Maître d'Hôtel Butter

The quality of the finished butter depends entirely on the fineness of the chopping. For the parsley: strip the leaves from the stems and gather into a tight pile. Chop repeatedly with a sharp chef's knife, rocking the blade, until the parsley is almost a green powder — at the finest level of chopping, the parsley releases a small amount of green juice and the individual pieces are nearly indistinguishable. Coarsely chopped parsley gives the butter an uneven, ragged appearance and releases a harsh grassy bitterness. For the shallot: halve, peel, and mince as finely as possible until it is nearly a paste. If the minced shallot still has a sharp, raw burn when tasted, rinse briefly under cold water and squeeze dry in a cloth — this removes some of the harsh sulfur compounds without losing flavor.

Place the soft butter in a medium bowl. Beat it briefly with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula until smooth and slightly fluffy — do not use a mixer, which incorporates too much air. Add the minced parsley and shallot, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, and white pepper all at once. Beat together until completely and evenly combined — the butter should be uniformly green from the parsley, with no white streaks of plain butter remaining, and should smell intensely of parsley and lemon. Add the lemon juice slowly if the butter starts to look slightly wet or broken — citric acid at high quantities can cause butter to break. Taste for seasoning: the raw butter should taste aggressively seasoned — generously salty and lemon-forward — because when a cold slice melts over hot food, the dilution effect from the heat will soften those flavors considerably.

Lay a piece of cling film (plastic wrap) about 30 cm long on the work surface. Spoon the compound butter in a rough cylinder along the center of the wrap, approximately 4–5 cm in diameter. Fold the wrap over the butter, then roll it away from you while simultaneously pressing gently on the roll through the wrap to compact it into a tight, even cylinder — the same technique used for a sausage. Twist the ends like a cracker wrapper and tie or tuck them. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour until completely firm. The butter keeps refrigerated for up to 1 week, or frozen for 2 months. To serve: unwrap and slice into rounds 5–8 mm thick with a sharp knife. Place a cold disc directly on a just-rested steak, piece of grilled fish, or steamed vegetables — it will melt into a pool of aromatic, lemony butter within 30 seconds.