Ramp butter is an easy compound butter that helps you understand how preserving ramps during their short spring season can be so simple. Keep it in the fridge. Substitute chives if you can’t find ramps.
Ramps are in season for just a few precious weeks each spring. Making ramp butter is an easy way to make the stinky and fleeting spring wild onion a little more everlasting. It’s a simple yet versatile compound butter that can dress up literally anything. Stir it into eggs. Dollop it atop pasta. Smother roasted or steamed vegetables in it. Perch it atop fish or steak. Slide it under the skin of roast chicken. Here’s the only trick: When that time of year rolls around, you want to make as much ramp butter as you can and stash it in the freezer to see you through the remaining 48 weeks of the year. (And if you can’t track down ramps or the craving crashes upon you when they’re not in season, rest assured, other pungent alliums, such as chives or garlic scapes, work well here, too.) Originally published October 8, 2017.–Angie Zoobkoff
Ramp Butter
Ingredients
- 1 bunch ramps or other early-season alliums, such as garlic scapes or chives (4 oz), rinsed
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into cubes (8 oz)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Directions
- 1. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Fill a medium bowl halfway with ice water. Toss the ramps into the boiling water and cook 30 seconds to blanch. Using a slotted spoon and working quickly, dunk the ramps in the ice water to halt the cooking. Drain the ramps and then pat them dry.
- 2. In a food processor, pulse the ramps, butter, and salt until well combined, about 30 seconds. Divide the butter in half and place each blob on a sheet of plastic wrap. Wrap the butter in the plastic wrap, gently rolling and shaping the butter into a log, and twist the ends of the plastic. Place in a resealable plastic bag and freeze. Slice off rounds of butter as needed.
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Elsa M. Jacobson
Although it’s not at all early spring here, I went to one of our large farmers markets and purchased garlic scapes to use in place of ramps. When I asked the farmer how she could still have scapes when they're an early-season green, she replied, “We grow a lot of garlic.” The scapes were beautiful. I treated them just like the ramps in the instructions, and the result was a very tasty. And as suggested, another alternative for ramps would be chives, which happily are available year-round.
How to use this butter? On bread or toast. Or a crusty roll. Or crackers. Stuffed into a baked potato. Dolloped onto mashed potatoes. Inside a baked sweet potato. Spread onto corn on the cob. Atop sauteed or steamed vegetables, from cauliflower or broccoli to asparagus to green beans, and more! Sautéeing mushrooms? Use this butter! Scramble eggs in this butter or fry eggs in it. Use the butter on a variant of garlic bread. Put this on your butter dish for any holiday with a green theme or where green would be appropriate, from St Patrick's Day to Easter to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Serve it on a bagel with lox as somewhat of a combination of butter and chive cream cheese.