A freezer full of compound butters (or flavoured butters) is one of the best things any home cook (and indeed chef) can have at their disposal. Simple to make and full of flavour, all you need to do is slice off however much you need and add it to your chosen dish. Use it to baste meat and fish, watch it melt over vegetable side dishes or stir it through pasta for a quick and easy meal.

Pollyanna Coupland shows how easy it is to incorporate a vast array of different flavours into butter for all sorts of dishes. Get a taste of Italy with her Cacio e pepe or Italian anchovy, pine nut and olive butter recipes, try her Chinese-inspired Fermented chilli bean butter recipe or add a little Indian spice with her Garam masala butter. This Pink peppercorn and horseradish butter is perfect for melting over steaks as they rest, and Seaweed butter is ideal for adding umami deliciousness to fish dishes. Luke Holder’s incredible Sous vide rib-eye steak cooked in Café de Paris butter shows how useful compound butters can be, while this Brown butter with pink grapefruit and tarragon will make you look like a professional chef whenever you bring it out.

Experiment with different spices, herbs and flavours in your compound butters to create amazing standby sauces that will sit in your freezer until you need to use them. All of these can be used straight away if preferred, too – just make sure your butter is soft when you make them so the ingredients can be easily distributed throughout it.