Mantequilla de Chiltepín Sonorense

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Volcanic stone molcajete (or a heavy pan and parchment if you must improvise)
• •Cast iron comal or small dry skillet for toasting the chiltepines
• •Microplane or fine grater for the lime zest
• •Wide mixing bowl and wooden spoon
• •Sheet of parchment for rolling, or a small glass jar with a tight lid

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the chiltepines

   Heat a dry comal or small cast iron skillet over medium-low. Add the whole chiltepines and toast them for 30 to 45 seconds, sliding the pan back and forth so they roll. They are tiny and they burn in the time it takes to answer a phone call. The kitchen will smell sharp and grassy, almost like dried tomato leaf. That smell is the volatile oils waking up. Pull them off the heat the second they darken a shade. Burned chiltepín is bitter chiltepín and there is no fixing it later.

   Chiltepín is the wild mother of all chiles in the Americas, harvested by hand from desert shrubs in the Sierra Madre Occidental. The good ones come from Sonora and Chihuahua. No me vengas con atajos. Do not substitute pequin or arbol. They are not the same chile.
2. 2

   Crush in the molcajete

   Tip the toasted chiltepines into a molcajete. Add a pinch of the salt to give the stone something to grind against. Crush in small circles until the chiles break down into a coarse, brick-colored dust with a few whole flakes still visible. You want texture, not powder. The flakes are what you will see in the finished butter and what your guests will bite into. If you do not have a molcajete, crush them between two sheets of paper under the bottom of a heavy pan. Asi se hace y punto.

3. 3

   Cream the butter and lard

   In a wide bowl, combine the softened butter and the manteca de cerdo. Work them together with the back of a wooden spoon until they are completely uniform and pale. The lard is not optional. La manteca es el sabor. Pure butter alone tastes flat against the chiltepín; the lard carries the chile heat the way it carries it in every other Sonoran dish, from machaca to frijoles puercos.

4. 4

   Build the seasoning

   Add the crushed chiltepín, the minced garlic, the lime zest, the lime juice, the remaining salt, the crumbled oregano, the chopped cilantro, and the naranja agria juice. Fold everything together with the wooden spoon until the butter is streaked with red chile flakes and green herbs throughout. Do not over-beat it. You are not making frosting. You want a rough, rustic compound, not a whipped one.

5. 5

   Rest the butter

   Cover the bowl and let the butter sit at room temperature for one hour. This is the step most recipes skip and it is the one that matters most. The chiltepín needs time to bloom into the fat. The garlic needs time to lose its raw edge. The lime needs time to perfume the whole thing. Taste it after an hour. If it tastes shy, add a pinch more salt. If you want more heat, crush a few more chiltepines and fold them in.

   Chiltepín heat is fast and bright. It hits the front of the tongue and disappears in 30 seconds. That is its character. If you want a slow-burning heat, you are working with the wrong chile.
6. 6

   Shape and store

   Scrape the butter onto a sheet of parchment. Roll it into a log about an inch and a half thick, twisting the ends like a candy wrapper. Refrigerate for at least two hours before using, or up to two weeks. For longer storage, freeze the log whole and slice off coins as you need them. The way my mother stored compound butter, and the way every abuela in Hermosillo keeps her chiltepín butter, is in a small glass jar in the door of the refrigerator, scooped onto the meat with a spoon. Either works.

7. 7

   Use on the parrilla

   Pull a steak off the mesquite parrilla and let it rest for five minutes. Slide a thick coin of the butter onto the hot meat. It will melt slowly, running red into the cutting board juices. The chiltepín flakes will bloom in the fat. This is also good on grilled cabrilla, on a baked potato, on machaca con huevo at breakfast, on hot flour tortillas the size of dinner plates. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Sonoran chiltepín is the only chiltepín that matters for this butter. The Texan and New Mexican wild versions are close cousins but they lack the floral, almost smoky note that the Sonoran desert gives them. If you can find chiltepín from Baviacora or Moctezuma, buy a kilo and freeze what you do not use. They keep for two years frozen.
• •Naranja agria, the sour orange of the Sonoran-Yucateco pantry, is hard to find outside Mexico. The compromise is equal parts fresh orange juice and lime juice. It is a compromise, not an upgrade. If you can get to a Mexican mercado, ask for naranja agria by name.
• •Do not whip this butter in a stand mixer. The molcajete-crushed chiltepín gets pulverized into dust and you lose the flakes that give the butter its visual signature and its bite. Hand-fold with a wooden spoon. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo, but the work happens with your hands.
• •The butter is best on grilled beef from the parrilla, especially Sonoran arrachera or a thick cut of cabreria. It is also extraordinary on machaca con huevo at breakfast and on the giant flour tortillas (tortillas de harina sobaqueras) that are Sonora's other signature.
• •Keep a small jar in the refrigerator and another in the freezer. Saber cocinar es saber vivir, and a cook with chiltepín butter on hand can rescue a plain steak, a baked potato, or a piece of fish in under a minute.

Advance Preparation

• •The butter must rest at least one hour at room temperature after mixing for the flavors to bloom. Two hours is better.
• •Refrigerated in a tightly sealed jar or wrapped log, the butter keeps for two weeks. The lime will dull after that and the cilantro will turn.
• •Frozen as a log wrapped in parchment and foil, the butter keeps for three months. Slice off coins as you need them. Do not thaw the whole log and refreeze.
• •For a make-ahead Sonoran asado, prepare the butter two days ahead so the chiltepín, garlic, and lime have time to marry. The flavor on day two is noticeably deeper than day one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 33g)