I made a chilli con carne last night and used a heston blumenthal tip of making 'finishing butter'. It's lime juice and zest, chilli powder, cumin, worcestershire sauce, tabasco, ketchup and parmesan mixed into butter. It reminded me of this idea as there's a big savoury combo.
It's stirred in at the end, like when making a risotto or french gravy. It tasted nice and the meal was good and savoury enough that i didnt need MSG. How much difference did it make? I dont know but i suppose enough because i often find the savouriness lacking when using (supermarket) beef mince and tomatoes. The lime was nice but could be reduced to make the butter more universal. It's made out of stuff you've probably got lying around and it's quite a cool ingredient to have kicking about your fridge. Now to think up more things to use it for...