the butter into a firm, tight log.
9. Take your two ends of the plastic wrap and fold them under the newly tightened log and place it in the refrigerator to cool.
10. In 2 to 3 hours, it should firm up into a solid log of compound butter. Slice little disks of butter, remove the plastic wrap from each flavorful medallion and serve!

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