September 2023 Fireside Chat - "The Flat Top King" Neal Williams! (Runtime 1hr:30min)

[Huskee]

What a great Fireside Chat with Neal Williams, "The Flat Top King"! Streamed live 9/27/2023.

YouTube:

[wrgilb]

Meathead What's your compound butter recipe you where speaking of on the video?

[Meathead]

There are hundreds. My next book has several. I am in the final testing stages of two designed for steak. My recipe, and my version of Cafe de Paris Butter. I should finish testing them next week. Poke me again the week after next and I'll share it. Here is the intro:

Café de Paris Butter
In the 1990s when I was the syndicated wine critic for the Washington Post I made semi-annual trips to Bordeaux to taste the new vintage from the barrel because many collectors bought the new vintage at the lowest price when it was first offered as futures before bottling. While in Bordeaux I would always launch my visit with a dinner featuring entrecote, steak from between the ribs, a.k.a. a ribeye steak, topped with Café de Paris Butter.

Ironically, the butter and a similar sauce were invented in the Care de Paris in the 1940s in Geneva Switzerland, not Paris. They remain a secret and a signature of the restaurant and its affiliates although they are widely imitated.

The sauce process is a bit of a pain and because it involves chicken livers, not for most American palates. On the other hand, the butter is one of the best compound butters out there. Not only for steak, but vegetables, and especially mashed potatoes. Having tasted it several times in France, I think I have come pretty close to replicating it.

[Mosca]

wrgilb Last year I took a continuing education class on herbs and spices, and one class was compound butters. They are absurdly simple, and pretty much impossible to screw up. The only limit is your imagination. Just as an example, you could take Meathead’s Simon and Garfunkel rub and make a compound butter with it. I did one with parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme from the garden, another with oregano, rosemary, parsley, garlic, and basil, another with dill… you could use honey and habanero and make a hot honey compound butter.

This is my Paprika page with some of the butters I’ve made, if you want the ingredients for any of them just ask.