Sometimes you just need some fancy-ass butter. I recently tried this recipe as part of a surf and turf, and it was a delicious addition to both lobster tail and steak.

I will note that minced garlic, even in as fine a mince as I could manage, was still a bit lumpy to smear onto bread. If you want your butter for this purpose, I strongly recommend grating the garlic instead.

8 tbsp. (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1 clove elephant garlic or 5-6 regular-sized garlic cloves, minced or grated
2 tbsp. fresh parsley, minced
Other fresh herbs as desired

Mix all ingredients together, using a fork to mash the garlic and herbs into the butter as best as you can. You can use your (clean!) fingers to knead for a minute or two — just to get everything well combined. Don’t go very long with this, or your body heat will start to melt the butter.

Transfer the mix onto wax paper or plastic wrap and roll into a tube. If you’re feeling really fancy and you have a fancy btter mold, you can press the butter into it, but otherwise you can keep it rolled up in the paper and twist to seal.

Refrigerate until ready to use, then slice.