Butter left out in a butter dish

[RedPringleGirl]

I have always kept my butter out in a butter dish with a lid. For as long as I can remember this was the done thing in order to have spreadable real butter. I literally thought this was what butter dishes were invented for.

Just read that you're not actually supposed to keep butter out for longer than 2 days.

How did I not know this!!! Mine stays out for weeks sometimes until the butter is all used up.

Well noone's dropped dead yet which I'll take as as a good sign. But please tell me I'm not the only one who's done this!

Hah! I’m in the US and have been eating Land ‘O Lakes butter from the butter dish sitting on the counter my entire life!

Disregard this ridiculous recommendation that it can’t be stored covered on a counter

It's fine, especially if salted. I'm very old and generations of our family have failed to die from rancid butter. We do like butter though, so it's not out for aeons or anything.

I'm an American who grew up and still live in the Land of Lakes region that woman is writing about for USDA. (I should do a AMA on American butter)

My DM, DGM and DGGM all kept butter in butter dishes with covers. I keep mine in one inherited from them. Yes, commercial butter in the States isn't very good but we splurge on local creamery butter at times which is probably more like UK butter.

We typically use ours up before it goes rancid. In hot summers, we also use a French butter cup that sits upside down in cold water that is changed daily to keep it cool OR we keep the butter dish in fridge and take it out an hour before dinner so we can spread butter on our bread. We also buy salted and unsalted butter depending on the recipe. My family immigrated from Scandinavian countries, so likely influenced them as well. We joke that butter is our spice.

Yes! It is. It costs a lot.

We put half a block in our butter dish and leave it out till it's finished. We get through it pretty quickly though.

It's dairy, it'll tell you when it's not good to eat.

Butter takes forever to go off, but when it does, the rancid taste is unmistakable.

I wouldn’t believe anything about food from an American source.

OP, you need a tiny butter dish like this:

https://www.futoncompany.co.uk/shop-by-product/home-accessories/breakfast-and-kitchen/reactive-glaze-mini-butter-dish.html?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwgdayBhBQEiwAXhMxtgO68tm1jXRI4tH982LxtXFUGbG41foVY2ZhqJdImzY-yqYjcJFDWhoCKewQAvD_BwE

Loads of different versions around. Cut a slice of butter sufficient for a day or two and put the full pack back in the fridge. Can't imagine leaving a full pack of butter out for two weeks and still expecting it to be fresh and not covered in toast crumbs.

I use a glass butter dish with a cow on the lid - butter stays out till it's finished - could be a couple of weeks. But we live in North West and it rarely gets that hot...
It sounds like you live in my house!
I didn't know Dh or Ds were on MN!

Mines been out since it was opened on Boxing Day.

American butter has a higher water content than UK/European butter. I know a few Americans who lived in the UK for a bit, then moved back to the USA, and they miss our butter, (among other things.) 😁

It lasts for a week in my tent (albeit a bit runny towards the end if we've had good weather)

That actually makes sense.

Half in the butter dish when you buy it, other half still in the foil in the fridge.

That way you only get half the decomposition.

Butter strategy revised.

It gets so cold in winter (Scotland 🥶) that I have to resort to spreadable Lurpak because the butter is rock hard even when left out 😫

Well according to a Korean study cited here, it takes 109 days for there to be any evidence of butter stored at room temperatures higher than typically found in the UK going bad.

https://www.seriouseats.com/best-butter-dishes-8549417

If toast crumbs are a problem, you just need to improve your technique.

I'd quite like a temperature controlled butter dish, to keep it a bit warmer, not cooler, but there only appears to be one kind available and it's expensive and quite fugly.

I have, however, found the butter dish for millionaires. £445 from Hermes, anyone?

We buy M&S softer butter in the winter, no need to resort to anything that's not 100% butter.

Always in a butter dish, has never once gone rancid.

Ooh, sounds like a game changer.

Butter is fine until it smells funny.

I cut my butter into pieces and just put a few pieces in the butter dish at a time and keep the other pieces in the fridge.

Irish butter used to be shipped on intercontinental routes back in the early 1800s, so clearly there's some room for flexibility here. Mind you I expect it was rancid as hell on arrival.

It's fine, I have mine in a ceramic butter dish with a lid left at room temperature, it's too hard to spread otherwise. I only put in fridge if very hot weather. Never goes rancid. My parents have always done this too and I've survived into my 40s! (North of UK)

Are butter dishes meant to make butter softer? I had butter out for weeks and it was still as solid as if it was in the fridge. I ended up having to microwave what I needed. I’ve gone back to spreadable butter now although I much prefer real butter.

No, it's just been cold. I'm not sure how they would make it softer?

I'm about to buy a butter dish.
We accidentally left an almost full tub of spreadable butter on the table overnight and into a sunny morning. It had separated and I tried to remix it to no avail.