thefoodlessprocessed

“I confess that it was not until I came to [America] that I learned to spread butter on my bread, something not at all usual in France, where one is more likely to find a pat of seasoned butter melting on grilled fish or meat.” Louis Diat from Gourmet’s Basic French Cookbook (1961).

Buerre Café de Paris is one such seasoned butter. Serving it on a steak, for example, makes a separate sauce unnecessary. This allows you to focus entirely on searing the steaks and judging their doneness.

The less processed ingredients are: Butter, Mustard, Onion, Lemon, Parsley, and Thyme.

Note about timing: The seasoned butter is refrigerated until it is quite firm, cut into discs, and then left at room temperature to soften before placing it on the meat.

Equipment

• a Small Mixing Bowl
• a Wooden Spoon
• a Box Grater
• Plastic Wrap
• a Spatula
• a Knife and Cutting Board

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup or 8 Tablespoons (113 g) of European-Style Unsalted Butter, softened just enough so that it may be mashed against the inside of the bowl with the back of a wooden spoon–not creamy and still a bit solid and resistant
• 1 Tablespoon of finely minced Yellow Onion
• a Small Clove of Garlic, grated to a paste over the fine side of a box grater
• 1 teaspoon of French Imported Whole Grain Mustard
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 Tablespoon of Italian Flat-Leaf Parsley, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon of Fresh Thyme Leaves, chopped with the parsley
• Freshly ground Black Pepper

Mixing the Butter

• In a small bowl, work the butter by mashing it against the sides of the bowl with the back of a wooden spoon until it forms a cohesive mass.
• Add the onion, garlic, parsley, thyme, and a few grindings of black pepper and work them into the butter with the back of the spoon.
• Add the mustard and work it in in the same manner.
• Add the lemon juice in very small increments, adding more only once no liquid remains separate from the butter in the bowl.
• Place a piece of plastic wrap on the cutting board and scrape the butter mixture into the center of it. Pull the plastic round the butter and, with your hands on the outside of the plastic, mould the butter into a log, roughly 5 inches in length (almost 13 cm).
• Wrap the log in the plastic wrap and refrigerate it until it is fully firm (for perhaps 2 hours).
• Place the log back on the cutting board, open up the plastic and cut the log into discs about 3/4 inches thick. A log of this size will make about 6 discs of seasoned butter.

Serving the Butter with the Meat

• Remove the log of seasoned butter discs from the refrigerator and soften it before placing discs on the finished meat.

A recipe for filet steaks and Café de Paris butter is here on thefoodlessprocessed: Filet Mignon with Café de Paris Butter.