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Yes, that’s a graph up there. A recipe graph. Have you ever looked through a “single topic” cookbook and gotten a little overwhelmed or curious. Suzen found a book called Flavored Butters by Offerico Maoz. He’s an Israeli chef and his tidy, interesting little book has nearly 70 flavored butters in several categories:

  • Savory
  • Spicy
  • Nut and Seed
  • Seafood
  • Sweet Butters and Buttercreams
  • Butter Sauces

The book simply tempts you to open the refrigerator and get to work. But, at the same time, you can get lost. Just looking at the savory butters, I found myself going back and forth, trying to remember what ingredients were used where. And, I wondered, what combinations could I make if I just had an overview of all the possible ingredients that Offerico used. I’m not saying I want to better Offerico, I just want to leverage off the launching platform he provides.

So, in the middle of the graph above there is the word “savory” which is the root for the recipes his savory section. Follow a line out, and you get a word or phrase that labels one of his recipes. Go out from that recipe naml, and you get to all the ingredients for that flavored butter.

No, I did not put “butter” in as an ingredient anywhere because it occurs anywhere. And, salt is a universal ingredient. You’ll definitely want to make these flavored butters beginning with unsalted butter; the salted butter in your grocery store can have a little salt in it or a lot. You need to be in control.

Suzen and I will be blogging some of these savory butters, as well as ones in the other categories. There you’ll see his proportions for the ingredients. But, look, this is flavored butter territory. You can let your imagination power just what ingredients you want to use and how much of each.

For example, there’s a recipe for Sun-Dried Tomato Butter that has, besides the butter, just two ingredients: thyme and sun-dried tomatoes. Look around the edge of the graph here and see what other ingredients have been used. Maybe you’d want to add some cilantro, or scallions, or lemon juice. It’s all up to you and that fertile culinary imagination you are trying to expand.

More graphs and more recipes to come.

Source: Flavored Butters by Offerico Maoz