By Annette Gallagher
Correspondent

August is the in-season time for corn. New Hampshire farmers grow a lot of bi-color, or butter & sugar, corn, so called because it is speckled with kernels that are both yellow and white. This sweet, flavorful corn is great boiled or grilled on the cob, served simply with butter, salt and pepper.

However, corn on the cob is one of those things that often has the appearance of same-old, same-old, regardless of how good the corn is. How to perk things up? Try a compound butter.

Compound butters have other things mixed, or compounded, into them: herbs, spices, aromatics such as garlic, and even fruit juices and cheeses can be blended into butter for a special flavor treat. Compound butters are great on corn, baked potatoes, veggies, fish and even on steaks.

The recipes below all use one stick of butter. Blend in a chopper, blender or food processor as directed. Then roll into a log, wrap in foil and freeze up to three months. Soften for a few minutes at room temperature and slice into disks as needed. If not completely thawed or softened, it can safely be refrozen.

Note: Please use real butter. It has calcium and other nutrients, is natural and has none of those pesky trans-fats. Besides which, all of the flavor added to the butter means that less is needed. None of these recipes call for salt; if using unsalted butter, add teaspoon per stick.

Pepper Butter

Blend softened butter with 2teaspoons freshly ground pepper.

Garlic Pepper Butter

Blend butter with pepper as above. Add three cloves roasted or fresh garlic.

Lemon Pepper Butter

Blend butter with pepper as above. Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel. Use to top plainly grilled mahi mahi or tuna. Add a few flakes dried parsley for color if desired. A clove or two fresh garlic is a nice variation as well.

Dill Garlic Butter

Blend butter with 2 cloves fresh garlic, 1 teaspoon dried dill and 1 teaspoon black pepper. Amazing on corn.

Blue Cheese Butter

Blend 1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese (Gorgonzola, Danish Blue, etc.) with 1 teaspoon black pepper and butter. Use to top freshly grilled steaks (no A1 needed) or baked potatoes.

Triple Pepper Butter

Blend 1 roasted pepper, 2 teaspoons black pepper and teaspoon cayenne pepper with butter. Try on roasted corn on the cob or grilled fish.

Cinnamon Butter

Blend softened butter (use unsalted for this one) with one teaspoon cinnamon and 1 teaspoon sugar. Serve on rolls, toast, waffles and baked sweet potatoes. Served at the Texas Roadhouse.

Caribbean Butter

Blend 1 tablespoon orange juice concentrate, 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves and 2 cloves garlic into butter. Serve on fish or chicken.

­ If you have any questions about cooking, are looking for recipes or have any suggestions, send them to askannette@gmail.com.