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Compound Butter is the fastest way I know to make a plain steak, a pile of eggs, or a warm slice of bread taste like a restaurant made it, and I mixed up all three of these flavors on a Sunday afternoon while Lizzie kept sneaking crackers over to taste test. If you loved our copycat Texas Roadhouse butter, these three savory logs are your next move.
About ten minutes of actual work puts three flavored butters in your fridge that make weeknight dinners feel fancy for a solid month.
Compound Butter Quick Look
- 🕒 Prep Time: 15 minutes
- 🌡️ Cook Time: 0 minutes
- ⏳ Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes (includes chilling)
- 🍽️ Serving: 32 servings
- ⚡ Calories: 104kcal
- 🌶️ Flavor Profile: Savory, garlicky, and herby, with a briny olive option
- ✋ Difficulty: Easy, on par with our whipped blackberry honey butter
Quick Answer
Let butter sit at room temperature until it is soft, then mix in your flavorings. For herb and garlic butter, stir chopped thyme, rosemary, and sage into the softened butter along with grated garlic, salt, and pepper. Scoop the butter onto plastic wrap or parchment paper, roll it into a log, twist the ends closed, and chill it in the refrigerator until firm. Slice off coins as you need them and let them melt over steak, eggs, bread, or vegetables.
Jump to:
- Compound Butter Quick Look
- Quick Answer
- Why This Recipe Works
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Key Ingredients
- Variations and Substitutions
- How to Make Compound Butter
- Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Serving Ideas and Suggestions
- Compound Butter FAQs
- Other Recommended Homemade Butter and Steakhouse Recipes
- Easy Compound Butter Recipe (3 Ways)
Why This Recipe Works
Click to see the technique science
- Soft butter is the whole ballgame. Room temperature butter blends smoothly and grabs onto every bit of herb and garlic. Cold butter fights the spoon and leaves pockets of plain butter with clumps of seasoning.
- Grated garlic spreads everywhere. Grating instead of chopping turns the garlic into a paste that runs through every single bite instead of hiding in one unlucky one.
- Drying the olives protects the texture. Olives carry brine, and water is the enemy of butter. Patting them dry keeps the olive butter creamy instead of weepy and broken.
- The food processor whips in air. Blending the butter until fluffy before adding flavorings lightens the texture, so the finished butter spreads easily and melts evenly.
- The log shape does the portioning for you. Rolling the butter in plastic wrap makes a tidy cylinder, so you can slice off a perfect coin whenever you need one instead of digging at a tub.
- Chilling firms it for a slow, even melt. A firm coin melts gradually over hot food, basting it as it goes, which is exactly what you want on a steak or a stack of eggs.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- One batch turns weeknight basics into steakhouse food. A coin of herb and garlic butter melting over a grilled ribeye steak is dinner magic with zero extra work.
- The three flavors cover everything: herb and garlic for meat and potatoes, green olive for parties and snack boards, and scallion dill for eggs and seafood.
- They keep for a week in the refrigerator and up to six months in the freezer, so the ten minutes you spend today pays off for a long time.
Key Ingredients
Each butter starts with the same base and takes on its own personality from a few fresh add ins. Here is what matters most.
- Unsalted Butter: Starting unsalted lets you control the seasoning in every flavor. Let it sit on the counter until it is truly soft, because that is what makes the mixing easy and even.
- Fresh Herbs: Thyme, rosemary, and sage chopped into tiny pieces give the herb and garlic butter that classic steakhouse flavor. Fresh is the move here, dried herbs stay dusty and never soften the same way.
- Garlic: Grated fresh garlic goes into all three butters. If you want a sweeter, mellower version, our how to roast garlic method makes an amazing swap, just mash the roasted cloves right in.
- Green Olives: Big, pitted green olives bring a briny, salty pop to the second butter. Rinse them, then dry them really well so the butter stays creamy.
- Scallions and Dill: These two turn the third butter bright green and make it taste like spring. Trim the thick dill stems so the texture stays soft.
See recipe card for exact quantities.
Variations and Substitutions
Once you know the formula, softened butter plus flavor, rolled and chilled, you can spin it any direction you want.
- Cilantro lime butter: Chopped cilantro, lime zest, and a pinch of salt make a bright coin for grilled meat, and it plays perfectly with the flavors in our cilantro lime ribeye steak marinade.
- Lemon pepper butter: Lemon zest and coarsely cracked pepper make a seafood butter that melts beautifully over fish like our Asian glazed Chilean sea bass.
- Spicy butter: Add red pepper flakes or a finely minced jalapeno to the herb and garlic version for a coin with some attitude.
- Sweet honey butter: Swap the savory add ins for honey and a pinch of cinnamon and you have a pancake and biscuit butter the kids will fight over.
- Salted butter swap: If salted butter is what you have, use it and skip the added salt, then taste before rolling.
How to Make Compound Butter
- For the herb and garlic butter, let the butter sit out until soft, then add it to a bowl with the chopped thyme, rosemary, and sage, the grated garlic, the salt, and the pepper.
- For the garlic green olive butter, add softened butter to a food processor and blend until fluffy, then pulse in the garlic and black pepper. Pat the olives dry before they go in.
- For the scallion dill butter, blend the softened butter until fluffy, then add the sea salt, garlic, scallions, and fresh dill.
- Mix or pulse each butter until the flavorings are spread evenly through it. Pulse the olives in until small bits remain, and pulse the scallion dill butter until it turns bright green.
- Scoop each butter onto the middle of a sheet of plastic wrap or parchment paper, roll it into a log, and twist the ends closed like a candy wrapper.
