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?

Refrigerated butter dish??! They’re a thing and they’re amazing and I keep recommending them!

https://alfille.co.uk/product-category/butter-dishes/

You need new kitchen staff if they think that spreading a bit of butter is too much hard work!
Having said that, our butter is never refrigerated unless it’s very warm or it’s a fresh pack waiting in the fridge for the existing pack to be finished. I get that food hygiene requirements might mean it has to be refrigerated. If so, then take some out an hour before it will be needed or give it a blast in the micro for a few seconds to soften it. It’s not rocket science.

Our butter never goes rancid and stays on the side in a butter dish, I imagine we use it all up within a couple of days with spreading and cooking but definitely more than 4 hours. In a kitchen like that though, there will be strict regulation about dairy produce and refrigeration temp/storing methods. So they likely won't have a choice. We keep unopened packs in the fridge and they're rock hard.

No, speading a hundred bits of toast with fridge hard butter would be a ridiculous thing to ask.

In the fridge. I don't spread butter, I eat it in little chunks (of heaven).

Sort of. I keep blocks of butter in the fridge and cut off around 50g chunks to keep in a small tupperware in the bread cupboard. I really dislike fridge spreads and spreadable butter.

I do, apart from last week when it was over 30 degrees in my kitchen
However, I think that in a non domestic setting there are probably rules against it

In butter dish in microwave all year round. Heat and cold does not effect it at all. The constant putting in fridge, warming it up. That's when it goes manky.

Butter out of the fridge here. Lasts ages!

Yes, out of fridge

Yes. Out of the fridge here

Lives in a butter dish out all the time in winter. In summer I put enough butter for the day in the butter dish, and the rest of the pack stays in the fridge.

Could a couple of block of butter be chop into small pieces an placed on say a non metal tray/platter. The member of kitchen staff who arrives first to do breakfast remove them from fridge. By the time breakfast is set up the butter should be soft to work with easily. Similar for lunch remove another platter of blocks say 45 mins or so before serving.

We keep our butter out of the fridge. A commercial kitchen will have strict rules that they must adhere to for food being out so they may not be able to accommodate this.

I always keep butter out of the fridge and it's never gone off. I keep new packs in the fridge then get one out when the one in use is running low

Why don’t you just use something like lurpak spreadable it’s still proper butter surely

Grew up with it in a covered butter dish (the old style of butter that set like stone if refrigerated), but I actually prefer it cold on hot toast etc (as do our dogs, as they also like the mix of melted and unmelted lumps), so now we have Lurpak spreadable in the fridge.

Makes me a heathen, I know but …. Yum!

Butter dish on the side, all weathers.

I have a small amount out of the fridge. On really hot days I might put it back in. As it's a small amount I feel that if it goes off I'll just throw it.

Lurpak spreadable is only 64% butter. The rest is made up with rapeseed oil and water.

On the side all year round in a butter dish. I usually cut half a pack in half but I'd say that lasts at least a week sometimes longer and never gone rancid.

I keep mine for weeks on a plate in the cupboard. It's never gone off.

I keep mine on the kitchen counter in a ceramic butter dish. It never goes rancid. We usually use a pat of butter in 3-4 days and it's fine!

I have a butter dish on the side. Has never had mold on etc. occasionally, like if there’s a red weather warning I might put it in the pantry (old house) where it’s cooler just because I don’t want molten butter on my bread 😂

No it won’t. I don’t put my butter in the fridge and it never goes rancid before I can use it.