Herbal butter.

Botanical name: 
Anethum graveolens
Levisticum officinale
Petroselinum crispum
Ribes nigrum
Preparations: 
Herb butter

On the culinary herblist, Nov98,

by Henriette

>I've never tasted a butter flavored too strongly with herbs, but that is just my taste buds speaking.

You haven't done chive butter. Gah!

Photo: Levisticum officinale 1. Here's a recipe for

A light herb butter

1 part butter (room temp)
1 part oil (room temp)
up to 5 parts water (room temp)
herbs to taste

Mix herb and butter, add oil, dribble in water as you would oil into a mayonnaise. I use one of those mixer sticks for this - zzzzzzzt. If you add all your water at once it won't mix, but it'll sure splash a lot. The result will keep for a week in your fridge, so you freeze what you can't use immediately.

Herbs to try:

  • lovage (Levisticum officinale / Ligusticum levisticum)
  • parsley
  • black currant leaves (Ribes nigrum) (no, other species of Ribes won't do, and you know you have the right one if you have fragrant leaves)
  • dill (just a little bit at first, please)

Henriette