Cowboy Butter Recipe

This 20 minute cowboy butter recipe whips unsalted butter into a herbed mustard-spiked compound loaded with paprika, lemon, and a kick of horseradish. I roll it into a parchment log, slice off coins, and melt them over hot steak.

I am big on flavored butters and believe one good compound butter on the counter can take an otherwise simple piece of meat and pull it into a different league. If you want a couple of other butters in your back pocket, try my herb and garlic compound butter or my garlic butter next.

Cowboy Butter

Cowboy butter is a compound butter centered on herbs, spices, shallot, garlic, mustard, lemon, and seasonings, and it most often shows up next to a piece of steak. It can be chilled, sliced, and laid over the meat to melt on contact, or warmed in a small dish on the side for dipping. The version I make uses a unique ingredient I like: horseradish, which is not in every recipe out there but is, in my opinion, what sets it apart.

The dish was originally put on a menu at Mr. Donahue’s, a now-closed Southern diner in New York City, and the idea moved through American steakhouse menus from there. Compound butter as a category is far older than the cowboy name, of course. In classical French kitchens it is called beurre compose, and every line cook learns to make one early.

The way I developed my recipe is the classical brigade method with the volume cranked. I whip the butter first until it doubles in size, sweat the shallot and garlic in a little olive oil, then fold the whole batch together with the herbs, paprika, cayenne, Dijon, lemon, and a real punch of prepared horseradish. I scrape the finished butter onto parchment, roll it into a tight log, and the freezer takes it from there until a piece of steak needs finishing.

I highly recommend rolling a log this weekend and stashing it in the freezer, because the next ribeye steak that comes off the heat is going to want one of these coins melting over the top of it.

Ingredients and Substitutions

Making this Cowboy Butter recipe at home is easy. Below are the ingredients I use:

• Butter – I always use unsalted butter in my cooking and baking to control the sodium content.
• Spices – I use a combination of regular paprika, ground cayenne pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. You can substitute the regular paprika with smoked or sweet.
• Herbs – These are subjective, but I use fresh parsley, thyme, and rosemary. You can substitute fresh for dry ingredients at a 1-to-1 ratio.
• Lemon – Some freshly squeezed lemon juice will help balance out the spice in the butter.
• Onions – I use shallots and whole garlic cloves. You can substitute the shallot for a red, white, or sweet onion.
• Horseradish – Some freshly grated or prepared jarred horseradish adds a fresh punch of spice that perfectly complements.
• Mustard – Dijon or spicy ground mustard is best to use.
• Salt – I always use coarse salt in my cooking and baking.

How to Make Cowboy Butter

Whip the butter: I add the softened butter to a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and whip on medium to high speed for 5 to 7 minutes, until the butter is pale, light, and almost doubled in volume.

Sweat the shallot and garlic: I warm the olive oil in a medium frying pan over low to medium heat for about a minute, add the diced shallot and minced garlic, give them a light pinch of coarse salt to draw out their moisture, and cook for 4 to 6 minutes until they are soft and just barely golden.

Cool the aromatics into the butter: I drop the mixer speed to low, scrape the warm shallot and garlic straight into the whipped butter, and let the residual heat from the pan soften everything together as it folds in.

Add herbs, spices, and the punch: With the mixer still on low, I add the paprika, cayenne, red pepper flakes, parsley, thyme, rosemary, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, prepared horseradish, and a pinch of salt.

Mix until uniform: I bring the mixer back up to medium-high for 30 seconds to a minute, until the butter is one color all the way through with no streaks of herb or spice. I stop the mixer, taste a small spoonful, and adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Roll into a parchment log: I scrape the butter onto a piece of parchment paper, fold the paper over, and roll it back and forth on the counter into a tight cylinder about the thickness of a paper-towel tube. I twist both ends like a candy wrapper to seal it.

Chill and slice: I move the log to the refrigerator until firm, or to the freezer for longer storage. When I want to use it, I unwrap the end, slice a coin off the log, and lay it on a hot piece of meat fresh off the grill. The butter melts and pools into the resting juices. Try a coin on my tomahawk steak. So good!

Serving Suggestions

Steak is the obvious home for this butter, and a coin melting over a tri tip steak right off the oven is the version I make all the time on a weeknight. When I have more time on a Sunday, I will fire up the smoker for a smoked tri tip and let a coin go on top of each slice as I plate, with a tray of mustard roasted potatoes holding the other side of the board.

For a fuller dinner, I will set the steak next to a half of grilled romaine with a coin of the cowboy butter melted into the warm leaves, and a tray of roasted broccoli on the side to complete the plate. Leftover butter coins sit in the freezer in a labeled bag for weeks, and they go straight onto a sliced sourdough bread at lunch with a slice of leftover steak, no extra cooking required.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Make-Ahead: I cook this 5 days ahead and keep it in the refrigerator until I need it.

How to Store: I keep the rolled parchment log in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.

How to Reheat: I do not reheat cowboy butter. The point of the log is to slice a cold coin onto hot food and let the food do the melting. Microwaving it breaks the emulsion and the herbs lose their fresh edge.

How to Freeze: I freeze the parchment log directly in a labeled zip-top bag for up to 6 months. I slice coins off the frozen log straight onto hot meat. No thaw, no fuss.

More Butter Recipes

• Clarified Butter
• Homemade Butter
• Honey Butter
• Truffle Butter
• Maître D’ Butter