# How do you use a stick of butter in the butter dish? Scrape or slice **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [July 16, 2021, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-use-a-stick-of-butter-in-the-butter-dish-scrape-or-slice/946665 "2021-07-16T20:41:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-use-a-stick-of-butter-in-the-butter-dish-scrape-or-slice/946665/21 "2021-07-17T14:19:03Z")
If it’s sweet corn season that butter stick is getting corn rolled! ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-use-a-stick-of-butter-in-the-butter-dish-scrape-or-slice/946665/22 "2021-07-17T14:38:20Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I’ve been reading this wondering what, exactly, it means to scrape, and why you’d do that. And it suddenly came to me that people are using their butter to spread on bread and want thin curls to distribute it evenly. > > From this, you might guess that almost all of our butter is used for cooking. I mean “cooking” rather broadly, including sprinkling the veggies with some butter before nuking them. And more formal stuff, like making cornbread. > > I guess i spread butter on toast… Well, maybe half or a third of the sticks of butter we use have been used for buttering bread. Yes, we have separate butter for cooking/baking that we get out when needed, and the butter dish is for spreading the fancy butter (Kerrygold or whatever) on bread, bagels, baked potatoes, etc., which we do a lot of. Though even among the heavy butter dish users, we have one slicer. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-use-a-stick-of-butter-in-the-butter-dish-scrape-or-slice/946665/23 "2021-07-17T14:57:15Z")
That makes sense. We only serve butter for spreading maybe every other week, so it doesn’t make sense to keep a dish of it just for that. It might be relevant that our most common dinner starch is rice. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ajmakria](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@ajmakria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ajmakria)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-use-a-stick-of-butter-in-the-butter-dish-scrape-or-slice/946665/24 "2021-07-17T15:23:38Z")
Slicing vs. scraping. Toast being buttered with a square portion off the end vs. a stick being scraped. [https://youtu.be/kYRHGq0beAA](https://youtu.be/kYRHGq0beAA) [https://youtu.be/DsTnMJkLBrY](https://youtu.be/DsTnMJkLBrY) ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-use-a-stick-of-butter-in-the-butter-dish-scrape-or-slice/946665/25 "2021-07-17T15:33:49Z")
Internet Rule 34: There is porn for it; No exceptions. ---
**Author:** ![ajmakria](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@ajmakria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ajmakria)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-use-a-stick-of-butter-in-the-butter-dish-scrape-or-slice/946665/26 "2021-07-17T19:46:39Z")
🤢 🤢 🤮 That’s just gross! The strange thing is though that there are people who actually do that!! ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-use-a-stick-of-butter-in-the-butter-dish-scrape-or-slice/946665/27 "2021-07-17T19:55:32Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Why not just go for convenience? Because that abomination is mostly vegetable oil, and it makes the Baby Jeebus cry. This thread is about butter, which is made 100% entirely from moo-cow milk. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-use-a-stick-of-butter-in-the-butter-dish-scrape-or-slice/946665/28 "2021-07-17T20:11:31Z")
> [@chela](#): > > corn rolled! I know people say this, but I prefer fresh corn on the cob without salt or butter. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-use-a-stick-of-butter-in-the-butter-dish-scrape-or-slice/946665/29 "2021-07-17T21:57:33Z")
True dat maybe skip the hot pot eat it raw too! ---
**Author:** ![ajmakria](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@ajmakria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ajmakria)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-use-a-stick-of-butter-in-the-butter-dish-scrape-or-slice/946665/30 "2021-07-17T23:35:55Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > > [@chela](#): > > > > corn rolled! > > I know people say this, but I prefer fresh corn on the cob without salt or butter. I don’t like butter on corn either, just a little salt if anything. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-use-a-stick-of-butter-in-the-butter-dish-scrape-or-slice/946665/31 "2021-07-18T04:04:36Z")
I used to butter my corn, and i liked it well enough. But now i prefer it without butter or salt. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-use-a-stick-of-butter-in-the-butter-dish-scrape-or-slice/946665/32 "2021-07-18T04:56:22Z")
Corn gets unsalted butter and no salt. Butter-dish-wise, slicing. Growing up scraping was the norm. But as **CairoCarol** said… > [@CairoCarol](#): > > it’s so…imprecise. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-use-a-stick-of-butter-in-the-butter-dish-scrape-or-slice/946665/33 "2021-07-18T16:33:59Z")
I’m a slicer, always have been. Precise measurement being an option must never be sacrificed. But I’ve been spending a lot of time at my fiancée’s house and her sister lives there too. I buy Kirkland butter at Costco, but apparently that’s not good enough for her, so she goes on Instacart and has Challenge butter delivered. That’s not what drives me crazy, though. What drives me crazy is when she leaves a partial stick of butter on the butter dish _STILL WRAPPED UP IN ITS FOIL/PAPER WRAPPER_! She doesn’t slice or scrape, either. She hacks off how much butter she wants, then peels the wrapper off the chunk! It’s just a good thing her grandkids are cute. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-use-a-stick-of-butter-in-the-butter-dish-scrape-or-slice/946665/34 "2021-07-18T17:07:04Z")
Hehehe, I leave the wrapper on the butter, too. Heck, we normally don’t even put it in a butter dish. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-use-a-stick-of-butter-in-the-butter-dish-scrape-or-slice/946665/35 "2021-07-18T17:58:15Z")
I leave the paper on, too. How else will i be able to cut off 3 tablespoons otherwise? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-use-a-stick-of-butter-in-the-butter-dish-scrape-or-slice/946665/36 "2021-07-18T18:06:13Z")
Ditto here. Room temp butter in a dish works for for me. In the case of refrigerated butter, I’ll go either which way. I used to always slice, but now that I discovered those little quasi-serrated edges (whatever you call them) on my dinner knife do a fine job of shaving the butter into a nice thin strip, that I do that, as well. It makes no difference to me as to the shape of the stick for the spreading and cooking butter. For baking and stuff, I just use whatever’s in the fridge and cut the stick to the appropriate quantity. For the vast majority of things I do not need to know _exactly_ how much butter I have. I never measure it except for making, and, even then, I go as often by weight as by volume. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-use-a-stick-of-butter-in-the-butter-dish-scrape-or-slice/946665.md?page=1)