Wild mushroom butter is richly complex with the earthiness of porcini and the sweet fruity flavor of chanterelles. If you don’t have fresh, wild-harvested porcini or chanterelles, use whatever mushrooms you can forage: hawk’s wing, morels, hen of the woods, oysters. If mushroom season has come and gone, or if you live in the city and foraging for mushrooms means plucking the shaggy manes from your lawn (they’re quite good, actually), you can always substitute domestic mushrooms in this recipe. If possible, choose a combination of domestic mushrooms. Shiitake, cremini and even plain, old button mushrooms all do nicely in this recipe for mushroom butter. Trust me: you won’t be disappointed, whatever you include.You can serve the butter over steak or roasted vegetables, or even slathered onto portobello mushroom burgers for an extra hit of umami goodness.
Prep Time5 minutesmins
Cook Time20 hourshrs
Total Time25 minutesmins
Course: Condiment
Cuisine: American, French
Keyword: butter, herbs, mushrooms, shallots
Servings: 8servings (1 cup)
Calories: 211kcal
Author: Jenny McGruther
Ingredients
1cupsalted buttersoftened
1mediumshallotminced
½cupwild mushrooms
1teaspoonfresh thyme leaves
½teaspoonground white pepper
½teaspoonfine sea salt
Instructions
Melt about three tablespoons of your 1 cup of butter in a cast iron skillet over a medium flame until it begins to foam. Immediately reduce the heat to medium-low and add 1 minced shallot to the hot fat.
When the minced shallots have released their fragrance, have turned translucent and their edges begin to caramelize, empty your bowl of minced wild mushrooms into skillet quickly and all at once so that the mushrooms sizzle in the pan and their earthy perfume fills your kitchen.
Stir the mushrooms with a wooden spoon to promote even cooking, scraping any bits that happen to adhere to the bottom of your skillet.
Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves over your mushrooms and continue to cook for a minute or two.
Turn off the heat, and allow the seasoned butter, mushrooms, shallots and thyme to cool for about ten minutes.
While the mushrooms rest and cool, beat the remaining butter until soft, smooth and easily manageable.
Spoon the seasoned fat, mushrooms, shallots and thyme into the remaining butter and fold them together until the seasonings are well-incorporated into the fat. Use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment for greatest efficiency, but if you don’t have one, a mixing bowl and rubber spatula should suffice.
Stir the white pepper and sea salt into the butter as you gently fold the ingredients together.
Mold the compound butter gently over waxed paper, rolling it into a log if doing so suits you. If you’re lucky enough to find a good butter mold, use that instead.
Place it in the fridge and use it within a month or two. Fat is an excellent preservative.