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Maitre D'Hotel Butter
Have on a cold plate three-quarters of an ounce good table butter, half a teaspoon well-washed, thoroughly dried and finely chopped parsley, one-quarter teaspoon of ditto chervil (cerfeuil), half a teaspoon juice from a sound lemon, one saltspoon salt, and a half saltspoon white pepper. Mix the whole well together with a fork and use when required.
N. B.--This maitre d'hotel butter should always be kept in a cool place until required.
A compound butter in the classic French manner, scaled here for a single serving or two. Nothing about it is difficult; the details worth knowing are the old measures and the handling of the herbs.
- Three-quarters of an ounceThat is about 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter, enough to finish one steak or a single portion of fish. For a larger batch, scale the seasonings in proportion to the butter.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. So this is 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon white pepper for that small quantity of butter, which is assertive but correct for a butter that will melt over hot food.
- Butter temperatureThe cold plate is deliberate, but the butter itself must be soft enough to mash with a fork without becoming greasy or separating. Take it out of the refrigerator twenty minutes ahead and work it on the chilled plate.
- Drying the parsleyThe insistence on well-washed and thoroughly dried is not fussiness. Water clinging to the leaves works against a smooth mix and will shorten the butter's keeping.
- ChervilChervil is still sold, though rarely in supermarkets; look for it at farmers' markets in spring or grow it. If you cannot find it, leave it out rather than substituting dried, which tastes of nothing. A little tarragon leans the butter in a different but respectable direction.
- LemonAdd the juice last and in drops while mixing, otherwise the acid pools and the butter will not take it up evenly. Half a teaspoon per 3/4 oz is a lot of acid proportionally; taste before adding all of it.
- Shaping and storageFor a larger batch, roll the finished butter in parchment into a cylinder, chill until firm, and cut coins as needed. It keeps a week refrigerated and three months frozen; the parsley dulls in colour well before the butter goes off.
- ServingA coin goes on the meat or fish at the moment of service and is allowed to melt at the table. It should not be heated hard on its own or it will separate.
Maitre d'hotel butter is one of the fixed points of nineteenth-century restaurant cooking, listed in the classic French repertoire as the simplest of the compound butters, beurres composes: butter, parsley, lemon, salt and pepper, and nothing else in the strictest versions. The name means the butter of the head of the house, and it is often said to belong to the era when a maitre d'hotel finished dishes in the dining room, where a pat of seasoned butter on a grilled chop needed no equipment beyond a cold plate and a fork. The addition of chervil here, given with its French spelling cerfeuil, is a gesture toward fines herbes and marks the recipe as coming from a kitchen that took its French seriously.