Butter Sauces

Butter sauces can be classified into four categories. In beurre blanc–type sauces, cold butter is whisked into a flavorful liquid base; broken butter sauces are made by cooking whole butter in a sauté pan so that the butter breaks—these sauces are then usually finished with lemon juice or wine vinegar; compound butters are prepared by working cold whole butter with flavorful ingredients such as herbs or reduced vegetable purées; whipped butters are prepared in almost the same way as compound butters, except that a hot flavorful liquid is also incorporated into the butter.