5 Favorite Recipes for Flavored Compound Butters | foodiecrush.com (2024)

FAQs

What is the Flavouring compound for butter? ›

Artificial butter flavoring is a flavoring used to give a food the taste and smell of butter. It may contain diacetyl, acetylpropionyl, or acetoin, three natural compounds in butter that contribute to its characteristic taste and smell.

Compound butter, or finishing butter, is a type of butter that is mixed with herbs, spice blends, and other ingredients that give it a savory or sweet flavor. The term compound butter encompasses countless recipes and flavor profiles.

Compound butter or “beurre composse” in French is simply unsalted butter mixed with other ingredients that add sweet or savory flavor, like honey, herbs, or garlic. This creamy spread can be easily added to meats, and sauces sides to add extra flavor.

Creating flavored butters is a quick and easy way to add a burst of flavor to your food. Compound butter can be kept refrigerated for several days. They can also be frozen for several months by being wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in plastic freezer bags.

Butter flavor is often created by isolating compounds like diacetyl, acetyl propionyl, or acetoin. These compounds can be sourced from butter, soybeans, or other oils. Mixing any of these compounds with water and other ingredients creates a rich buttery flavor that many consumers have come to know and love.

Diacetyl and acetoin are two compounds that give butter its characteristic taste.

Editor's Choice: Finlandia Unsalted

Finlandia butter has a natural, well-rounded, clean flavor. Most of the evaluators came to the butter tasting thinking that Kerrygold was king and left with a new favorite: Finlandia.

Add salt: Salt enhances the flavor of butter and can make it taste richer. Sprinkle a small amount of sea salt or flaky salt on top of the butter to intensify its taste. Incorporate herbs and spi.

Bring your butter to room temperature.

Cold butter won't blend with your mix-ins, and melted butter won't keep its consistency to hold them in place. Room temperature is like Goldilocks and the Three Bears: not too cold and not too hot.

Every cooked meat, every protein, benefits from a good compound butter because it allows the fat to baste and add additional flavor. It's typically incorporated with fresh or fragrant aromatic herbs.

Can I leave compound butter out overnight? ›

It's almost always safe to leave butter on the counter or to eat butter that has been out of the fridge for a while. Unlike soft cheeses, such as cream cheese, ricotta, or cottage cheese, butter can stay out of the fridge for hours, even days, without the risk of spoilage or food safety issues.

For example, swapping dried herbs for fresh ones can cause compound butter to spoil at a faster rate. In this case, compound butter may only last up to five days before decreasing in quality. When it comes to compound butter containing garlic, it will typically keep for up to two weeks in the fridge.

Many chefs advocate making compound butters and then freezing them, using them when needed, they say the butters just improve over time. Within limits of course.

Diacetyl is a naturally occurring substance that gives butter its characteristic flavor and aroma, and is often a component of artificial flavoring formulations. Acetoin, a closely related chemical, also occurs naturally and is an ingredient in many flavoring formulations, perfumes and essences.

The “natural flavorings” found in many unsalted butters produced in this country refer mainly to a compound called diacetyl, a natural byproduct derived from culturing skim milk with bacteria, namely Streptococcus lactis.

Butter is a mixture of various fatty acids, including butyric acid (C4H8O2), caproic acid (C6H12O2), caprylic acid (C8H16O2), capric acid (C10H20O2), lauric acid (C12H24O2), myristic acid (C14H28O2), palmitic acid (C16H32O2), stearic acid (C18H36O2), and arachidic acid (C20H40O2).

Lactones, ketones and aldehydes are the key aroma compounds in sweet-cream butter. ... ... In addition to milkfat, butter contains moisture, curd (milk proteins, milk ash, lactose and other minor constituents) and commonly salt.