Creating Your Own Compound Butters

I love shopping at Whole Foods for their great, organic meats and veggies. I’ve been known to peruse the cheeses while there, as well. The last time I went I bought a couple of different compound butters purely out of convenience. I’m all about making things easy on myself while entertaining if I can. Plus, it was an impulse buy. I’m sure we’ve all been there, done that! I purchased a bleu cheese butter and a roasted garlic butter. Well, as I’m sure has happened to everyone else they sat in my fridge until they were expired. Wow, I thought. I just wasted $7 or $8 on that when they’re something I could easily make.

According to Dictionary.com, a compound butter is a chilled mixture of whole butter and flavoring ingredients such as herbs, used to flavor and color dishes. Herbs are great. I love them. A dill butter sounds fabulous on a hot, freshly baked roll but I got to thinking why do herbs get to have all the fun? I mean, Whole Foods understands and offers the aforementioned butters. So, I’m sitting here thinking about all the things I like to eat.

I LOVE olives of all different kinds. Maybe a Kalamata olive butter would be delicious so I tried it out. Here’s what I did. First, I purchased a good quality, pitted Kalamata olive. Buying the pitted olives just saves time and energy that you could be using to concoct your own versions of a compound butter. Also, I bought a good quality unsalted butter left out at room temperature. Next, I finely diced the Kalamata olives in my handy dandy food processor. Man, I love that thing but I digress. After letting ½ cup of butter come to room temperature, I whipped it with a hand mixer just until it became slightly fluffy. Then I added ¼ cup chopped olives, a pinch of garlic salt and a pinch of pepper and mixed gently with a spatula until combined. Let the butter mixture rest at room temperature for about half an hour to allow the flavors to marry. Finally, you can either place the butter on plastic wrap to form into a log for freezing or you can use any container you already own (you know the crazy Tupperware mess you have hidden in your kitchen cabinets). If you choose to use your own container just scoop the butter into the container and place in the fridge. Freezing is a good idea if you think you won’t go through the butter quickly. If you think your family will plow through it or you’re using it for entertaining I’d recommend the Tupperware container. Next enjoy that salty, buttery goodness.

Here are some other compound butter ideas I had. Roasted Red Pepper Butter Dill Butter Jalapeno Butter Bacon Butter