Compound Butter — Beurre Composé: Café de Paris, Maître d'Hôtel, Montpellier

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Compound butter — beurre composé — is softened unsalted butter beaten with flavouring agents, rolled into a log, chilled, and sliced into rounds that melt over hot food at the table. It is the simplest and most immediate sauce in the French kitchen: no reduction, no stock, no emulsification — just butter carrying flavour directly to the plate. The three classical compounds represent three philosophies of flavour delivery. Beurre Maître d'Hôtel: the archetype. Beat 250g of softened butter with 3 tablespoons of finely chopped flat-leaf parsley, the juice of 1 lemon, 1 teaspoon of fine salt, and white pepper. Roll in plastic wrap into a 4cm diameter log. Chill until firm. Slice into 1cm rounds and place on grilled steak or fish at the moment of service. The butter melts into a puddle of parsley and lemon that becomes the sauce. This is the compound butter every apprentice learns first — the benchmark. Beurre de Montpellier: the green butter of the south. Blanch (10 seconds, then ice bath) a combined 100g of parsley, chervil, tarragon, chives, watercress, and spinach. Squeeze dry. Blend with 4 cornichons, 2 tablespoons of capers, 4 anchovy filets, 2 garlic cloves, and 2 hard-boiled egg yolks. Beat this paste into 250g of softened butter with 100ml of olive oil, adding the oil in a thin stream as if making mayonnaise. Season with salt, pepper, and lemon. Montpellier is almost a sauce already — vivid green, intensely herbaceous, with anchovy providing umami and the egg yolks providing emulsification. Serve with cold poached salmon or as a spread for croûtons accompanying soups. Beurre Café de Paris: the Swiss-French steakhouse legend. Its exact recipe is famously secret (the original Café de Paris in Geneva guards it), but the known components include butter beaten with curry powder, paprika, Dijon mustard, capers, anchovy, chives, parsley, tarragon, shallot, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, Madeira, cognac, thyme, marjoram, and lemon zest. The butter is loaded with so many aromatics that it becomes a complete seasoning system — applied to grilled entrecôte, it delivers 15-20 flavour notes simultaneously.

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