Skip to main content
Main

Beurre De Montpellier —

A butter flavored with chervil, tarragon, burnet, chives, anchovies, capers, gherkins, garlic, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Chervil and tarragon 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 ↓

Beurre De Montpellier —

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the herbs

  1. Wash the chervil, tarragon, burnet, and chives in fresh water.

  2. Blanch the herbs in boiling salted water for 5-6 minutes, then cool them in ice water.

  3. Hard boil the eggs.

  4. Squeeze the water from the herbs and pound them until smooth.

Make the butter

  1. Add the anchovies, capers, gherkins, egg yolks, and garlic to the herbs and pound for 10 minutes.

  2. Mix in the fresh butter until well combined.

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. Chervil + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Chervil + chivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together370 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Chive + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Chervil
Provides the aromatic, fresh herbal flavour that defines the butter.
Tarragon
Adds its distinctive anise-like aroma and flavour to the butter.
Anchovies
Contribute deep savoury saltiness and umami that round out the herbs.
Hard-boiled eggs
Yolks are pounded in to give the butter body and a rich, creamy texture.
Butter
Carries the herbs and other flavourings, giving the spread its richness and smooth texture.
Capers
Add sharp acidity and a briny bite that cut through the richness of the butter.

The step that matters

Pounding the herbs smooth after blanching. Herbs must be squeezed dry before pounding, because excess water dilutes the butter and dulls its flavour. Pounding until smooth breaks the cell walls so the flavour disperses evenly through the fat.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Fennelfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chervil, tarragon, chive, egg, capers, garlic, butter. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes