Escoffier recipe for making beurre d’écrevisse, crayfish butter, at home (Escoffier 238).

Crayfish, crawfish, crawdads, crawdaddies, freshwater lobsters, mudbugs or écrevisse – whatever you call the crustaceans — most people love ’em.

Beurre d’écrevisse can be used for a multitude of dishes, on breads, in sauces, on eggs — you name it.

Let me know how you use it!

 

Beurre d’Ecrevisse

This recipe for a compound butter is adapted from those of Escoffier and Julia Child. I just had to — Escoffier’s had no extra seasoning added, so I spiced it up a bit with fresh thyme, Old Bay, paprika and cayenne. If you don’t like spice, leave them out…

Mise en place:

Sauté the carrots, onions and leek in butter for about 10 minutes.

Add the tomato paste, crayfish, thyme, bay leaves, Old Bay seasoning, paprika, cayenne…

… and cook covered for 30 minutes on low heat, to infuse the flavors.

Turn out onto a cookie sheet to cool.

Place in a food processor with butter and blend until smooth.

The shells will give the butter a reddish color.

Take your time and press the mixture through a tamis or sieve, and refrigerate. (The longer you process, the easier this part will be.)

Can be frozen for future use.

Ingredients
64g (1/2 cup) finely chopped carrots
58g (1/3 cup) finely chopped onion
50g (2/3 cup) finely chopped leek
35g (7 1/2 teaspoons) unsalted butter
50g (3 tablespoons) tomato paste
1000g (about 2 pounds) whole cooked crayfish bodies
2g (2 teaspoons) fresh thyme sprigs
4 bay leaves
6g (1 tablespoon) Old Bay seasoning
4g (2 teaspoons) sweet paprika
1g (1/2 teaspoon) ground cayenne pepper
908g (2 pounds) unsalted butter