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BUTTER (a la Maitre d'Hotel)
Wash some parsley, pick it from the stems, and chop it small. After chopping, wash it again, by putting it in the corner of a cloth, dipping this in cold water, and wringing it dry. This second washing is intended to remove the acrid taste which is so often objectionable in raw parsley. Put the parsley on a plate with its bulk in fresh butter, a little pepper and slat, and two or three drops of lemon-juice. Work all together with the point of a knife, and be careful to mix it in a cool place, and also not to work it too much, or it will oil. It should be made for immediate use. Sometimes a green onion chopped small is added. Any dish with which this butter is served is named "a la Maitre d'Hotel."
A compound butter of the simplest kind, and the technique matters more than the quantities. The whole point is to keep it cold enough that the butter stays emulsified rather than turning greasy.
- "Slat" is a typo for saltThe original text reads "a little pepper and slat." Read it as salt. Use a fine salt so it dissolves into the butter rather than staying gritty.
- Proportion"Its bulk in fresh butter" means equal volumes of chopped parsley and butter, which by weight is butter-dominant, since chopped parsley packs loosely. A practical working ratio is about 4 tablespoons of soft butter to 4 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley.
- Fresh butter means unsaltedIn Victorian usage "fresh" butter is butter without preserving salt. Use unsalted butter and season it yourself, or the seasoning step becomes guesswork.
- The second washingWringing the chopped parsley in a cloth removes the green juice the book calls acrid, and it also removes water, which is the more useful effect. Wet parsley will not blend into butter cleanly and makes the mixture weep.
- Why it must stay coolButter worked much above roughly 68F softens past the point where it holds together and begins to oil off, which is what the book means by "it will oil." Bring the butter just to spreading softness and stop mixing the moment the parsley is evenly distributed.
- "Made for immediate use"Sound advice for flavour, though wrapped and chilled it will keep a day or two. Roll it in parchment into a cylinder, chill until firm, and cut coins to lay on grilled fish, steak or boiled potatoes as they come to the table.
- Green onionThe optional "green onion" is a scallion or spring onion, not a shallot. Use the green tops only if you want to keep the colour clean.
- YieldThe quantities above make a small amount of butter, enough to finish about four to six portions of fish or steak.
Maitre d'hotel butter is a French compound butter, its name meaning simply "in the style of the house steward." It appears not among the recipes proper but as a building block: the note that any dish served with it is thereby named "a la maitre d'hotel" reflects the nineteenth-century menu convention in which a garnish or finishing butter conferred the name of the dish. The insistence on washing parsley twice belongs to an era with different expectations of the herb; today the second washing serves mostly to dry it.