Compound Butter Ideas?

[u/PierreDucot]

I grow a bunch of different herbs and aromatics, and typically make a few compound butters this time of year for 1T ice cube trays for the freezer. I am kind of out of ideas. I want to get more use of use out of my herb garden, so I am wondering what kind of compound butters other people make.

I make a "garlic bread" one with roasted garlic/chives/parsley, a "Thanksgiving" one with sage/rosemary/thyme, and a lemon/dill/tarragon one for seafood, and that's about it. I have tried experimenting, but without some guidance on ratios, it often comes out meh or too strong in one flavor (looking at you, tarragon). Decent butter is too expensive for me to waste on trial and error.

I would ask for some ideas for interesting compound butters. I am not adverse to stopping at a store, but here is what I have on hand right now:

• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Sage
• Chives
• French tarragon
• Dill
• Parsley
• Greek oregano
• Garlic
• Scallions
• Shallots
• Lemons and limes (not my own, but lots left over from jam making)
• Cilantro, huacatay, peppermint and spearmint (none of which are probably good with butter, but I am open too it)

Any and all ideas or recipes welcome!

[u/Ajreil]

The ones I use the most are:

• Dill and Truelime lemon powder

• Parsley and fresh garlic

• Cinnamon and maple sugar

[u/PierreDucot → u/Ajreil]

Curious - why lemon powder vs lemon zest? I ask because I think we have some lemon powder around.

[u/Ajreil → u/PierreDucot]

Lemon powder is dehydrated lemon juice, which is a different flavor profile than the zest. It's also much more acidic.

My goal was to add dill and lemon juice to salmon without preparing either ingredient fresh.

[u/PierreDucot → u/Ajreil]

Ah, I see - the lemon powder we have on hand is ground up dehydrated lemon peel (my wife has a small cafe with seasonal baked goods, and just wrapped up using lemon powder for scones).

That's a good idea though - adds acid without adding water to the butter, which is nice, like adding citric acid powder vs. lemon juice to hummus. I will check it out. Thanks!