Soft butter is important to me, so I use a butter crock

[wrecksdart]

What a crock!

[ChickieD]

I’m glad you dig the idea. I’d be interested in learning the results of your experiments.

For eggs, I put them in hot tap water until the chill is off them. I used to worry I’d cook them a bit but even very hot tap water doesn’t seem to get the eggs hot enough. Generally eggs will cool the water quickly and I will either run hot water continuously over them or replace the water a few times. It’s easy to pick them up to feel when they are no longer cold. I especially use this trick when I beat egg whites and it’s easy to tell that it gets the eggs to the right state because they beat up much higher when warmed than when used straight from the fridge.

For butter I use lukewarm to warm water (not hot) and leave it in maybe a minute if that. It softens very quickly. I use it for baking and for making icing. It doesn’t soften evenly but since it’s getting mushed up it doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal; I just make sure to get it out of the water before it’s melty.

I also like the idea of keeping butter soft in a bell but after reading reviews and comments always think it’s just not going to work for me. We buy the stuff that is a mixture of olive oil and butter in a tub for spreading, but I know most of the olive oil used commercially is not of the quality of what I purchase (I buy at a local specialty store because the grocery store ones are mostly deodorized rancid oil.) I don’t eat all that much butter so it’s the best thing I’ve come up with for spreading, but maybe there’s a way to make this up myself and store in the fridge.

[Elusis]

Good grief, people. It’s not rocket surgery.

[WearySky]

Get your foul sorcery out of here!

In all seriousness though - I’ve tried similar “spreadable butter” products to this one, and it’s just not the same as real butter.

[Elusis]

How can that be though? It’s real butter, with a little canola (or olive) oil mixed in to make it softer straight from the fridge.

[dacree]

I love butter crocks. Right now I’m using a Le Creuset crock.
http://thisweekfordinner.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/le-creuset-butter-crock-side-web.jpg

Some clarification for those not familiar with butter crocks and how they differ from butter dishes. Butter crocks use a layer of water to keep air and thus oxygen away from the butter. The reason this is important is due to the fact that the organisms which cause butter to spoil are aerobic organisms or aerobe. Put simply, they require oxygen to grow. This is why farmers store butter completely submerged in water to keep it fresh.

While butter dishes allow a large surface area of butter to be exposed to oxygen, a crock limits the area exposed as well as the available oxygen. Some crocks even have a hole in the side of the butter filled portion to allow water to come in direct contact with the water which allows for a better seal and less oxygen exposure.

While the fact that both dishes and crock are ceramic helps keep your butter cool, it is not the temperature that is critical to the freshness of your butter (when kept below 80F) but rather how long the butter is exposed to oxygen. While refrigeration greatly retards the growth of butter loving organisms, it does not stop them. Butter left in a refrigerator will eventually spoil. Keeping it submerged in water greatly increases the life and freshness of your butter. So, even if you don’t feel comfortable leaving your butter on the counter, you can benefit from a butter crock simply by the fact that your refrigerated butter will last longer and taste fresher from a crock than it would if kept in a dish.

[chgoliz]

@TheBobD

Every restaurant I have worked in kept butter in a fridge, one place that had pats out on the counter held them on ice. What’s the name and location of this place with butter just out on the tables? Here’s the USDA guideline:

Ding, ding, ding.

BB has covered the difference between eggs in the U.S. vs. U.K., and that difference means U.K. eggs can sit out whereas U.S. eggs cannot. I would wager the same goes for butter. A number of posters on this thread are in the U.K. or Australia or other countries with different foodstuffs than what we have in the U.S.

When I worked as a professional chef in the U.K., we were in a remote area with NO ELECTRICITY. That’s right: it wasn’t only the butter and eggs that were not refrigerated…nothing was. The only time someone got sick that summer were the two people who drank from local streams during an all-day hike.

[chgoliz]

@shaddack

how would butter behave in a microwave oven? Could a defrost cycle be used for softening a hard brick? The in-depth delivery of energy could be just what’s needed here.

As the penetration depth of microwaves is limited, precutting the butter to thinner slabs could be helpful, too.

Yes, and you’re right: cutting it up makes the microwaving work even faster.

I reserve that technique for when I’m in a middle of a recipe and just realized that all my butter is frozen because a microwave is my last resort, not my first, in almost all cases. Still, it works just fine.

[chgoliz]

@ChickieD

I especially use this trick when I beat egg whites and it’s easy to tell that it gets the eggs to the right state because they beat up much higher when warmed than when used straight from the fridge.

OK, that’s interesting. The traditional way to get the best peaks is to put bowl and whisk/beaters in the freezer for a bit, so why would it work better to have the egg whites themselves be warmer?

[ChickieD]

Think you are thinking of whipping cream not egg whites.

[chgoliz]

I was actually second-guessing myself as I posted! Yeah, I’m sure you’re right.

[ChickieD]

Well as I was looking through the articles, a lot of them suggest separating the eggs cold because they apparently separate better cold (I never really had a big problem separating eggs and never got the hysteria about that). If it’s going into a meringue or something where the yolk can disturb the whipping, I just drop the whole egg into my hand and let the white slip through my fingers, but otherwise I use the shell even though I hear it can cause germs to get into the whites - but as far as I know I’ve never gotten sick from egg whites.

[chgoliz]

It is never wrong to rinse something off even if the outer layer isn’t going into your food.

For example, I wash off melons, avocados, etc. before cutting into them, because the action of the knife can move bacteria from the surface of the rind into the fruit itself.

It seems to me having raw egg on one’s hands while cooking would be more of a health hazard, not less!

[shaddack]

Thought. Rig the knife with a cold plasma jet in the handle, so it disinfects the area and blade as it cuts. Could be also used for sterilizing surfaces, if just glided above them without cutting.

1. Design plasma-jet sterilizing knife.
2. Get the EU (and FDA) to mandate its use.
3. Profit!

[ChickieD]

I’m going to cook it anyway so I’m not so clear on what the big issue is with separating eggs, but yeah I do wash stuff before I cut.

[chgoliz]

I’m with Donald: pics of your kitchen, please!

[miasm]

@WearySky

In all seriousness though - I’ve tried similar “spreadable butter” products to this one, and it’s just not the same as real butter.

True dat, it’s usually mixed with olive or vegetable oil to keep it spreadable straight form the fridge.

[GilbertWham]

Or water, which makes your toast soggy.

[GilbertWham]

Christ, no, if we know what it looks like, we’ll all be on the same watch-list as Shaddack…

[Beanolini]

@dacree

Butter crocks use a layer of water to keep air and thus oxygen away from the butter. […] Butter left in a refrigerator will eventually spoil.

But luckily, most of the butter is protected by a layer of outer butter keeping the air away from it. So you can just scrape the rancid layer off the year-old butter at the back of the fridge, revealing perfectly edible* butter beneath.

This has been demonstrated to me on a number of occasions by my parents-in-law. There is a limit, though- butter that has moved house with you twice is unlikely to be salvageable.

*For certain values of ‘edible’.