| 1 | Beat the butter to a cream. |
| 2 | Beat in the herbs and mustard powder. |
| 3 | Add the lemon juice drop by drop, beating well. |
| 4 | Place the butter on plastic wrap or wax paper and form it into a roll using a flat-bladed knife or small palette knife. |
| 5 | Roll the butter up in the paper. |
| 6 | Put it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hrs. |
| 7 | To harden. |
| 8 | To serve, cut the butter into round pats with a sharp knife. |
| 9 | If you wish to neaten the edges, stamp the pats into neat rounds using a cookie cut- ter slightly smaller in diameter than the butter. |
| 10 | *variation: you can also use the sweet spices, such as ground cinnamon or nutmeg, to make a spiced butter. |
| 11 | Use 4 t. of ground spice to 4 oz. of butter. |
| 12 | A little honey or unrefined sugar may also be added. |
| 13 | Spread spiced butters on hot toast, scones, tea cakes, fruit loaves and tea breads. |
| 14 | *it is very easy to make herb butter by beating chopped, fresh herbs into softened, unsalted butter. |
| 15 | You can also add other ingredients, such as crushed garlic, grated lemon or orange rind, a few drops of lemon or orange juice, mustard powder, pepper or cayenne. |
| 16 | And you can vary the taste still further by using one particular herb or a combination. |
| 17 | The classic herb butter is the maitre d"hotel type, which is flavored simply with parsley, lemon juice, pepper and occassionally garlic. |
| 18 | The above variation on maitre d"hotel is excellent with oily fish such as trout or mackerel. |
