Basic hot butter sauces  —  sauces au beurre:

• White butter sauce  —  beurre blanc
  A hot butter sauce based on vinegar. Vinegar is reduced with fish stock and shallots. Cold butter cut in small cubes is added and the mixture is whipped until smooth, the warm liquid and cold butter producing an emulsion. The sauce is served with fish dishes.

• Black butter  —  beurre noir
  A hot butter sauce based on clarified butter. Butter is cooked until dark brown in colour and flavoured with capers, parsley and vinegar. The sauce is served with fish dishes.

• Noisette butter  —  beurre noisette
  A hot butter sauce based on clarified butter. Butter is cooked until golden in colour and giving off a nutty scent. The sauce is served with sweetbread, boiled vegetables, eggs or fish dishes.

• Bercy butter
  Hot shallot butter sauce. Butter is mixed in bone marrow cooking water flavoured with shallots and white wine. The diced bone marrow, lemon juice and parsley are added to the sauce.
• Clarified butter
  
• Colbert sauce
  Hot butter sauce made by whipping butter into meat glaze boiled with water. The sauce is flavoured with cayenne pepper, nutmeg, lemon juice, parsley and Madeira.
• Meunière butter
  Noisette butter flavoured with lemon juice.
• Marchand de vin sauce
  Hot butter sauce made by whipping butter in reduced mixture of red wine, shallots and meat glaze, seasoned with lemon juice and parsley.
• Marinière sauce
  Bercy butter sauce made with mussel cooking liquid and juices, thickened with egg yolk.
• Nantes butter
  White butter sauce flavoured with a dash of cream.

Basic cold flavoured (compound) butters  —  beurres composés

Compound butter is made by mixing some flavouring into whipped butter. The butter is used as flavouring in various foods and sauces, a topping on meat, fish and vegetable dishes or a spread on canapés. It may be shaped into a log, wrapped in plastic and foil and placed in refrigerator or freezer to harden before cutting into slices.

See recipes for some savoury and sweet compound butters.

Variations of compound butters:

• Anchovy butter
  Butter flavoured with pureed anchovies. Lemon juice may be added to the butter.
• Café de Paris butter
  Butter flavoured with fresh herbs, onion, capers, garlic, cognac, spices, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, tomato paste, mustard, etc.
• Crayfish butter
  Butter cooked with crushed crayfish shells, sieved and chilled until firm. Tomato paste may be added for colour.
• Egg yolk butter
  Butter flavoured with pureed hard-boiled egg yolks. Chopped chives or other herbs may be added to the butter.
• Garlic butter
  Butter flavoured with pureed garlic.
• Herb butter
  Butter flavoured with lemon juice, chopped or pureed herbs, salt and pepper.
• Lemon butter
  Butter flavoured with lemon juice.
• Maître d'hôtel butter
  Butter flavoured with lemon juice, salt, pepper and chopped or pureed parsley.
  • Colbert butter
    Maître d'hôtel butter flavoured with chopped tarragon and meat glaze.
• Marchand de vin butter
  Butter whipped in reduced mixture of red wine, shallot and meat glaze, seasoned with lemon juice and parsley and chilled until firm.
• Mustard butter
  Butter flavoured with mustard. Hard-boiled egg yolk, chopped herbs and lemon juice may be added to the butter.
• Tarragon butter
  Butter flavoured with lemon juice, chopped or pureed tarragon, salt and pepper.

Note: the ingredients used in cooking or flavouring basic sauces and compound butters may vary a great deal depending on the recipe.