Maître d'Hôtel butter

Of the infinite ways you can add ingredients to butter to create compound butters, Maître d'Hôtel butter is arguably the most widely known and used. Originating, of course, in classical French cooking, it gets its name from the fact that it was often prepared and served at the table by a restaurant's maître d'hôtel (or head waiter).

It's incredibly simple – the most basic form is just butter, salt, lemon and parsley – but when added to almost any food it envelops it in a rich, zingy, fragrant sauce that makes pretty much everything taste better.

The butter itself is often prepared and then frozen into a log, to be sliced as and when it's needed. A little puck of the butter placed on top of a sizzling steak will gently melt over the meat, but it's just as delicious when placed on top of fish, potatoes, vegetables and eggs. It's the perfect little thing to have on standby in the freezer, ready to go whenever you are.