Do you keep butter out of the fridge?

[Beamsss]

Where I work we provide a mid morning snack for service users, usually toast/teacakes/crumpets.

There has been a request for "real" butter. This is being resisted by the kitchen staff, not on cost grounds, but because spreading butter makes the job a whole lot harder.

I get that if the butter is kept in the fridge, but at home I keep mine on the side all year round. Only unopened packs in the fridge.

The kitchen is horrified at this suggestion, insisting that if it was unrefridgerated for 4 (?) hours it would have to be thrown away, but it doesn't seem to come to harm at home.

I'm sure they're right about regulations, but what do others do at home?

On the side, glass butter dish. Unless it’s scorching warm weather, then the fridge (but it’s an arse to spread then).

Butter out of the fridge in a butter dish. Not a full pack but enough for a couple of days.

It will go rancid very quickly in this heat unless you have a butter crock where it sits in water and maintains the temperature of the water

Love my butter crock

I cut smaller bits off to put in the dish in summer and leave it out. I can do what I want at home though!

Spreadable butter?

We keep maybe a quarter of a larger-size Kerrygold in a ceramic butter dish on the counter, in all but the hottest weather. I can confirm it certainly doesn’t go back after a few hours. But presumably commercial hygiene standards are different if you’re providing food for service users?

I keep butter on the side in a glass butter dish. Never had a problem with it going rancid, even in the summer. It lasts usually 4-7 days (before we’ve eaten it all)

It doesn't though. I mean we get through it fairly quickly, it's not hanging around for weeks, but I haven't experienced rancid butter since I left home, where my mother used to save real butter for high days and holidays, so when it came out, it could be months old.

I 100% keep butter out at home, but DH is a chef and this definitely would not be allowed in a professional environment particularly for larger blocks. They might be able to get away with it by taking out a small number of pre-packed little pats at a time?

Salted butter can safely sit on the counter for 1-2 weeks at room temperature, kept in a covered dish away from direct sunlight and heat. Salt acts as a preservative and the high fat content (low moisture and protein) makes it an inhospitable environment for most bacteria. This is standard practice across most of Europe, the French in particular never refrigerate butter.

Nov-March yes - but in the heat I put it in the fridge - on toast/crumpets it doesn’t need to be soft, for butties just take it out a bit before.

Surely the normal way of doing this is they give you a couple of those little packets of butter on the side in the foil, which you warm up in your hand to melt it a bit?

Creates waste I appreciate so not perfect solution.

On the kitchen counter in a Lakeland insulated stainless steel butter dish that was advertised as keeping butter cool all day long.
It usually does, however the recent heatwaves and hot weather in past years defeated its functionality, as the butter became liquid. ☹️

Yes, same, it's OK most of the year but once the kitchen temp goes above about 30 which it did last week it has to go in the fridge.

Same, except when it is very hot we whisk 50% of the weight of the butter in extra virgin oil into the softened butter so we can put it in the fridge and it remains spreadable - home made spreadable butter really

We always have salted butter on the side, in the warmer weather we only put a small amount out each day

I usually keep in the fridge and just microwave what I want when I want it. Did used to keep it out, but got fed up finding it either too hard or completely melted. Plus I have unsalted, which I'm not sure is ok sitting out too long. If I remember, I do take it out an hour or two before I need it, and certainly in this weather that's enough. Could you just take it out first thing when you get in, then by mid-morning it should be fine, especially for hot food.

Same, but we use a metal dish. Never had it go off on the counter. Just keep it away from the window or any heat sources (kettle/cooker etc).

They do spreadable Kerrygold butter and others. Can the not just buy that? Just take out of the fridge when breakfast prep starts and it's fine.

You can do things at home that you can’t in the workplace to do with food hygiene. If anyone got ill, they could be in trouble, regardless of how likely it is.

On the side in a Le Creuset butter dish.

I have worked in commercial kitchens and they must stick to the rules. They have no choice in the matter.

At home I leave butter out for weeks, eat leftovers six days after making them, don't bother cooling rice quickly, etc. I would have got into a lot of trouble doing any of that in a commercial kitchen.

Real butter (not spreadable butter) won’t go rancid in a week, I keep it out all year whatever the weather.

But you need to find the rules for where you are. It doesn’t sound like you’re selling food to the general public, so you just need to find out what you can and cant do.

On the side in a butter dish, never had any issues with it going off but we do get through quite a lot so probably doesn’t have the time to.

This 👆