How long does butter keep out of fridge in a butter dish?

[BendyBobCratchit]

I don't use butter all the time but sometimes I and dd prefer it on toast or a crumpet here and there.

As it's so hard to use straight from the fridge I've taken to keeping some in a butter dish (like my grandma used to)

But how long will a block keep like that in a covered dish? I just threw quite a big bit away worried that afer a few days it wouldn't be ok.

Ours stays there for days (if the butter lasts that long). Really not something I ever worry about.

Until it's used up I think.

I keep mine in a butter dish all year round, it's never gone off. I'm sure you'd be ok in winter anyway.

It should be ok for a few days. Never lasts that long around here.

Just put a small chunk in at any given time, if you don't use much, and leave the rest in the fridge.

Aah I see so it lasts pretty well. I thought it might go off or rancid. Oh.. wish I hadn't chucked it out now, it wasn't an old bit.

My butter dish experiment is a new idea here - I've never done it before. You hear so much about how butter isn't ok for you that for years I've avoided it and used margarine - but it's sooo much nicer.

How to tell if butter has gone off:

It goes a darker yellow, and has a rancid smell to it. Along its cut edge it looks greasy. If you eat it, it has a weird tang you can sometimes feel in your jaw.

If it still looks, smells, and tastes like butter, it's fine.

Butter is perfectly ok for you - it is a less processed and arguably a far more natural product than Margarine.

caveat - unless you're getting through a pat a day of course....

Not quite that much.

Thanks everyone! Buttered crumpets all the way then.

I worked in a restaurant and we NEVER refrigerated butter or mayonnaise. They'd sit in the larder for several weeks sometimes, and be absolutely fine.