Want to become a more impressive cook instantly? Use compound butter! Also known as finishing butter, or beurre composé in French, it’s unsalted butter that has been blended with seasonings.

There are endless variations. Escoffier published 35 combinations in 1903, and cuisine has evolved in many directions since his classic renderings of anchovy butter and beurre à la maître d’hotel (lemon parsley butter).

In Continental cuisine, compound butter is added to the pan to finish a sauce; a pat is placed directly atop meat, fish, potatoes or other vegetables to melt into a self-sauce; or is mixed into pasta and rice instead of other sauces/garnishes.

Just a dab transforms a dish: If you think butter makes everything taste better, think of what butter infused with great seasonings will do.

Compound butters are an easy alternative to more complex sauces. Make them ahead of time and keep them in the freezer, slicing off a pat as needed. They are a highly flavorful complement to the main ingredient.

Herb butter (most often served atop steak), Roquefort butter (ditto) and anchovy butter (a classic with grilled seafood) are staples at fine steakhouses. Read a French restaurant menu and maître d’hôtel butter (lemon parsley) is certain to be garnishing some dish. And that delicious sauce served with escargots? A compound butter of lemon juice, parsley and garlic.
 
Even if you didn’t think of it as compound butter, almost every American has had garlic butter, known as beurre d’ail or beurre à la bourguignonne in France. Italian-American garlic bread is an Americanized bruschetta, made in the U.S. with butter instead of olive oil.

If you go out to nice brunch places, you may have had strawberry butter too: fresh strawberries blended into softened butter.
 
 
IT’S EASY TO MAKE COMPOUND BUTTER

The recipe for all flavored butters is the same:

 
 
IF YOU DON’T WANT TO MAKE COMPOUND BUTTER, YOU CAN BUY MANY FLAVORS OF IT AT EPICUREANBUTTER.COM.
 
 
WHEN TO USE COMPOUND BUTTER

All compound butters can be used as bread spreads. But here’s just a small sample of flavor combinations:

 
Any of these butters can also be used as spreads; on biscuits, potatoes, rice and vegetables; for basting or sautéing foods in butter; or for making a quick butter sauce.

Here is our collection of compound butter recipes:

 
 
FIVE COMPOUND BUTTER RECIPES TO START YOU OFF

Perk up your cuisine with these compound butters.

For each of the flavorful suggestions below, simply take your favorite Butter of Europe and let it soften to room temperature over a few hours. Once softened, blend with the ingredients of your choice in a bowl. Once thoroughly blended, place the compound butter in a mold or on a piece of wax paper to be rolled into a log. Then chill until ready to serve. It’s that easy!
 
 
Maître d’Hôtel Butter: The French Classic

[1] Crayfish compound butter for seafood (photo © Chef Michael O’Boyle.

[2] Pasta tossed with truffle butter (photo © WKNOfm.org).

[3] Beurre à la maître d’hotel with roasted sea bass, a.k.a. lemon parsley butter (photo © Brown-Eyed Baker).

[4] Steak with blue cheese butter (photo © Land O’Lakes).

[5] Want to get fancy? Pipe the butter onto plates or atop the food. These compound butters are herb, bourbon-pecan, and gorgonzola (photo © Land ‘O’ Lakes).

[6] Cookie butter: a sweet compound butter for desserts or pancakes (photo © Feastie.com).

[7] For your next brunch, serve two or three compound butters as a treat (photo © Christopher Koetke | Kendall College | Flavor & The Menu).

[8] For the holidays: cranberry orange butter (photo © Go Bold With Butter).

[9] How about sweet potatoes with cinnamon-brown sugar or cinnamon-maple compound butter (photo © Epicurean Butter).

Specialty butter like compound butter is a growing category. The Butter of Europe Marketing Campaign, orchestrated by CNIEL (The French Dairy Inter-Branch Organization) and co-funded by the European Union, was designed to create awareness for the variety of European butters available in the U.S. market, and to suggest ways that Americans can incorporate butter into their recipes. Visit @ButterofEurope on Instagram and Facebook.

European-style butter refers to a cultured* butter that has been churned longer to achieve at least 82% butterfat (the EU minimum standard). The American standard is 80% butterfact. The extra fat makes the butter more spreadable. In baking, it makes for flakier pastries.

In the U.S., you’ll come across:

 
Traditionally the butter is allowed to ferment to achieve a light sour taste, but you’re more likely to find butter made with added cultures for tanginess. Either way, you still end up with a tangy butter.

In the U.S., you’ll come across:

 
Top chefs prefer it.

