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Butter, Green

A green herb butter made with egg yolk, butter, herbs, capers, gherkin, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Butter, Green

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the tarragon, chervil, parsley, and onion or shallot finely.

Make the butter

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped herbs with the egg yolk, butter, capers, gherkin, salt, cayenne, and green coloring.

  2. Pound the mixture thoroughly and pass it through a fine sieve.

Finish

  1. If desired, add cream or salad oil to vary the flavor.

  2. For a firmer consistency, refrigerate the butter until set, especially in hot weather.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Chervil + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tarragon + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together379 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Parsley + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,550 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Forms the rich base that carries the herbs and sets firm when chilled.
Egg yolk
Emulsifies with the butter, giving the mixture a smooth, cohesive texture.
Capers
Add briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the butter.
Tarragon
Provides the main aromatic, slightly anise-like flavor of the butter.

The step that matters

Pound and sieve the mixture. Thorough pounding breaks the herbs and yolk into a uniform paste, and sieving removes fibrous bits so the butter spreads smoothly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, tarragon, chervil, parsley, capers, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, tarragon, chervil, parsley, capers, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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