- Chill the logs in the refrigerator until firm. Slice into coins and melt over anything hot, or soften slightly and spread on bread.
Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Give the butter real time to soften. Set it out an hour or two ahead. If it is cold, you are done before you start, and the flavorings will never mix in evenly.
- Pat the olives bone dry. Squeeze the extra liquid out gently with a clean towel. Nobody tells you this, and it is the difference between creamy olive butter and a broken mess.
- Pulse, do not puree, the olives. You want little bits of olive in the butter, not olive soup. A few short pulses gets you there.
- Label every log. Write the flavor and the date on the wrapper before it goes in the fridge, because future you will find a mystery log in three months and panic.
- Tuck it under poultry skin. A few coins of the herb and garlic butter under the skin of our beer can chicken bastes the meat from the inside while it cooks.
- Serve it softened on warm bread. A coin left out for a few minutes spreads like a dream on our homemade dinner rolls straight from the oven.
- Freeze a backup log. Wrapped tightly, compound butter keeps in the freezer for up to six months. Slice coins off frozen, they thaw in minutes on hot food.
Serving Ideas and Suggestions
The herb and garlic butter is the workhorse. Melt a coin over a steak, drop one into a crispy baked potato, or slide one over fried eggs with a side of our homemade breakfast sausage for a breakfast that feels like a weekend even on a Tuesday.
The scallion dill and olive butters were made for seafood and vegetables. Melt scallion dill butter over our buttery air fryer lobster tails, brush a coin over grilled corn ribs, or toss one into a pan of oven roasted Brussel sprouts right when they come out.
And do not sleep on bread and holiday cooking. Soften the green olive butter and spread it on warm homemade ciabatta bread with a snack board, or work the herb and garlic butter under the skin of our whole roast turkey for the juiciest holiday bird on the block.
Compound Butter FAQs
Compound butter is just softened butter mixed with flavorings. The classic version uses fresh herbs, garlic, salt, and pepper, but olives, citrus zest, spices, and even honey all work. The butter is rolled into a log, chilled until firm, and sliced into coins as needed.
Wrapped tightly in plastic wrap or parchment paper, compound butter keeps in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Fresh add ins like garlic, scallions, and herbs shorten the shelf life compared to plain butter, so label the wrapper with the date and use the fridge log within the week.
Yes, compound butter freezes beautifully for up to 6 months. Keep it in its log shape, wrap it in a second layer of plastic wrap or a freezer bag, and slice coins off frozen whenever you need one. A frozen coin melts over hot food in just a minute or two.
Melt compound butter over steak, chicken, fish, and eggs, drop a coin into a baked potato, toss it with hot vegetables or pasta, or spread it softened on warm bread and rolls. It also works under poultry skin before roasting, where it bastes the meat from the inside.
Extra moisture from the add ins is almost always the culprit. Olives, herbs, and scallions all carry water, and water breaks the creamy texture of compound butter. Pat wet ingredients completely dry with a clean towel before mixing, and gently squeeze rinsed olives before they go into the food processor.
Absolutely. The herb and garlic compound butter in this recipe is mixed entirely by hand with a bowl and a spatula. For the olive and scallion dill versions, chop the add ins very finely with a knife and stir them into soft butter. The texture is slightly more rustic but every bit as good.
If you are firing up the smoker or grill this weekend anyway, our easy smoked pizza recipe is the next one to make.
Easy Compound Butter Recipe (3 Ways)
Ingredients
Herb and Garlic Butter
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened (8 ounces)
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh sage finely chopped
- 5 garlic cloves grated
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Garlic Green Olive Butter
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened (4 ounces)
- 1 garlic clove large, peeled
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper freshly ground, plus more to taste
- 12 green olives large, pitted, rinsed, and dried
Scallion Dill Butter
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened (4 ounces)
- 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt scant
- 1 garlic clove large, or 1 trimmed head of green garlic
- 2 scallions ends trimmed
- 1 handful fresh dill thick stems removed
Instructions
Herb and Garlic Butter
- Add the softened butter to a bowl with the thyme, rosemary, sage, grated garlic, salt, and pepper. Mix until the herbs are spread evenly through the butter.1 tablespoon fresh thyme, 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, 1 tablespoon fresh sage, 5 garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 1 teaspoon black pepper
- Place the butter in the middle of a sheet of plastic wrap or parchment paper, roll it into a log shape, and twist the ends closed. Chill in the refrigerator until firm.
Garlic Green Olive Butter
- Add the softened butter to a food processor and blend until fluffy. Add the garlic and black pepper, then pulse a few times to combine.1/2 cup unsalted butter, 1 garlic clove, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- Pat the olives dry with a clean towel and gently squeeze out any extra liquid. Add them to the food processor and pulse until they are mixed into the butter with small bits of olive remaining.12 green olives
- Place the butter on plastic wrap or parchment paper, roll it into a log, twist the ends closed, and chill in the refrigerator until firm.
Scallion Dill Butter
- Add the softened butter to a food processor and blend until fluffy. Add the salt, garlic, scallions, and dill.1/2 cup unsalted butter, 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt, 1 garlic clove, 2 scallions, 1 handful fresh dill
- Pulse until everything is well mixed and the butter turns bright green.
- Place the butter on plastic wrap or parchment paper, roll it into a log, twist the ends closed, and chill in the refrigerator until firm.
Notes
Water is the enemy of butter. Pat the olives completely dry before pulsing them in.
Write the flavor and the date on the wrapper before you chill or freeze the logs.
Keep in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 6 months.
Slice coins straight from the fridge and let them melt over hot food.
Nutrition
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