European-style butters are becoming so popular that U.S. brands like Land ‘O’ Lakes are making their own European-style butters.the EU standard). Plugra is the most widely distributed, but also look for regional butters from Vermont Creamery, Kriemhild Dairy Farms, McClelland’s Dairy and other fine dairies.
 
 
> GLOSSARY: CHECK OUT THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF BUTTER <
 
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*Cultured butter is made from fermented cream—fermented with bacteria cultures. During the fermentation process, the bacteria convert milk sugars into lactic acid. The fermentation process produces additional aroma compounds, including diacetyl, which makes for a fuller-flavored, tangy, and more “buttery” tasting product.

[1] Ham, Egg & Cheese Jafflz (all photos © Jafflz).

[2] Enchilada Jafflz (it’s a chicken enchilada).

[3] Mac ‘N’ Cheese and Sloppy Joe Jafflz.

[4] Fresh out of the oven on the Jafflz production line.

Jafflz is something special: a light meal or a snack of wonderful texture and flavor. The popular Australian and South African grilled sandwich was launched in the U.S. by Cape Town native, Chef Meryl van der Merwe, creator of Jafflz.

We can’t thank her enough!

If you’re a QVC watcher, you may have caught Jafflz. We came across the brand by accident, and are so happy we ordered them. In these challenging times, they’re a ray of sunshine.
 
 
WHAT ARE JAFFLZ?

Jaffles are toasted sandwiches in the manner of panini. The originals, invented in Australia (see the history of jaffles below) were round pockets.

Today, the concept has evolved. Some sandwiches called jaffles have open sides like conventional sandwiches; others are closed pockets like an empanada or turnover…or round, closed Jaffles (photos #1 to #5).

Jafflz brand creates tasty round sandwich pockets, with wheat bread and different fillings. The design on the bread, concentric circles, is pleasing as well.

Perfect for breakfast or lunch, we’ve also served them as a light dinner, with a salad and a glass of wine.

Made with ingredients beloved by all, the all-natural pockets can be grab-and-go or serve at the table.

Current flavors include meat, vegetarian and vegan options:

 
They’re also neat eating: The crust is firm, doesn’t crack, and nothing dribbles out of the Jafflz as you eat it.

Jafflz arrive frozen, and are heated in the microwave or on the stovetop. They’re ready in three minutes from the freezer, or one minute thawed in the fridge.

The result is warm, fragrant and delicious, fun and fanciful. And so much better than fast food or other grab-and-go.
 
 
WHERE TO GET JAFFLZ

You can purchase Jafflz from the company website.

It is also sold on QVC and at retail, at Central Market, Ralph’s, and numerous other outlets listed on the website.
 

JAFFLES HISTORY

According to Australian Food Timeline, Jafflz is not a new idea.

A device to make the toasted sandwich was patented in its current round form in 1949, in a suburb of Sydney, Australia. Dr. Earnest Smithers also named the toasted sandwich jaffles—perhaps because it sounded like waffle?

He modeled his “jaffle iron” on the medieval waffle iron. In pre-stove, pre-electricity times, hand-held device with hinged iron plates and a long handle made waffles by holding the waffle iron over the fire (the history of waffles).

Instead of turning out waffles with the familiar beehive pattern, the jaffles iron pressed together the edges of two slices of bread, which contained a hot filling inside.

Jaffles became a craze by the early 1950s. Every household wanted a jaffles iron, and it was subsequently made in both single and double models.

Similar devices were available in the U.S. as early as the 1920s, called pie irons, pudgy pie irons or tonka toasters. They are still found at retail in the U.S., used for outdoor cooking.

In the early 1970s, an electric sandwich maker was created in Belgium. At first an Australian company, Breville, distributed them, but they soon developed its own toasted sandwich maker (think panini press).

The Breville Snack & Sandwich Maker became a huge success in Australia and the U.K., to the point where, in many places, a jaffle is called a “Breville”.

We hope that jaffles will emerge as a new sandwich type in the U.S. Anyone who tastes Jafflz brand Jafflz will want a steady supply.

What’s up for Sunday Brunch?

Our favorite is a bagels and lox platter. There’s no cooking involved!

This Lox and Bagel Board was created by Sherry Brubaker of the farm-to-table food blog: Backyard Bohemian.

Sherry is a wife and mom of three, who went into the culinary industry after serving and earning a Combat Action Badge in Afghanistan in 2010.

On returning home, she found that the meditative and mindfulness aspects of cooking where beneficial to her health. From there, Backyard Bohemian was created.

