• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Devour.Asia

Devour.Asia

Connie Veneracion explores Asian food, history and culture

  • Tea
  • Kitchen Tales
    • Pantry Staples
    • Kitchen Tools
    • Cooking Techniques
    • Food Trivia
  • Food Tales
  • Travel Tales
  • Search
  • All Recipes
    • Chinese
    • Japanese
    • Korean
    • Taiwanese
    • Thai
    • Vietnamese
    • Asian Fusion
    • Instant Noodles (Ramen)
  • Tea
  • Kitchen Tales
    • Pantry Staples
    • Kitchen Tools
    • Cooking Techniques
    • Food Trivia
  • Food Tales
  • Travel Tales
  • Pop Tales
  • About
  • Privacy
  • All Recipes
  • Chinese
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Taiwanese
  • Thai
  • Vietnamese
  • Fusion
You are here: Home / Kitchen Tales / Cooking Techniques / How to Make Herbed and Spiced Butter

How to Make Herbed and Spiced Butter

Cheese comes in oh, so many flavors already, especially spreadable cream cheese. Why not butter?

Herbed spiced butter

I love butter as it is but I love it when flavored too especially with herbs and spices. That sounds weird? It shouldn’t. If you’ve tried and liked garlic bread, then you’ve already tried and liked flavored butter because garlic bread is made with butter, grated (sometimes, powdered) garlic and, often, chopped parsley. So, when I say “herbed and spiced butter” I’m really just extending that very basic principle.

You can add herbs, spices and seasonings to softened butter just before use. But you can prepare everything ahead of time, and even in bulk, and get better results. By allowing the herbs and spices to infuse with the butter longer, you get more flavor and better aroma.

Adding herbs and spices to softened butter

Take a block of butter, 225 to 250 grams (two sticks, in some countries), and allow it to soften to room temperature. Soften, not melted. Don’t be tempted to short cut the process by melting the butter because melting will separate the oil from the solids and refrigerating afterward won’t really bring them together again in one cohesive mass. So, soften the butter gradually to room temperature.

When the butter is soft (i.e., of spreadable consistency), add your herbs and spices. You can use anything you like, really. In my case, it’s parsley, basil, garlic, onion, salt, black pepper and a bit of cayenne. To make sure that I didn’t add extra water to the mixture, I used dried herbs and spices, except for the garlic. The fat in the butter will soften dried spices, including dried onion flakes, so don’t worry.

Mix everything together.

How to chill herbed ans spiced butter

Take a sheet of cling film and place the herbed and spiced butter on it. Wrap, shaping the butter into a log as you go, and squeezing to remove any air pockets.

Let the herbed butter sit in the fridge overnight. When cold and firm, slice.

How to use and serve herbed and spiced butter

If you want your butter to stay firm during the course of your meal, drop the slices into a bowl of icy water.

And that’s it! Pretty, sexy, aromatic and super delicious herbed and spiced butter.

More butter ideas:

  • Herb-garlic butter breakfast toast
  • How To Make Garlic Toast

Inside my Asian kitchen

Yellow Cornmeal

Cornmeal, Cornflour and Corn Starch: Are They the Same?

How to remove scum

Do You Really Need to Skim Off Scum on the Surface of Your Bone Broth?

Farmer's pie

Got Leftover Meat Stew? Make Farmer’s Pie!

Asian food tales

The Best Tonkotsu Ramen We Had in Japan

Vietnamese lotus tea (tra sen)

A Vietnamese Lotus Tea Guide. And Story.

American fried rice (served here with hotdogs and SPAM slices), a Thai invention

Who Invented the Thai Dish American Fried Rice?

Explore Asia

Summer in Boracay

Summer in Boracay

The Great Buddha Hall at the Tōdai-ji Temple Complex in Nara

At Tōdai-ji Temple in Nara, I Touched Buddha’s Nostril

Sushi platter, Takao, Taipei

We Discovered Restaurant “Sharing Fee” During the Wan An Air Raid Drill in Taipei

August 3, 2011 : Cooking Techniques Kitchen Tales, Dairy
Previous Post: « Adding the vanila pod to a jar of white sugar Easy Homemade Vanilla Sugar
Next Post: How to Clean the Oven parts of an oven »

Sidebar

Asian Pop Tales

Scene from "Extreme Job" | Image credit: Netflix

In “Extreme Job”, the Unforgettable Suwon Rib Marinade Chicken

"Giri/Haji" | Image credit: Netflix

“Giri / Haji”: Masterful Storytelling, Stunning Visuals and Brilliant Acting

Dumplings and Eleanor's emerald and diamond ring in Crazy Rich Asians | Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

“Crazy Rich Asians” Sequel: Is it When or If?

  • About
  • Privacy & Usage
  • Full Archive

Everything © Connie Veneracion. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.