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The butter-dish topic


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I have to confess that for the past 20 years my system for butter storage has most often been leaving it in its wax-paper or foil wrapper. As I use the butter it gets more unruly. Eventually I might transfer it to a zipper bag, or glass ramekin with plastic wrap on top.

I'm feeling that I need to upgrade my butter storage and would love to hear your solutions, ideas, thoughts, wit and wisdom.

I'm leaning against a traditional long rectangular butter dish because there are now so many shapes of butter in play: not just the normal East Coast sticks but also the US Western shape Trader Joe's sells, the brick shape that comes from European producers, and the irregular shapes of the Ben's butter I sometimes get at Fairway.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
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I use a butter crock like so , and will never go back. I like having spreadable butter all the time.

Growing up, my parents just left it on the counter (and still do) and I don't see anything wrong with that, though the outside does tend to get a little oxidized if you don't use it quickly. The butter crock makes that problem go away.

The only issue I have with mine is that occasionally the butter will not stick to the sides well and it slides into the water. But that's not really a big deal, just dump out the water and put it back.

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I have a stainless steel butter dish with a plastic lid, which is pretty much indestructible, even when one of my graceful moves causes it to plummet to the floor; the shape is essentially an inverted version of the Alessi ES03 Butter Dish, which is unfortunately a ridiculous price, but this Strauss stainless steel covered butter dish looks like it would meet your criteria, at a much better price point.

Michaela, aka "Mjx"
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mscioscia@egstaff.org

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Butter dishes in the little compartment in the refrigerator...sometimes in the wrapper. My preference is using the top cover to store the butter and not the lower sided bottoms. I am adverse to leaving butter on the counter-nothing scientific. My father uses Smart Balance and leaves it out so that every time I stop I find a butter plate where the oils have separated from the solids-it is a constant game where I then put it back in the refrigerator (and he must take it out again the moment I leave!)

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That, gentlemen, is the whirlingest dervish of them all." - The Professionals by Richard Brooks

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I keep the European brick of butter in the fridge door, but have a small plastic container that will hold a 2" end slice which is kept at my work area.

Midsummer it would be popped in the fridge overnight, but here in Englandland we have a temperate climate, Maritime at that so it rains often as well.

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I use a wide mouth half pint mason jar, and leave it out on the counter, and have done that for years. The jar has a lid, to keep dust (and cats!) out of it. The wide mouth means it is easy to scoop the butter out, with a measuring spoon or a knife.

I leave a stick out on the counter until it is soft enough to mash into the jar--it will hold 2 sticks, if you use butter that quickly.

sparrowgrass
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I'm into the standard Rubbermaid dish...click...for "east-coast" style stick butter. With my crazy collection of Tupperware and Rubbermaid storage thingies, I always have something available for butter that comes in a different format.

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In the wrapper. When the butter is done, I wipe the wrapper on a slice of toast, then throw out the wrapper. (Especially if I'm using Delitia butter or the Estonian stuff (I don't have a cyrillic character set, nor would I know how, so I can't share the name.) That Estonian butter is amazing -- especially with the brown bread I also get at my local Russian market.)

Why go through the trouble of an extra step of a crock/dish? Seems like one more (unnecessary) thing to clean.

Then again, "room temperature" around here is 100f for much of the year. Butter stays in the 'fridge or it melts in minutes.

Who cares how time advances? I am drinking ale today. -- Edgar Allan Poe

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I'm into the standard Rubbermaid dish...click...for "east-coast" style stick butter. With my crazy collection of Tupperware and Rubbermaid storage thingies, I always have something available for butter that comes in a different format.

For the 8 ounce slabs of Kerrygold, etc., and for my homemade butter molded in this size slabs, I have a few of these "vintage" Tupperware butter keepers. They have a pretty tight seal.

HPIM4124.JPG

HPIM4125.JPG

They can be found on eBay.

I also have a "measuring" butter keeper marked off for tablespoons, that fits 4 ounce sticks, both the stubby ones and the long one.

And for my homemade butter molded in 1-pound rounds, I have glass and pottery covered butter dishes that take up more room in the fridge but look nice on the table.

During the summer, I use butter "boats" like this one for salted, one for unsalted, to keep the butter from melting when out of the fridge for a few hours.

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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I guess I wouldn't overthink this too much -- the nice thing about butter is that it cuts easily. I buy mine in 1 lb blocks and slice off pieces as needed to go into a run-of-the-mill ceramic butter dish shaped for standard 1/4 lb sticks. On the odd occasion I have some different butter format in the house, it gets sliced and diced accordingly to fit.