When she sent us this lox and bagels platter, we almost tried to eat it from the screen.

Here’s what you need to create your own, no-cooking-involved, weekend brunch.
 
 
RECIPE: WEEKEND BAGEL PLATTER

Main Components

 
Add-Ons

 
For The Garnishes

 
Serve these on:

 
Then, dig in. This is our favorite way to brunch.

[1] Enjoy a bagel brunch this weekend (photos #1 and #2 © Backyard Bohemian).

[2] Close up on chive cream cheese. You can buy it or make it yourself by bringing cream cheese to room temperature and stirring in chopped chives.

[3] Smoked Nova Scotia salmon (photo © Zabar’s).

[1] Breakfast pot pie, with breakfast fillings and a buttermilk biscuit crust (photos #1, #2, #3 copyright Hungry Couple NYC | Idaho Potato Commission).

[2] We can’t wait to eat this!

[3] Drizzle some honey on the biscuits, breakfast-style.

[4] Pass a jar of honey to drizzle over the biscuits (photo © National Honey Board).

[5] We added this optional “fully loaded potato’ garnish: chopped chives. Serve it in a bowl so people can help themselves (photo © Away To Garden).

[6] A beef pot pie (photo © Betty Crocker).

[7] Shepherd’s pie with a piped mashed potato topping. You can top it with regular mashed potatoes, spread over the top with a spatula (photo © Food Fanatic).

[8] Vegetarian pot pie. You can make it vegan by using almond milk (photo © Almond Breeze).

Pot pie is viewed as a comfort food by many people.

Modern pot pie (think 17th century and beyond) was a type of meat pie with a top pie crust and sometimes a bottom pie crust, made with flaky pastry.

It could (and still can) be prepared in a skillet on the stove, or a baking dish in the oven. There’s even a mountain pie, cooked over a campfire.

In the U.S., chicken and beef are the most popular, with vegetarian and vegan pot pies claiming their place (and are called “shepherdless pie”). Turkey sometimes substitutes for chicken.

 
In the South, some people make a distinction between chicken pie and chicken pot pie. The former, also known as chicken and pastry, is a savory version of a fruit pie or cobbler. It may have a pie crust or a cobbler top, as with the recipe below.

There’s more chicken than vegetables. Some recipes have very few, or no, vegetables (source).

The history of pot pie is below.
 
 
RECIPE: FULLY LOADED BREAKFAST POT PIE

This recipe, developed by Anita of Hungry Couple NYC for the Idaho Potato Commission. You can read her full post here.

Anita made her crowd-pleasing breakfast casserole with, with eggs and the ingredients of a loaded baked potato: potatoes, eggs, bacon and cheese.

Instead of a pie crust, she tops the pot pie with buttermilk biscuits (technically, this makes it a cobbler instead of a pie).

You can save time by purchasing a tube of refrigerator buttermilk biscuits.

The recipe can be a special-occasion breakfast or brunch. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are coming up!

A tip from Anita: Makes the recipe the night before but doe’t bake it yet. Cover it in plastic wrap, stick it in the fridge and bake it in the morning (it’s best to let it come to room temperature before baking).

Ingredients

For The Filling

 
For The Buttermilk Biscuits

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 400°F.

2. PLACE the slices of bacon on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and cook in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until crisp. Drain on a paper towel but leave the oven on.
While the bacon is cooking, …

3. ADD the butter, onion and bell pepper to a large skillet and sauté for 10 to 15 minutes or until softened. Cool for a few minutes.

4. MAKE the biscuits by combining the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a large bowl. Cut in the butter using a pastry cutter or fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. If the butter becomes warm, place the bowl in the fridge for a few minutes to firm up.

5. STIR in the buttermilk and turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead just until it’s no longer sticky. Then fold it onto itself, roll it back out and repeat 4 times.
Pat it out to about 3/4″ thick and, using a 2-1/2″ pastry cutter, cut out rounds. Re-roll the scraps and continue. You should end up with about 10 biscuit rounds.

6. PEEL the potatoes and grate on the large side of a box grater. You can also shred them in a food processor. Butter the bottom of a baking dish (this recipe used a 14″ dish) and add the potatoes.

7. WHISK the eggs, salt and onion mixture together and pour over the potatoes. Crumble the cooked bacon and spread over the egg mixture. Sprinkle the cheese over the bacon.

8. TOP with the biscuit rounds, brush them with the cream and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the biscuits are a light golden brown.
 

