Do you leave your butter sit out at room temp?
I've heard of some people doing this...just like cheese is best at room temp I think butter is too?! thoughts?
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
Start Talking!
Need a question answered? Have advice to share? Start a Talk topic now!
Sign up to get your questions answered and share advice.
15 Comments:
We do it all the time at work, no problem as we use it up quickly. I use a french butter bell ( I think that is what it is called) and had some problems when it was hot and I did not change the water daily. For the rest of the summer I will be keeping the butter refrigerated.
baygal at 3:22AM on 07/06/07
I leave it out most of the time. If it's really hot it get too soft & then it goes in the fridge.
NanaJoie at 5:32AM on 07/06/07
Is there any other way? We consume it about twice as much (as it's easier to spread...on ANYTHING), so that might not be such a good thing.
Chaoss at 8:36AM on 07/06/07
Call me a philistine, but I loathe room temperature butter, unless spread very very thin, as one would for a tea sandwich. Otherwise, chilled please.
Barbara Hanson at 10:53AM on 07/06/07
To me spreadable butter seems awesome.
However, I have always refrigerated my butter, I am willing to admit my own ignorance about this subject, but wouldn't the butter go bad very quickly? Or breed up lots of bacteria without the cold to inhibit them?
SkinnyFatty at 11:18AM on 07/06/07
I'm with you BaHa... chilled butter always tastes better to me...
pbisNOTmyname at 12:11PM on 07/06/07
Only time I leave it out is when softening it for a recipe.
hereandthe at 12:14PM on 07/06/07
Funny that this thread came up...my s-i-l has taken to leaving the butter on the counter in a ceramic butter dish. I keep wondering if it's safe b/c from what little I know, the water in a butter bell keeps moisture in and maintains the level of food safety. I just don't know if it's safe to keep it in a butter dish, which has no water in it.
Since I don't use a lot of butter in general, I tend to keep one stick of butter in my fridge (in the paper) for 'rubbing' on toasted items, corn, and even on the bottom of the pan when making eggs. The other stick is for when I want an actual pat of butter on something (pretty rare for me) and/or when guests are here.
Curlz at 12:49PM on 07/06/07
The nice thing about butter is that if it is remotely bad/rancid, you will know it as soon as you taste it! Butter won't go bad left out (but covered) for at least a week, if not longer (butter never lasts that long in my house).
adrienne m at 1:00PM on 07/06/07
At my parents' house there is usually some room temperature butter... just on a plate. It gets used quickly. I don't use much on my own, so it's in the fridge.
lisbear18 at 3:01PM on 07/06/07
I don't use butter much now, so it stays in the fridge. But growing up, we always had a stick of butter out on a covered ceramic butter dish. Never had any problems with it going rancid - it got used up quickly.
K at 9:07AM on 07/07/07
I generally leave my butter out. I prefer it to be spreadable at a moment's notice. About ten years ago I was a guest for a pancake breakfast and my host used chilled butter. When I complained that it was hard to spread he told me, IHHO, that the ecstacy of biting into the pure flavor of a hunk of butter in the middle of bite of pancakes is unrivaled. I had to hand it to him, I didn't convert but I liked his perspective and enjoyed that one-time ecstacy...
czken at 12:44PM on 07/07/07
What causes butter to go rancid is exposure to air, not temperature. There's not enough water in butter for it to breed bacteria. The reason butter seems to keep so much better in the fridge is the it's kept tightly wrapped up, something which doesn't work as well when the butter is soft. A covered butter-dish, especially one with a good seal, will keep butter pretty well for a week or so. A butter bell, which uses water to minimize contact with air, will keep it a little longer. If you really want to maximize the shelf-life of unwrapped butter, use a Food Saver and one of the small lidded containers you can get that work with them, and suck out all the air every time you use the butter. Seems like a lot of trouble to me, but there you go.
I use a butter bell.
thepictsie at 6:14PM on 07/07/07
soft butter is not cool. prefer hard
bobr at 6:27PM on 07/07/07
When I worked in a bakery, they left tons of butter out of the fridge for days. I , personally, only leave it out for a recipe that calls for room temp butter, otherwise, I keep it cold.
Mich23 at 9:14AM on 07/08/07