 

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I'm another in-its-own-foil-in-the-fridge-door kind of gal - but then again I normally use butter in 1/4 lb to 1/2 lb increments and it doesn't get the chance to go skanky on me. I buy from a local creamery, which means it's always fresh anyhow.

Am I the only one who's alarmed by the colour of andiesenji's butter, though? I've always thought of this stuff as being a sort of pale, creamy colour.... :blink:

Elizabeth Campbell, baking 10,000 feet up at 1° South latitude.

My eG Food Blog (2011)My eG Foodblog (2012)

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When I moved to the west coast a million years ago I was shocked at the shape of the butter. The truth is, a standard east coast butter dish, of which there are millions and millions in this world, holds a stick of California shaped butter with no problem. Yes, the CA stick is short, but so is your life. Especially if you are eating a lot of butter!)

I like using a simple covered butter dish, glass, so I can see how much butter is left with just a glance into the fridge. Covering butter seems to protect it from refrigerator odors. Cheap is good; butter dishes get handled several times a day, and they do get dropped once in a while, so I would not use anything valuable on a regular basis. My suggestion is to go on eBay and get a nice classic mid-century style for a few dollars. Or get whatever one looks like what you think a butter dish should look like.

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I like soft butter for eating, hard for cooking. I keep some just in freezer in its wrappers. Then some on the counter in either a porcelain butter keeper or sometimes I spread it into a ramekin, sprinkle kosher salt on top, and leave it on the counter. I have a fine glass bell that can be used with a pretty dessert plate for butter for the table for company.

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I love my butter dish. It's insulated stainless steel and accommodates a full 1 lb block of butter (though I put the 250 g sticks in, or a slice from a bigger block).

This is the closest image I could find. Might even be the same one.

http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/insulated-butter-dish-5

At average 18-22 C kitchen temp, the butter stays spreadable but firm at room temp. Flavour stays fresh w/o rancidity in the time we use it up (a stick per week perhaps?).

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I love my butter dish. It's insulated stainless steel and accommodates a full 1 lb block of butter (though I put the 250 g sticks in, or a slice from a bigger block).

This is the closest image I could find. Might even be the same one.

http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/insulated-butter-dish-5

At average 18-22 C kitchen temp, the butter stays spreadable but firm at room temp. Flavour stays fresh w/o rancidity in the time we use it up (a stick per week perhaps?).

OMG thats gorgeous

Wawa Sizzli FTW!

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Is it a pain to dig butter out of that thing?

I don't find so, no (we manage to eat waaaaayyyy to much butter just fine :) ). With a stick, I just slice a pat off the end, or dig a bit out from a random piece in there.

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I love my butter dish. It's insulated stainless steel and accommodates a full 1 lb block of butter (though I put the 250 g sticks in, or a slice from a bigger block).

This is the closest image I could find. Might even be the same one.

http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/insulated-butter-dish-5

At average 18-22 C kitchen temp, the butter stays spreadable but firm at room temp. Flavour stays fresh w/o rancidity in the time we use it up (a stick per week perhaps?).

Amazon seems to carry it, too (it's the Danesco Stainless Steel Double Walled Butter Box).

Michaela, aka "Mjx"
Manager, eG Forums
mscioscia@egstaff.org

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Glass "crock" w/ top lives on the counter all the time, unless it's so hot it gets melty instead of just soft. Doesn't happen much in Central NY. It fits a 1 lb block or four sticks, although I don't usually put more than two in there. There is always chaos the morning after I've put the thing in the dishwasher and no one can find the butter. : )

I keep diced butter in the freezer in zip locks for baking in 1/2 c. quantities.

Edited by pax (log)
“Don't kid yourself, Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about!”
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:wink:

I bought one of those classic quarter-pound-stick Tupperware butter holders from a friend who has since died. I won't discard it -- dented as it is from dishwasher heat over the years! -- in the name of her memory; I simply make sure that I leave it out overnight for the stick to soften if I'm going to need to butter something up for breakfast in the morning. It lives in the fridge otherwise (its sisters waiting to be used do their waiting in the freezer).

It's one of those silly things that brings old memories forward into the present, and gives me the illusion that my friend still participates, even a peripheral little bit, in my meals and my life.

:cool:

Me, I vote for the joyride every time.

-- 2/19/2004

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Glass lock n' lock container for table butter and it usually lives in the microwave for space-saving reasons. Most of my butter is in the freezer as I buy lots when it is on sale.

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

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