THE HISTORY OF POT PIE

Pot pie is believed to have originated in Greece. The Greeks cooked meats mixed with other ingredients in open pastry shells, called artocreas.

Before there were baking pans, meats were cooked in a dough shell called a coffyn because of its rectangular coffin shape. The dough was laden with salt and not for eating. It was just a vessel cook the pie. Metal cake and pie pans didn’t come onto the scene until the 17th century.

Pastry was further developed in the Middle East. It was brought to Mediterranean Europe by the Muslims in the 7th century.

Another leap forward occurred in the 11th century, when Crusaders brought phyllo dough back to Northern Europe (the First Crusade was 1096 to 1099).

Greek and Roman pastry did not progress further because both cultures used oil, which can’t create a stiff pastry. In medieval Northern Europe, the traditional use of lard and butter instead of oil for cooking hastened the development of other pastry types.

Pies crusts developed, and the stiff pie pastry was used to provide a casing for various fillings. Pyes (pies), still predominantly meat, appeared in England as early as the 12th century, cooked in a coffyn.

According to Smithsonian magazine, cooks from the Roman Empire era would sometimes make pot pies with a living bird that would burst through the pie shell when cut and fly out. Surprise! While this would scare any unsuspecting diner, this active meal was still prepared in 16th century England.

The metal pie pan developed, and meat pies stretched leftover meat scraps by baking them in a pie plate with vegetables. In early cookbooks, shepherd’s pie was a created to use leftover roasted meat of any kind, and both the top and bottom crusts were made from mashed potatoes: The pie (pye) pan was lined with mashed potatoes on the bottom and sides as well as the top.

The pot pie came to America with colonists.

Fast forward a few centuries: In 1951, the first frozen pot pie was created by the C.A. Swanson company and was made with chicken.

And the rest is comfort food history!

April 22nd is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the birth of the modern environmental movement.

Earth Day reminds people about the worrisome state of our planet, and what each of us can do to help.

Earth day reminds companies and individuals to do what they can for a clean environment, and fight the ravages of climate change.

On previous Earth Days, we’ve written about the small steps you can take, such as carrying a reusable water bottle and buying organic food. See them below.
 
 
YOU CAN HELP BY UPCYCLING YOUR FOOD

Minimizing your food waste is another way you can help. Many people do this by composting.

But you can upcycle food like chef advocats are doing, using the trimmings that would have been thrown away—carrot peels and tops, for example—to make other food.

 
Here are more ideas.

Check out the recipe below to turn leafy carrot tops into carrot top pesto.
 
 
HOW MANUFACTURERS UPCYCLE FOOD

As individuals, we can do just so much. But instead of letting good food go to waste, more growers and manufacturers are finding ways to transform them into tasty upcycled products.

For example:

 
 
WHY UPCYCLING FOOD IS IMPORTANT

Recycling food introduces us to two new terms:

 
In the U.S., 52 million tons of unwanted or unused food ends up in landfills annually, according to ReFed.

The United States is the global leader in food waste, with Americans discarding nearly 40 million tons of food every year.

 
From the freshwater used to grow the crops that become food waste, to the excess greenhouse gasses caused by producing food and landfills, food waste heavily impacts our environment.

Trying to upcycle your food trimmings is one thing that you should do even one thing to help the environment,

Here’s an easy recipe to start you off on upcycling food.
 
 
RECIPE: UPCYCLED CARROT TOP PESTO

Prep time is just 10 minutes.

Ingredients For 1.5 Cups

 
Preparation:

1. COMBINE the carrot tops, spinach, chives, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper to a food processor.  Pulse until the greens are finely chopped.  

2. ADD the pine nuts and pulse until the consistency is to your liking.  

3. TASTE and adjust the seasonings as desired. Add more lemon juice or olive oil for a runnier pesto.  

4. TRANSFER to a serving dish and serve with crackers.
 

MORE WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT EARTH DAY

[1] Carrot top pesto made from carrot tops, which are usually discarded. The recipe is below (photo © Simple Mills).

[2] Serve the pesto with pita chips from Simple Mills. This is one of three flavors of Simple Mills Pita Crackers.

[3] Most people cut and toss the carrot tops (photo © Good Eggs).

[4] Add some baby spinach to the pesto (photo © Good Eggs).

[5] Chop some scallions (photo © Burpee).

[6] A bit of garlic enhances any pesto (photo Domain Image).

[7] Classic pesto uses pine nuts, and so does our carrot top pesto (photo © Good Eggs).

*Farmers markets sellers often give these away, since buyers ask them to cut the tops off before they put them in their bags.