Poll: Where's your butter?

I want a salt pig.

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Ours is in the compartment in the fridge door, not rock hard, with lots more in the freezer downstairs. I hate rancid tasting butter, which is what it is if it sits out at room temp for a day or so. I have found over the years that people that leave their butter out and soft don't recognize the rancid taste that develops, but I sure notice it.

Same here and it gets used up mighty quickly as soon as it hits the counter. Sometimes I am using it at a rate of taking it straight from the freezer. We use a LOT of butter!

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Rock hard on the counter - in winter the temp in our kitchen isn't that much higher than the fridge! lol

Has anyone found low priced butter bells? I did a search and found them from $12 to near $100. The sites don't give much info about sizes, etc. If you have a good link, please post it. I'm seriously looking for one.

My butter is always in the fridge. In the climate where I live, 5 minutes outside the fridge, and it's oil, not butter.

A good thwack with a wooden spoon makes the butter soft enough to spread. Or a brief zap in the microwave, if you're not energetic, or are in a hurry.

Us too....I keep it actually on top of the fridge on a saucer with a ziplock around it. That way Sidekick can't get it, the can't doesn't go there. Since it wasn't an option, I voted the counter. But I keep the other in the fridge. Take one out when we need it.

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Most of it is in the freezer .
What we use day to day is usually in the icebox.

veme

I voted on the counter. What amuses me is when I have people here for dinner and they help to wash dishes after we eat. Invariably, the next time I want to use butter... I can't find it. I have to look in the refrigerator! You'd think they'd ask, but I guess those that keep it in the fridge never think about leaving it out?

Another thing, sometimes I mix olive oil half and half with butter. If that's the case, yes, it IS refrigerated or it's too sloppy to use as a spread. Tastes fine though, esp. if you salt the mix just a tad.

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I'm one of the "freezer, fridge, counter" folks. Heh... The Three Stages of Butter!

I got my butter bell at a garage sale. It's a lovely handthrown piece, and was only a couple dollars.

Pony!

I keep mine in the fridge, and take out what I need for the table when I start cooking. By the time dinner is done the butter is soft. Out house is so warm that leaving it out makes a mess as it all melts.

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Ours stays out on the counter 1 stick at a time for spreading and I use the refrigerated stuff for cooking. I did use a butter bell for a while but I didn't like it. Our house stays hot in the winter from the woodstove and Michigan summers are hotter than most people think. It seems that no matter how cold I kept the water in it the butter would get too warm and slide right out of the cup when it was upside down. Maybe it was just me???

Tami - Heritage Corner Poultry

Just change the water in it every day. Takes about 20 seconds to do that. That way it isn't rock hard, and the water touching the butter in the bell means no germs get to it...etc. and so on becuase it is not exposed to air when it is not in use.

Pat

Get a white one, they are about half the cost of colors.

My dh likes his butter soft and spreadable. Me, on the other hand, loves hard cold chunks of butter on my toast. NOTHING tastes better than eating a piece of toast and coming up on a big, hard, cold chunk of butter in the middle of it. YMMMMMMMMMMM

To me soft butter just makes toast soggy and I don't care for it at all. Diff'rent strokes I guess.

donsgal

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I didn't vote either, because here in the summer I keep it in fridg. winter one stick at a time stays on the counter. We don't use air conditioning so in the summer it melts if left out.

I have had butter get moldy if it wasn't used up in time in the summer. But back when we used margarine it would last forever.

I read somewhere? that unsalted (sweet) butter needs refrigerated and salted can sit out at room temperature. It makes sense to me as salt is a preservative.

I suppose it depends on temp. I only buy unsalted butter, but the temp rarely exceeds 25C (77F) in the kitchen. I guess we're spoiled but with outside temps over 100F for most of the year, with 110 just a normal summer high and humid besides, we consider air conditioning a necessity.

I have a covered dish for the butter, and never saw mold grow on it. Mold grows on bread in the refrigerator, but not on butter on the counter. And it takes us weeks to use up a stick of butter.

You read that right, we can't leave bread out. Mrs Dubai freezes her bread: I refrigerate mine, and still sometimes I get mold. I put it down to unsanitary conditions in the local bakeries. My home-made bread never gets moldy, but then it never lasts more than a day or two!

Excuse me, I feel the need to knead!

I keep mine in the fridge because we don't use it fast enough...and my mom and grandmothers always put it in the fridge so I do too....

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Stephanie

They say you are what you eat. Nuts must be more common in diets than we thought.

I have a plastic butter container on the counter at room temp for using daily (covered to keep the cats out of it!) and a one lb box in the fridge, which I'll soften and use when I bake or to fill the container on the counter... and several pounds in the freezer for later. I've never had a problem with it going bad, we use it pretty promptly and I'm sure we'd notice if it weren't the greatest long before it was unusable.

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~ Carol

Gosh, am I the only person in the universe who likes cold chunks of butter? I'm amazed.

donsgal

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