Following Heston Blumenthal in his Perfection steak method, when I serve a compound butter with steak, I almost always flavor it with a small amount of blue cheese (as well as the usual herbs, etc.). Two questions occurred to me while I was making steak tonight. Does anyone else do this, and if you do, what cheeses do you find are the most complimentary? It's easy to imagine something like parmigiano-reggiano that would taste of that cheese, rather than making an interesting or appropriate butter.
Also, I take it that the reason this is so remarkably effective is that the relevant flavor compounds in cheese are fat soluble; I seem to recall Heston layering butter over the cheese, refrigerating over night, and then using the butter while reserving the cheese. If this is true, why not flavor other fats with cheese? (Goes without saying: for some fats, you wouldn't want long storage after flavoring it with the cheese.) Tallow or other rendered fats, oils, etc.? Seems like tons of potential for adding flavor, and also for using up things like cheese rinds, which tend to be almost overpoweringly flavorful
