Compound butter

Posted by Gary

Hello reader,

I thought I’d try making compound butter with my steak tonight. I’ve never made compound butter before, so I started with something simple. A butter made with spring onions and chives. Spring onions are called scallions and green onions in other parts of the world.

As a child, we called them shallots.

I am cooking the eye fillet steak underwater at 55 °C for 2 hours and 10 minutes.

Sous vide eye fillet steak with compound butter and fennel salad. Focus on six pomegranate arils for Persephone.
Sous vide eye fillet steak with compound butter and fennel salad. Six pomegranate arils for Persephone.

Recipe

Equipment

  • Water heater circulator
  • Water bath
  • Butane torch
  • Mandolin
  • Food processor
  • Mortar and Pestle[i]

Ingredients

  • Eye fillet steak
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Butter
  • Spring onions
  • Chives
  • Whisky[ii]
  • Fennel
  • Red onion
  • Radish
  • Parsley
  • Lemon juice
  • Olive oil

Instructions

Steak

  1. Season the steak with some salt and pepper.
  2. Place the steak into a plastic bag and vacuum seal the bag.
  3. Cook the steak in a water bath for 2 hours at 55 °C.
  4. Remove the bag and open it.
  5. Remove the steak and pat it dry.
  6. Heat a cast-iron pan and sear the steak.
  7. Place a disc of the compound butter on top of the steak. Apply the flame from a butane torch to melt the butter and sear the surface of the steak.
  8. Remove the steak from the cast-iron pan and allow it to rest.
  9. Keep the melted butter in the pan for later.

Butter

  1. Bring the butter to room temperature.
  2. Finely slice the chives and spring onions.
  3. Place the chives and spring onions in a jar and add about 10 mL of whisky.
  4. Infuse the whisky into the herbs using a vacuum chamber and refrigerate the jar for a few hours.
  5. Remove the herbs and put them onto absorbent paper to remove as much moisture as possible.
  6. Put some whole peppercorns and rock salt into a mortar and pound with a pestle until the salt and pepper are coarse grinds.
  7. Process the butter, chives, and springs with the salt and pepper.
  8. Mould the butter in some plastic wrap and refrigerate the butter.
  9. When it’s time to use the butter, cut a disc about 1 cm thick and use it for the steak.

Salad

  1. With a mandolin, slice some fennel, red onion, and radish.
  2. Chop some parsley.
  3. With the back of a cook’s knife, beat the arils out of a pomegranate.
  4. Be careful when you beat the arils out; the juice will spray and splatter, and it may stain your clothes and any bench tops.
  5. Mix a little lime juice and olive oil for a salad dressing.
  6. Toss the salad and season it with some salt to taste.
Pomegranate
Pomegranate SONY ILCE-7S with E 35mm F1.8 OSS at 35mm and f/8, 1/40sec, ISO 1600
Pomegranate arils for lunch
Pomegranate arils for lunch

Plating up

  1. Slice the eye fillet steak with a sharp knife and lay the slices onto a warmed dinner plate.
  2. Spoon some salad next to the meat.
  3. Spoon the butter from the pan over the meat and drizzle a little over the salad.
  4. Give thanks to the Lord.
  5. Eat with a fork; the meat will be tender enough to make a knife redundant.

Concluding thoughts

Today was the first spring day warm enough for shorts and a T-shirt. It was a lovely day outside.

This steak with salad was a fantastic meal for a warm night.

[i] If you can’t remember the pestle and the mortar, remember you Pound with the Pestle.

[ii] I used Johnnie Walker Black Label.

Sous vide eye fillet steak with compound butter and fennel salad
Sous vide eye fillet steak with compound butter and fennel salad
Sous vide eye fillet steak with compound butter and fennel salad. Focus on the salad.
Sous vide eye fillet steak with compound butter and fennel salad
Sous vide eye fillet steak with compound butter and fennel salad. Focus on the cut surface of the steak.
Sous vide eye fillet steak with compound butter and fennel salad
Sous vide eye fillet steak with compound butter and fennel salad. Focus on the cut surface of the steak.
Sous vide eye fillet steak with compound butter and fennel salad

24 Responses

  1. Favorite comment: ‘6 arils for Persephone’. Need to get another pom, those are so much fun to eat!!! This is a very festive looking meal. The bright green oniony things with the pom seeds and the red (purple) onion are perfect!!!!

    Reply

  3. Amazing you made your own butter, Gaz. It is quite the effort. Well done. Steak looked really good. Hope it is much warmer now that it is summer, and many more hearty meals on warm nights 🙂

    Reply

    1. Hi Mabel,
      Thanks for the kind words. Yes, Canberra is warmer now we have started summer. I was in shorts and a T-shirt at the weekend.

      Reply

    1. Truffle butter sounds perfect for a fresh piece of Three Mills Bakery house sourdough and then some scrambled eggs

      Reply

  9. Fantastic looking meal. I have a big lump of beef in the sous vide just now at 55 and will be searing it and roasting it till its internal temp is 130 degrees as instructed in a book I have. I’m surprised it fit in the bag!

    Reply

    1. I’m glad to read you are enjoying your new cooking device. I hope your roast dinner tastes delicious.

      Reply

    2. I hope the lump of beef works out well. I’m yet to experiment with large pieces of muscle or with tougher cuts like ribs and brisket.

      Reply

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