# Butter
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 13, 2018, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288 "2018-09-13T19:13:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/1 "2018-09-13T19:13:15Z")
What is a person supposed to do who wants to spread butter on his toast?
1. Leave butter out at room temperature. It goes rancid before you can use it up.
2. Keep butter in refrigerator. Too hard to even get a pat off the stick, let alone spread it on toast.
3. Keep butter in refrigerator and try to remember to take it out an hour before you want toast. Good luck with that.
4. Keep butter in refrigerator, try to soften in microwave. This can work, but if you aren’t super careful you are left with a partial stick of butter and a pile of melted goo.
5. Keep butter in refrigerator and use a [butter grater](https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dgarden&field-keywords=butter+grater&rh=n%3A1055398%2Ck%3Abutter+grater) or similar device to get spreadable bits of butter. I’ve never tried this, but the reviews on these devices are not encouraging, mainly because they seem to be poorly engineered and/or poorly made with cheap materials.
I should have this figured out by this time in my life, but mostly I’ve just given up buttering toast or bread. That’s probably better for me anyway.
What say the teeming masses?
---
### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/2 "2018-09-13T19:14:47Z")
I just leave it out. Except in summer, when it gets all melty.
---
### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/3 "2018-09-13T19:15:12Z")
Get a knife-warmer.
---
### Author:  [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/4 "2018-09-13T19:19:59Z")
It takes salted butter a while to go bad - if yours has a habit of turning on you, clearly the solution is to eat more butter
---
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/5 "2018-09-13T19:21:11Z")
Get a [butter keeper](https://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Andersons-Baking-Earthenware-3-5-Inches/dp/B001A2YQUM).
---
### Author:  [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/6 "2018-09-13T19:21:52Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#):
>
> What is a person supposed to do who wants to spread butter on his toast?
>
> 1. Leave butter out at room temperature. It goes rancid before you can use it up.
>
> 2. Keep butter in refrigerator. Too hard to even get a pat off the stick, let alone spread it on toast.
Take a small portion out. Leave the rest in the fridge. As you use up the stuff that’s out, bring more out.
---
### Author:  [@squidfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squidfood)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/7 "2018-09-13T19:23:18Z")
For my house, #1, while making sure to eat so much butter that it never gets to “rancid”.
But how about a mix of 1 and 3: cut the stick in half (or thirds or whatever depending on your eating speed) and keep the smaller portion out? If your trigger for taking out the next portion is when you use up the previous portion (instead of “an hour before”), you’re likely to remember better.
---
### Author:  [@EscAlaMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EscAlaMike)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/8 "2018-09-13T19:23:25Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#):
>
> 1. Leave butter out at room temperature. It goes rancid before you can use it up.
Maybe we eat a lot of butter in my house, but this is what we do and we’ve never had that problem.
---
### Author:  [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/9 "2018-09-13T19:23:59Z")
I’ve never seen or heard of rancid butter in my whole life. I always keep it out on the counter. I think your “goes rancid before you can use it up” is wildly overstating things.
If you hardly ever use butter, just put a couple tablespoons out on the counter instead of a whole stick. You know, if you’re really worried about it going rancid.
---
### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/10 "2018-09-13T19:25:44Z")
I only put out a third of a stick at a time and keep a damp dish towel over the dish in warm months.
Depending on humidity, the butter stays 10-13F cooler than the room.
---
### Author:  [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/11 "2018-09-13T19:46:38Z")
As soon as said toast emerges from the toaster, while still hot, place the butter you intend to spread on it in the middle, then wait. By the time you have poured your coffee or tea, the butter will be soft enough to spread, but will not have melted entirely into the toast.
Alternative: peanut butter.
---
### Author:  [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/12 "2018-09-13T19:54:13Z")
I microwave my butter. 15 seconds is perfect with only a very small amount of butter goo.
---
### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/13 "2018-09-13T19:59:33Z")
In warm weather, take the butter dish out of the fridge shortly before you’re ready to make toast, and cut several thin slivers.
By the time the toast is ready, the slivers should be soft enough to spread.
In cool or cold weather, just leave the butter out all the time.
---
### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/14 "2018-09-13T20:37:40Z")
Get the half butter, half something else, spreadable stuff. Land-o’-lakes makes one, I think. Or get the ‘I can’t believe it’s not butter’ stuff. That shit’s good. I am not a purist about butter unless I am baking.
---
### Author:  [@CurrlyD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurrlyD)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/15 "2018-09-13T20:45:25Z")
Betty bought some butter but the butter Betty bought was bitter. So Betty bought some better butter to make the bitter butter better. But the bitter butter made the better butter bitter.
Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.
---
### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/16 "2018-09-13T20:48:55Z")
I leave it in the fridge and use a sharp-ish knife to cut slivers to spread over my bread. Slivers warm up quickly, and can mostly be manually placed around.
My husband leaves it out. It oxidizes a little around the edges, but it’s never actually gone bad.
---
### Author:  [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/17 "2018-09-13T20:55:39Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#):
>
> In warm weather, take the butter dish out of the fridge shortly before you’re ready to make toast, and cut several thin slivers.
>
> By the time the toast is ready, the slivers should be soft enough to spread.
>
> In cool or cold weather, just leave the butter out all the time.
This is what I do except for keeping the butter out. At any time of the year. I’m in SoCal, though, so maybe it’s colder where you are in winter. I’m a huge butter fan, and I hate if it’s even the least bit not fresh. Maybe, I’m HYPERsensitive, but, hey, I know what I like.
Related story: We were relatively poor when I was growing up, and my mother only bought margarine. My grandmother gave us toast and jam at her house when I was about four. I thought it was the best jam I’d ever tasted! It wasn’t the jam; it was the butter. Once I started buying my own groceries, I never ever bought margarine.
---
### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/18 "2018-09-13T21:06:08Z")
We take a good long while to finish a stick. Despite **Mrs. FtG** cooking and using it from the butter tray for small amounts sometimes. OTOH I can go several weeks without using it. And a warm climate as well.
It doesn’t go rancid. Just keep the cover on it, that’s it.
---
### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/19 "2018-09-13T21:51:19Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#):
>
> I leave it in the fridge and use a sharp-ish knife to cut slivers to spread over my bread. Slivers warm up quickly, and can mostly be manually placed around.
Now that’s just crazy talk.
---
### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2018, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288/20 "2018-09-13T21:59:53Z")
I leave my butter out in a covered butter dish. I have never had it go rancid. We use one to two sticks per week.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter/821288.md?page=2)