Went to a friend’s house yesterday for dinner and noticed the butter dish was still on the table after we finished and were clearing the table. I put it back in the refrigerator (assuming it belonged in there), and she put it back on the table, explaining that her family always kept it there. “So it’s nice and soft for when we need it.”)
Okaaaaay…
Apart from the fact that a dairy product normally found in the refrigerated foods section of the store is sitting on the table with no covering (no lid on the glass dish), I can understand this reasoning. I personally hate ripping holes in perfectly good toast, crumbs flying everywhere, because the butter is still solid.
But gramma’s warnings about health and food safety still haunt me years later - “Butter is dairy, dairy foods belong in the icebox.”
So checking in with the fellow Dopers: do you leave the butter on the counter or put it back in the fridge?
And if you are a counter-leaver, why (IYHO) in gawd’sname would someone leave the butter uncovered? Bugs and dirt and cats, oh my, abound. But it’s not my house or my rules; I just don’t understand the reasoning.