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!

Our butter dish lives in the breadbin. Years ago, I read that butter could be safely left out for 2 weeks without refrigeration. It never lasts that long though. Ignore what the Yanks say, they are weird cos they keep eggs in the fridge.

I have 2 butter dishes containing blocks of butter. One is always sat on the counter in the kitchen and the other on the dining room table.
Neither have ever gone rancid and they're in the dish for anything upto two weeks at a time.
I keep the eggs in a glass bowl on the counter too.
We're still alive and healthy.

I have a perfect system for dealing with the summer and a DP who knows on some level that butter doesn't need to be in the fridge but gets confused about whether it's supposed to be as liquid as 'spread' (more like fucking 'pour' in summer - 'pour straight into the bin and go and buy some decent butter', IMO) or actually still at butter consistency.

September - June: Butter in dish, preferably on cold windowsill next to the china egg chicken. Possibly on countertop in depth of winter.

Dog Days: Butter in dish in fridge. DP complaining that the butter is too hard and microwaving the entire block repeatedly. Replacement butter goes into freezer in anonymous packaging until September to prevent any reoccurrence of this abomination. Olive oil comes out.

Of course, then we get the 'but this is the expensive extra virgin olive oil for bread and salads, not for frying sausages no I'm not telling you exactly how expensive because you'll have a fit' and 'WTF is this? This isn't olive oil, it's 85% vegetable with a picture of an olive tree on the front, I don't care if it's cheaper, it tastes like disappointment and old deep fat fryers' conversations. But they're on a par with 'I know Saxa is cheaper than flakes. That's because it's for killing slugs and getting mud off your hands, not making food taste good - no way on earth am I eating at Lo-Salt/if I want more potassium, I'll eat a bloody banana on top of the salmon, avocado, spinach and sweet potatoes I eat every week' chats.

Why all this fuss when you can cut a chunk of butter, enough for the day, off the block, put it into a mini butter dish and repeat the next day?

Perhaps butter doesn't go off but it does oxidise and change colour if left out for a great length of time and on hot days it can melt and go runny. If you just cut 30-40g off at a time and put the rest back in the fridge wrapped in its foil, it keeps better than a 250g block sitting melting, setting, melting, setting...

Nothing melts in our cottage, when we had that freak 40 degree weather the butter was still hard in our kitchen (which stayed well below 20 degrees and I still had a 9 tog duvet)!

Another myth

I leave it out all the time

Spreadable butter is much cheaper - £4.18 a week, two tubs of Sainsbury's own v double that or more when we were going through the equivalent in block butter a week Yes, it may be cheaper but it is no way like butter - more like a slightly better tasting margarine 😫

As for the glass butter dish with the cow on the lid, I'm sure we got ours from Wilkos absolutely years ago. That might explain why so many of us have the same one!

It tastes pretty good and I can get away with only putting a tiny bit on my toast. I didn't really like any butter other than the Aldi West Country Butter anyway. Very nice, and we had lovely salted butter for a couple of years, but it just makes me eat loads of it, like fresh white bread, there is loads of waste from it being slightly too runny or not being quite the right consistency to spread so you end up with half a pound on a slice, it's twice as expensive and is no good when I'm trying to cut calories. And with five people in the house I was forever buying butter. The spreadable stuff lasts much longer. It is not the same as margarine as it's butter + rape seed oil only, and I use olive oil and cold pressed rape seed oil every day anyway as they are much more versatile or have a nicer flavour for cooking. I just don't want to spend an extra £260 a year on a particular food item that no-one is that bothered about.

I don't do it, after I found the cat licking the side of the dish

Noooo !
>> quickly googles which cows can be kept in a 12 foot square back yard <<<

No. It just means it’s room temperature.

Why are you reading US advice? It's a good hits world country masquerading as a developed nation.

FFS

It's a third world country...

Knowing the shite they eat in the US their butter is probably only half butter.

The only problem I have with this is you need to eat more butter * *

you can have a house cow

you know one of those miniature Highland cows?

Three foot high and weighing around half a ton.

Fuck doing that litter tray.

Unsalted butter might go rancid in a week in warmish weather. Salted butter won’t. Maybe the idea comes from places where most butter is unsalted, like France?

but think of the manure and the uses it could be put to!

your vegetable garden will be the envy of the village

Mines out like your's .... rarely last more than 4 days though and the weather has meant it's still a bit hard for spreading

Always out too ahah

because I want it « spreadready » 🫣. Goes in fridge only if very hot and melty…

I hate butter left out! I don't buy blocks of butter because I don't want to leave it out and it won't spread straight from fridge so I buy the spreadable butter. I also keep eggs in the fridge

The USDA are a bunch of fuss pots - remember it is virtually impossible to buy cheese made of unpasteurised milk in the US. You couldn’t buy fresh haggis there until recently had to be tinned etc. My only caveat to this if you were to leave your butter out for days in a house in Texas without air conditioning it would be rancid. Most of the U.K. not so much.

Keeping butter in a butter dish at room temperature is a common practice, aimed at ensuring it remains soft and spreadable. However, opinions and guidelines on this practice can vary, leading to confusion about the safety and quality implications.

Many people, have grown up with the tradition of keeping butter out in a butter dish. This method is convenient and keeps butter ready for immediate use. Butter dishes with lids are designed to protect butter from dust, light, and contaminants while keeping it at an ideal consistency for spreading.

Official guidelines often recommend that butter should not be left out at room temperature for more than one to two days. The USDA suggests that butter can be safely left out for up to two days, primarily to prevent it from becoming rancid or contaminated.

• Factors Affecting Butter SafetySalt Content: Salted butter is less prone to spoilage due to the preservative nature of salt.
• Room Temperature: Higher room temperatures (above 70°F or 21°C) can speed up the spoilage process.
• Exposure: Keeping butter covered in a dish with a lid reduces exposure to air and light, which can cause oxidation and rancidity.

Despite guidelines, many people store butter at room temperature without experiencing adverse effects. This is likely due to the relatively low moisture content in butter and its stability at moderate room temperatures. Anecdotal evidence, suggests that people often keep butter out for weeks without noticeable spoilage, indicating a degree of flexibility depending on individual circumstances.

While official guidelines suggest limiting the time butter is left out to one or two days, many people successfully store it in a butter dish for longer periods. Factors such as salt content, room temperature, and proper covering play crucial roles in maintaining butter quality and safety. Ultimately, personal experience and preference often guide this practice, with many finding that their butter remains safe and enjoyable for extended periods when stored properly.

Well AI has a long way to go before it will fool people into thinking a human wrote its output.