I received this butter keeper as a gift. Now, I know how the more common “French” crock that holds the butter underwater works, but this one has no such feature. It’s basically a regular butter dish that is placed into a larger dish filled with water. There’s no seal that keeps air away from the butter.
As far as I can tell, the only function the water will have is to buffer large changes in room temperature and keep the butter relatively cool. Overall, though, it doesn’t seem substantially different from any other butter dish.
Is there something I’m missing, or will my enjoyment of non-rancid soft butter largely depend on using all of the butter quickly?
Cleophus, did you read the reviews on that site? One person said that they had another butter keeper like this and the butter dish had an unglazed bottom (this one did not). The unglazed (porous) bottom would mean that water could seep into the dish where the butter sits. Seems like that would be a better design than this one… but the reviewers seemed to like it.
I don’t know about this one, but the basic problem with butter for me is not the going rancid - it only keeps for 2 weeks anyway - but the decision between fridge and table.
Put the butter in the fridge, and it gets rock-hard, so you have to wait ages before you can spread it onto your bread when you just want to make a quick sandwich.
Leave it on the table, and it melts into a soggy mess.
A butter cooler that works with evaporation - hence the water - will avoid both extremes and hit the optimum temp. of soft enough to spread but cold enough to not make a mess.
Well, you only need a cooled butter crock during the summer anyway, when the inside temp. gets above 20 C. Most private homes here don’t have air-condition, because it’s not considered necessary*. Of course, back in the 19th century when these crocks were developed (hence they are all pottery), US homes also had no air-condition, and not every home had a cool cellar.
Today, you could put the butter into the fridge to keep it from melting, but people are re-discovering the old methods that work.
Only three months at most, June, July, August, will be really hot, the rest moderate. Heating in winter is more important. Installing aircondition into an existing house would cost a lot of money and involve a big renovation, for small comfort. When it’s hot inside, we complain a bit, take a drink, go swimming or in the beer garden. The most is putting up a small electric fan.
