How to Make and Freeze Garlic Scape Butter

Use fresh garlic scapes to make this delicious garlic scape butter recipe for the frying pan or freezer! 

Over the past decade, garlic scapes have been gaining popularity in farm-to-table circles.

These round, curly green stalks have a mild garlic flavor that is delightfully sweet. Most folks can appreciate this flavor, even those who don't necessarily care for the pungent taste of homegrown garlic bulbs! 

Curling stems appear on hardneck garlic plants in late spring or early summer (depending on where you live and when you plant). Each plant puts out a single scape, which is actually the stem of a garlic flower.

If you leave scapes alone, a long flower bud will develop and later on, a white flower on each of your garlic plants.

These flowers develop bulbils (tiny garlic cloves) that drop to the ground as the plant matures. And in this manner, garlic will naturally spread if left to its own devices. 

Regardless of whether or not they use the scapes, most gardeners remove them before the garlic flowers out, so all the plant's energy goes into developing larger bulbs. 

What gardener and home cook doesn't love chunky garlic cloves?!

Hardneck garlic thrives here in my northern climate and we have two varieties currently growing in our gardens: a Russian Red and a Chesnok Red. Both are delicious and keep relatively well over the winter months. 

I love growing my own garlic. And I love that I get two harvests (scapes and bulbs) from the same plant. It's always a win in my gardening world!

There are lots of ways to to use garlic scapes in the kitchen and in your preserving efforts. And today, I'm going to give you a very quick and simple recipe that anyone can tackle.

Here's how to make and freeze garlic scape butter! 

Tools You'll Need

• large kitchen knife
• wooden cutting board
• mixing bowl
• wooden spoon
• parchment paper
• cotton cooking twine

Ingredients

• fresh garlic scapes
• quality butter (you can use homemade butter or store bought butter)
• optional: fresh herbs

I like to use salted butter for this recipe. But if you prefer unsalted butter or even your own butter, feel free to use it in this recipe! 

Watch the Video Tutorial

How to Make Garlic Scape Butter

Step 1: Let Butter Warm to Room Temperature

The very first step is to allow your butter to soften, so it's easy to mix. Pull it from the fridge or freezer the night before you plan to use it. Room-temperature butter is soft and combines nicely with minced garlic scapes.

And yes, you can use homemade butter for this recipe (of course!). 

Step 2: Harvest Fresh Garlic Scapes

Ideally, garlic scapes would be harvested in the morning, before the heat of the day. It's very easy. Use your fingers to snap the round stem off wherever it naturally breaks. Toss the curly stems into a basket or harvest bowl as you go. 

If you're adding fresh herbs, you can also harvest them at this point. 

Note: if you don't grow your own garlic, you can probably find it at local farmer's markets or even through CSA programs. 

Step 3: Rinse and Remove Tough Ends

Garlic scapes are usually quite clean. But if not, you can give them a quick rinse at the kitchen sink. 

Then it's time to remove any tough ends. Older garlic scapes are prone to toughness, especially at the base. You can test by nibbling on an end. 

If it's tender, you can use the whole thing. If not, it should be trimmed. 

Step 4: Mince Curly Scapes of Garlic 

Every time I mince garlic scapes, I'm amused (and sometimes annoyed) with their curly growing habit! It can be difficult to evenly mince garlic scapes. Just do the best you can with the kinky, aromatic stems. 

The finer scapes are minced, the faster they'll cook up when you use them! 

Step 5: Mix Scapes into Softened Butter

Place butter in a mixing bowl and add minced scapes. Use a wooden spoon to mix everything together, being sure scapes are incorporated throughout. 

Note: also add and mix in fresh herbs at this time. 

Step 6: Mold Butter for Freezing

There are several different ways to mold your butter. Some folks like to set butter on a piece of parchment paper and roll it into a "log." Others like to spoon it into an ice cube tray or even use silicone molds. 

I prefer to make and flash freeze little pats of form-free butter, so they're easy to grab and toss into a cast iron skillet or soup pot! 

To make pats, go ahead and line a cutting board (or baking sheet) with a piece of parchment paper.  Use two spoons to drop mounds of butter onto the flat surface, like you would with cookie dough. 

​In my kitchen I cook with a lot of butter, so I make about 15-16 large pats from the original 2 cups of butter. 

Step 7: Flash Freeze Pats of Butter 

Garlic butter can be placed in the freezer until pats are solidly frozen.And then? You can place them in a freezer bag or airtight container. 

Whenever you need one, pats can go directly from the freezer to your cast iron skillet, oven or soup pot! 

Best Fresh Herbs for Garlic Scape Butter

An excellent way to add more flavor to your butter is by adding fresh herbs. 

Better still, you can adjust the herbs according to the type of dish you plan to prepare. 

Most herbs will hold their flavor well in butter.

The only one I'm uncertain about is sage. Sage turns food quite bitter when preserved in the canner, and I haven't personally tried freezing it in butter to see if it has the same effect. If you give it a try, let me know how it goes in the comments below! 

Here are some excellent options for fresh herbs in a garlic compound butter.  

• Chives
• Dill 
• English thyme
• Lemon basil
• Onion greens
• Oregano
• Parsley
• Rosemary
• Sweet basil
• Tarragon

How to Use Garlic Scape Compound Butter

The garlic scapes in this recipe are raw, so the butter is best suited for pan frying, oven roasting and even makes a tasty addition to homemade soups! Here are my favorite ways to use it in our cottage kitchen. 

• Pan fried trout 
• Fried venison steaks 
• Beef steaks or stew meat
• Pork chops
• Oven roasted vegetables (asparagus and carrots are a favorite). 
• Ham and corn chowder
• Chicken soup

My favorite way to use garlic scape butter? I toss a chunky pat loaded with fresh dill in the cast iron skillet and fry up fresh trout that we catch on nearby rivers.

So delicious!