All Purpose Compound Butter?

Cooking Discussions
1

I’m retired, my wife still works. She brings her lunch to work because she only has 30 minutes for lunch, she’s a teacher. I’m in charge of making it. It’s usually either leftovers or bought frozen entrees. Has to be microwavable I want to make an all purpose compound butter, like maître d butter, that I can store in the freezer and just slice off “coins” when I need them to top off (moisten) entrees or sides (rice potatoes, noodles etc.). A few questions:

salted or unsalted butter or maybe some of each?
fresh parsley
lemon juice and or zest?
shallots
garlic
salt & pepper

how about
Dijon mustard?
paprika, sweet or smoked?
cayenne?
Anything else?
Thank you very much!

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First, kudos for being the LunchMeister!

You’re really inspiring me here. I don’t think I could pick just one, all-purpose butter. As to your very first question, I’d say unsalted because I assume she can take some flakes in a baggy to salt food herself. So unsalted gives her more flexibility. (Edit - see blind spot comment below)

My first pick would be a lightly sautéed shallot/garlic combo.

I’ve never had much luck getting lemon juice incorporated, maybe I’m not diligent enough. But your idea for lemon zest sounds really good - when she heated and it melted, it’d give off nice aroma and some flavor.

I’d like to try the sweet pap, but I’m not sure how versatile it would be. Maybe over noodles?

The only suggestion not on your list would be Herbes de Provence, which I tend to think of as a pretty good general purpose compound butter.

Edit - one blind spot I might have here is, I don’t know whether the salt in salted butter might act to draw out flavors better than unsalted butter would. Maybe someone can chime in on this aspect.

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I always go salted butter. But that’s just me.

Some add-ins:

Rosemary and garlic
Dried tarragon (if she likes it)
Herbs de Provence, as @CCE recommended.
Aleppo pepper
Dill weed
Lemon thyme (maybe with the lemon zest to give it some oomph?)
Mint (great for peas)
horseradish cream with chives and freshly ground pepper

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I would want to keep it as “all purpose” as possible. Assuming you mostly cook Euro/American ish Food so Lemon, Parsley, Pinch of Cayenne and S&P
Some Umami rich things also work well but may not compliment your style of cooking. Miso, Soy, Sake, Scallions etc…
But really only you and your Wife know what flavors you like best and what would go best with your typical Dishes.

5

frozen butter is too hard to cut so you’d want to portion it before freezing

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Don’t use garlic. That smell will linger in the microwave for the next person who might not appreciate it.

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These sound great! I used to make a garlic, ginger and cilantro compound butter for rice and noodle dishes. I also would make one of dill and a bit of kemon zest for salmon steaks.
I would press the concoctions into flexible ice cube trays and after getting solid, popped them into a zipper bag or stasher type bag. Coconut oil nuggets can work like that, too.
Keeping a small container of baking soda in the microwave helps to keep the odor away, just be sure to remove the container WHILE microwaving, then rep!ace it when done. Also, make sure everyone that uses the microwave is on the same page as to keeping the microwave clean and sweet smelling! A stinky microwave can clear a room just as fast as some broccoli florests that haven’t been vented!