I have a block of cheddar in my fridge that is exceptionally good... But it is at least three years old. Does its age disqualify it from being considered good cheese in your opinion?

We better be careful. The hipsters might catch on and next think you know my slice of American is artisanal and costs $5 a square.

Although I’ve never tried recooling the butter... I was thinking melted butter in place of the butter. It might work in that case.

For that recipe I recommend you simmer the butter in water with the “herbs”. Allow it to cool and skim the resolidified butter off the water. The flavor compounds end up in the water, the “essential oils” go to the butter. Your cookies (or brownies) will be far more palatable.

I give this advice with the caveat that I don’t bake much, but in my experience if you melt the butter first it tends to hurt the texture of the final product. Cookies are thinner and more dense as one example.