What Is Compound Butter and How Do You Make It At Home?

Compound butter is a delicious and easy way to take your cooking up a notch. Here's what you need to know about making and using compound butter:

What Is Compound Butter?

A compound butter ("beurre composé" in French) is simply butter mixed with other ingredients that add sweet or savory flavor, like honey, herbs, or garlic. "Compound butter" sounds like a complicated concept, but it's really quite easy to make at home: Softened butter is whipped with other ingredients, reformed into the desired shape, and chilled until firm.

Compound Butter Uses

So what can you do with compound butter? The real question: What can't you do with compound butter? Here are a just a few ways to use it:

• Spread it on bread, toast, muffins, scones, biscuits, and more
• Melt it and use it as a flavor enhancer for meat, fish, or vegetables
• Use it as an ingredient in baked goods or rich sauces
• Stir it into pasta or rice to add complex flavor

How to Make Compound Butter

You can buy compound butter at the store, but it couldn't be easier to make it at home. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Start with unsalted butter so that you're easily able to control the salt level. Remember: You can add salt, but you can't take it away.
2. Soften the butter by whipping it with a hand mixer or stand mixer. If you're short on time or appliances, you can just mash the butter with a fork – but your results won't be quite as fluffy.
3. Combine the butter with the sweet or savory ingredients of your choice. You can use a fork, spoon, or your mixer. Just make sure it's completely blended!
4. Transfer the flavored butter to a sheet of parchment paper. Form it into a log or ball, wrap it up, and let it sit in the fridge for at least two hours to chill.

How to Store Compound Butter

Store compound butter in the fridge, just like you would with regular butter. How long compound butter lasts depends on its ingredients. For instance, if you use fresh herbs, the compound butter will last about five days. If you just used cinnamon or honey, however, it will stay good a bit longer.

Compound Butter Ideas

Making compound butter lends itself to creativity. You can keep it basic with one or two additional ingredients or get as inventive as you want with your favorite flavor combinations. Here are just a few of our favorite ideas to get you started:

Garlic Butter

Garlic butter is one of the most common savory compound butters – and for good reason. It's easy to make, perfectly complements all sorts of breads, and is a great way to add extra flavor to your favorite meats and veggies.

How to use it:

• Spread it on steak, fish, or corn
• Saute shrimp, veggies, or cooked pasta in the butter
• Serve it with bread before dinner

Get the recipe: Garlic Butter

Cinnamon-Honey Butter

Satisfy your sweet tooth with a honey- and cinnamon-spiked butter. This compound butter makes a cheap-yet-thoughtful gift, but we totally understand if you want to keep the whole batch for yourself.

How to use it:

• Spread it on toast or biscuits
• Dollop it on a baked sweet potato
• Serve it with waffles or pancakes

Get the recipe: Cinnamon-Honey Butter

Basil Butter

Looking for a delicious way to use all that basil that's growing in your garden? Your search ends here. Basil adds earthy, herbaceous, and absolutely irresistible flavor to whipped butter. You'll use this compound butter all summer long.

How to use it:

• Use it to marinate chicken or fish
• Serve it with dinner rolls
• Spread it on crackers or crostini

Get the recipe: Simple Basil Butter

More Compound Butter Recipes

Hungry for more inspiration? We've got you covered! Try one of these top-rated recipes:

• Brown Sugar-Cinnamon Butter
• Lemon Herb Butter
• Pecan Honey Butter
• Sun-Dried Tomato Butter
• Maple Butter

Explore our entire collection of Compound Butter Recipes.

Related:

• The 3 Types of Butter You Should Know About — And How to Use Them
• How to Make Clarified Butter
• Can You Leave Butter on the Counter?