Whiskey and butter are a match made in heaven, a booze-lover’s dream, and a great way to dress up your condiments selection at any time of day. It’s a type of compound butter, a fancy way of saying butter that’s been flavored with other ingredients like garden herbs, sweet fruits, or even chocolate. Whiskey butter is king of the compound butters if you are a fan of the robust, smoky, caramelized flavors that whiskey brings to the table.
Whipped whiskey butter is your spicy little secret to dressing up basic buttermilk pancakes and it infuses even more flavor into an already unique sweet and savory upside down corn bread. It adds a boozy kick to a restaurant quality ribeye steak and will spice up the garlic mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables on the side. Basically, you can spread whiskey butter on everything from your morning toast to your homemade dinner rolls, your ribeye steak to corn grilled on the cob.
Whiskey butter will add different flavor profiles to your cooking depending on how you use it – at the beginning of the cooking process versus as a finishing ingredient or a garnish. Boiling rice with a little whiskey butter will infuse the entire batch of rice with lingering hints of whiskey. Spreading whiskey butter on toast or using it as a garnish will present stronger, boozier flavors.
How to make whiskey butter at home
Whiskey butter is fast and easy to make at home, it stores in the fridge for up to two weeks, and it’s made out of just two basic ingredients: butter and your favorite whiskey. You start with butter in a bowl, softened so that it better absorbs flavors, and then add the whiskey a teaspoon at a time. Mix well and test the butter before adding more so you don’t create too strong of a butter cocktail. Whip the mixture for a while by hand or with a mixer to achieve your desired texture. You can use the whiskey butter immediately or pop it in the fridge for later use. Whiskey butter will even last in the freezer for about six months; portion it out into ice cube trays to create single-serving cubes of whiskey butter to use in later cooking.
Any kind of whiskey will work to make whiskey butter, from straight whiskey to bourbon and beyond. Use flavored whiskeys to create an even more intricate spread — for example Fireball whiskey butter for a spicy cinnamon kick to your morning routine. Add an extra bit of flavor to your whiskey butter by putting some honey or herbed milk, made by boiling milk with fresh herbs like rosemary and thyme. The extra flavors add an even more intricate flavor profile to whiskey butter and make it an even better addition to almost any dish.
