How long can butter be left out the fridge for (Stupid but genuine question)?

[pollykettlechips]

Butter is as hard as a brick if kept in the fridge and as we eat a lot of bread the past few days i've kept the butter out of the fridge (in a butter dish) but does it get all germy and bacterial or can it be kept out till it's finished. Been out for 3 days now.

it tends to go off a bit if you leave it too long, just tastes horrible

We almost never put the butter in the fridge, and noone's dead yet!

It will go rancid if left for weeks, I think, but we get through too much of it for it ever to reach that stage.

put out a smaller amount if you are worried

my nan never kept it in the fridge, always in a butter dish on the kitchen worktop. Although I wouldn't recommend on a hot day.

I get mine out about 1/2 before I am going to use it. I am always having this problem with hard butter ripping the bread.

Smaller amounts makes sense! Been leaving it out so it's soft for the morning rolls and packed lunches (i hate it when the bread rips) but will divide it up when i buy it. THanks all.

this dish keeps it cool enough

we dont put butter in fridge either. If i do, then i have to microwave it to melt it a bit, then it runs everywhere so i then was shoving it back in fridge to 'harden' again!

Never been ill with it and done it for years.

TheBlonde - no it doesn't. The review on the site says it is a crap product, as does my mother who also wasted her money on one.

[microbiologist hat]
it doesn't get germy, it just goes off

SaintGeorge - mine works fine
there is only one review and they put the dish in the fridge, not sure why?

I do not believe in putting butter in the fridge. It goes all solid and unspreadable.

Never sits around long enough to go off in this house!

Butter always kept in butter dish in kitchen here.

I bought that Lakeland dish and it doesn't work.

We have the same issue here. I hate hard butter and DH hates when I leave the butter out.

I tend to put it back in the fridge overnight. Hasn't gone off yet.

Salted or unsalted?

Erm....hate to be the bearer of bad news, but i was seriously ill last week off butter kept in the cupboard, and i NEVER want to feel like that again.

So i am v paranoid about butter not kept in the fridge now.

Ours always stays out - been doing it for years and never had any problems. Surely you'd taste the rancid taste if it had gone off ?

Forgot to add, it looked/smelt/ and tasted fine, and it was the only thing it could have been, and the pains/sickness kicked in within a few hours.

All i had eaten, was some toast (with lots of butter on lol), thats it, and the bread was fine.

Another one who leaves it out on the side is a covered dish. I usually put out about a third of a packet at a time and never had any problems either.

pucca first time I have ever heard of someone getting food posioning from butter. Some foods, (one I know of is mussels) can take over 24hours to make you ill and it is horrendous. Or it may have been a bug and not food related perhaps?

I always keep butter out of the fridge once it's opened. Never had any problems.

we always leave our butter out, but then this house is freezing on any but the hottest days .

Sometimes I put it in the fridge in the winter so it doesn't go so hard overnight...

On another note though, bit of a dodgy tummy bug going around. Just enough to make you queasy and squitty for a couple of days but everyone is saying 'must be something I ate'...

I have a funny stomach anyway, and if something is gonna make me ill, its within a couple of hours. It happened with some cheese pasta once.

It had to have been the butter, i had eaten nothing out of the ordinary (i stick to what i like etc) and all i had to eat was some toast with butter on. I was fine the next day, and was only sick the once, but had cramps so bad it was like labour pains.

see here