Butter on the counter… if I had my way, that is. I’m from the frozen north. Mr. Athena is mostly from Texas, with a little California and a lot of Colorado thrown in. He thinks butter goes rancid if it’s left on the counter overnight.
I hate hard butter.
So we compromised and got a butter bell. It works great, except when I forget to fill it up. Then the “Athena takes out a stick of butter and puts it on the counter, only to have Mr. Athena grab it 10 minutes later and put it back in the fridge” wars begin.
Butter is always in the fridge. One of my college professors would always talk about the smell of rancid butter and I never knew what he was talking about. I guess he left his butter on the counter. :dubious:
A question for TeaElle and ratatosKK, doesn’t air conditioning eliminate the need to store butter in the fridge in the summer? My house is colder in the summer than it is at any other time of the year.
At work, in a bell, so as not to freak out my co-workers.
At home, on the counter, covered, but on the counter.
Yes, butter can go rancid, but it takes nearly forever for it go bad. I can easily finish a stick way before having to worry about the butter being off.
Illinois here, and I prefer butter on the counter, it’s the way my Ma does it. The girlfriend however only eats hydrogenated butteresque emulsions of oil and therefore continually puts the butter away. The poor dear…
My family keeps it out (European mutt heritage, but the most recent developments of cultural import, I suppose, are my paternal French grandmother and my mother’s military background. I am fairly sure the military bit had nothing to do with it). fizzy’s (Southern, English unskilled laborer heritage) keeps it in the fridge.
On looking at Cluricaun’s post I note that a not-insignificant part of my mother’s lineage grew up in Illinois. I wonder if perhaps that does have something to do with it. I certainly had not previously considered “she’s from Illinois” as being of cultural import:D
I keep it in the fridge. When I lived in Germany I had a friend who kept it in the cupboard and it did keep it a nice consistency. But old habits die hard…plus there is that little compartment on the fridge door for it
Huh. I’ve never even heard of keeping the butter on the counter. And what the heck is a butter bell? (off to Google) I’m from the deep South with all Southern relatives so I guess that’s why. I always assumed butter was like most dairy products and would go bad fast. I guess that before the advent of air conditioning (and w always used it sparingly at my house anyway), you couldn’t keep butter on the counter in the South…
I grew up in Illinois. My grandparents always left the butter sitting out covered on the counter. My mom always had big tubs of partially hydrogenated whatever, so that was always kept in the fridge.
I always keep the butter in the fridge until about an hour before I want to use it. Mostly because I don’t trust unrefrigerated dairy products and it says right on the package to keep it refrigerated.
This is what we do, learned it from my Grandma. I’m in Alberta, Canada.
I really don’t like oleo, I’ll eat it but I prefer butter. The butter must be soft because if you try to spread it on your sandwich while it’s hard the bread tears, or you get butter chunks. Chunks are not good, butter must be spread evenly over the sandwich.
I always leave it on the counter and have never had it go rancid. Perhaps butter nowadays is pasteurized? The only problem is that in the summer it tends to separate, which makes it hard to spread.
Butter is almost pure fat, and will not support the kind of mold or bacterial growth that is a problem with more watery dairy products; it’s never pasteurized. It’s also highly saturated, and is therefore unlikely to go rancid very quickly (rancidity is a chemical process). You can therefore keep butter out of the refrigerator without fear, as long as it’s eaten within the week. I can’t imagine how hot it must be where Dewey Finn lives, to clarify butter on the countertop!
I usually keep my butter in the fridge, and my mom did, too, for most of my childhood. But she recently got a butter bell that keeps it fresh on the counter. I’m thinking of getting one, too.
I used to keep it on the counter when I used it a lot; now I use it so infrequently that I keep it in the fridge. I figured out a great way for softening butter from the fridge quickly for spreading on my toast or whatever: a cheese grater. I just pass the stick across the grater a few times, and within moments the curls are nice and soft and spreadable.
Texas, here. I grew up with my mom leaving it on the counter, covered, but they refrigerate theirs now. I also refrigerate. I don’t use it much, and we refrigerate almost everything that is cooked or baked or was refrigerated at the store anyway (including cookies, cake, everything). I don’t think I could convince my husband to leave it on the counter even if I were inclined to. He grew up with a mom that still leaves raw chicken to thaw on the counter and doesn’t think anything of leaving cooked food out for 6+ hours and then re-serving the leftovers. We both have a near phobia with regards to food safety.
1 stick (about 125 grams) in a covered dish on the counter; the rest of the pound in the butter bin in the fridge. Spare butter in the freezer; unsalted butter for baking in the freezer. The reason butter is salted is to keep it from going rancid. With the way we use butter, I don’t think one stick could last long enough to go rancid even if it were unsalted.
I’m currently in Virginia; recently upstate New York. My parents were from New England and I got the habit from them.
In the winter in New York, the butter on the counter was almost as hard as fridge butter in the morning, until the heat had been on for a while.
I talked about this same thing in my journal a few days ago as I celebrated the discovery of a dog proof butter dish
I live in southwest Ohio and we store our butter in the freezer and eat the butter dish at room temp. I try to keep the dish in the cupboard most of the time but if the dogs can reach it they will eat it. It’s an obsession really.
My new butter dish is great because 1. it has a tight seal so it doesn’t smell as strong to tempt the doggies and 2. you need thumbs to open it. Dogs don’t have thumbs so… no butter for bowser.
