The simplest and most useful of the French compound butters: softened butter beaten with chopped parsley, lemon juice, and seasoning, rolled into a log and chilled, then sliced to melt over a grilled steak, a piece of fish, or hot vegetables
Origin: France
From the journey of Parsley.
Beurre maître d'hôtel is the workhorse of the French compound butters, a beurre composé so simple and so useful that it appears across the whole of classical and bistro cooking. It is nothing but good butter softened and beaten with finely chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt, and pepper, then rolled in paper into a neat log and chilled firm. A coin of it, set on a hot grilled steak, a piece of pan-fried fish, or a plate of boiled vegetables, melts into a glossy, lemony, parsley-flecked sauce as you carry it to the table, the easiest of all ways to finish a dish. Parsley is its colour, its freshness, and its name-making flavour, and the butter keeps for weeks in the freezer, ready to be sliced. It is the French answer to the question of how to turn a plain grilled thing into something finished and good.
This is the template compound butter; the same method makes a dozen variations (with garlic, anchovy, mustard, tarragon, or chilli). Parsley and lemon are the classic and most versatile. It keeps for a week in the fridge and a couple of months in the freezer, sliced straight from frozen onto hot food. Indispensable for turning a plain grill into a finished dish.
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