Caviar Butter – One Jar, a Dozen Uses
Caviar butter is the recipe I recommend to people who tell me they don't know what to do with a tin beyond blinis. It takes five minutes, keeps for two days in the fridge, and turns almost any warm dish into something you'd order in a restaurant. The trick is temperature: the butter has to be soft enough to fold, but the caviar goes in cold and last.
Ingredients for one roll (about 150 g)
- 125 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- zest of half an unwaxed lemon
- 1 tsp finely chopped chives
- a few drops of lemon juice
- 30 g caviar – Imperial Baerii holds its shape best
How it's done
Beat the butter with a fork or a small whisk until it is pale and creamy. Add the lemon zest, chives and lemon juice and mix through. No salt at this stage – the caviar brings enough.
Now fold in the caviar with a spatula, gently, in three or four strokes. You want whole pearls suspended in the butter, not a grey paste. Stop the moment it is evenly distributed.
Spoon the butter onto a piece of baking paper, roll it into a log about three centimetres thick, twist the ends and chill for at least an hour. Slice with a warm knife.
Where it works
On warm sourdough or a baked potato, it needs nothing else. A slice on a rested steak or a piece of grilled sturgeon melts into a sauce on its own. Pushed under the skin of a chicken before roasting, it seasons the meat from the inside – and yes, it survives the oven better than you'd expect.
Our tip
Make the butter the day before you need it, but no earlier. Caviar in butter is at its best within 48 hours; after that the pearls start to lose their snap. The roll freezes well if you slice it first, though the texture of the caviar softens slightly.
