The Chef-Approved Type Of Compound Butter To Use With Tomahawk Steak
A tomahawk steak is an extra-large ribeye with a frenched rib bone "handle." This means that any kind of condiment you'd use for a ribeye will taste great on a tomahawk, too, and compound butter is always a good bet. Is there any one compound butter that's best suited to this extra-beefy cut? That depends entirely on personal taste, but just for fun, we asked a chef to weigh in.
Daniel Ontiveros, who works at Las Vegas strip steakhouse Carversteak, is partial to a compound butter that's been flavored with red wine. Ontiveros' favorite compound butter is made with garlic confit, parsley, shallots, and red wine. After all, "Red wine and butter go really well with steak," he explains.
You can prep your garlic confit ahead of time by simmering a head or two of garlic in olive oil until soft, then storing it in the oil. You'll then simmer a minced shallot in about 3 or 4 ounces of wine until you're left with a thick reduction. Beat the shallots and wine into a stick of softened butter along with a sprinkling of chopped parsley and a spoonful or two of garlic confit. Roll it into a log and chill or freeze it until you're ready to serve it with your steak.
You might want to try these other compound butters, too
While compound butter made with a red wine reduction makes the perfect partner for a hefty slab of steak, there are many other delightful flavor combinations to explore. In fact, you could even make several different varieties. If you want to go upscale, you could make black truffle butter (which Carversteak offers on its menu) along with other equally fancy steak toppers such as crab Oscar (a combination of Hollandaise sauce, crab meat, and asparagus), foie gras, and bone marrow. Duck fat, too, makes a luxurious compound butter addition if you happen to have any on hand.
If down-home steak dinners are more your style, take a page from the Pioneer Woman's compound butter-making book: Make her "cowboy butter" with lemon juice, parsley, garlic, and crushed red pepper. Of course, one of the simplest steak toppers is garlic butter, a classic choice that's well suited to the tomahawk — or any other cut of beef. If you make a double batch, you can spread the extra over a sliced Italian or French loaf for garlic bread to accompany your meal.