Nicholas Gavin is the Culinary Creative Director of ChefSteps, where he develops recipes and is responsible for making all the food look beautiful. Nick has worked at ChefSteps for over a decade; he and ChefSteps co-founder Grant Crilly worked together at Modernist Cuisine. Nick has worked in professional kitchens both in the United States and abroad, most notably at Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Spain.

Nicholas Gavin

At steakhouses, you’re often given the option to “enhance” the flavor of your pricey steak with a pat of pricey compound butter. This compound butter asks the question: What if you could pack all the flavor of a char-grilled steak into the butter itself? With beef tallow, bone marrow, and browned ground beef mixed up with the butter, it’s super beefy, with tons of the flavorful compounds produced by <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/guides-tools/mastering-the-maillard-reaction">Maillard reactions</a>. Add in some herbs, aromatics, a drop of liquid smoke, and a pinch of MSG, and you’ve got a crazy flavorful and downright steak-y butter that would improve any meat or vegetable.It’s great on char-grilled steaks, but it’s also excellent for serving over anything that benefits from a little smoke and char along with the hit of richness only a compound butter can provide.

Char-Grilled Steakhouse Butter