do you leave butter on the counter?

[Conservative Hippie]

French butter dish on the counter! Only real butter, here, as well.

 

[Minnesota!]

butter on counter. it's how i grew up - I don't really think i know of anyone who refridgerates theirs - and i have never heard of anyone getting sick, either.

 

[Mrs. Charming]

Add me to the list of those who never heard of leaving it out. That thought scares me! Heck I keep one stick in the fridge and the rest in the freezer. I take no chances!! If any dairy is left out over an hou, it gets chucked or spilled down the drain. Then again, dairy weirds me out!

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I grew up eating margarine, and rarely had butter. As an adult I pretty much only use butter, and keep one stick on the counter except during our heat waves. A stick can stay on the counter maybe up to 3 weeks at our house and never goes rancid on us.

I do like the idea of the french butter dish, though. Neat idea.

 

[r1lissa]

I once read that if there were a nuclear accident on Earth, margarine would outlast even the roaches!

 

[WA Kay]

On the counter next to the eggs.

 

[floridascgirl]

Ours stays on the counter in a covered butter dish except during our sweltering summers.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

It grosses me out if a butter stick is left out permanently. (I also have issues with leaving it out to soften--but that is just me.)

But I have seen "fake butter" aka margerine products that were sold unrefrigerated. I don't recall the brand, but they were not in a cooler at the store and no way in the world was I buying it.

 

[DisneyFan32WI]

I leave it out, but usually only for a day.

 

[Nette]

Been leaving it on the counter my entire life. As did my father and his parents. I can't stand it when people forget to replenish it, or when it gets left too close to the stove! When we go on vacation I do stick the whole dish in the fridge, but a stick of butter lasts no longer than 2 days around here.

I can't believe no one has brought up the fact that margarine is made of trans fats and is worse for you than the saturated fat in butter.

 

[Rora]

Ours goes in the fridge.

 

[Cat0727]

Ours is in the fridge and the rest is in the freezer. The only time we leave butter out on the counter is when we are baking and need to defrost it.

 

[mrodgers]

They are in the refrigerator case at the store.

I worked in a grocery store for many years. Butter is sitting in the refrigerated cases out on the floor, but where do you think all the stock during baking season is sitting at? On pallets sitting in the stockroom because a grocery store couldn't possibly hold that much butter in the back dairy cooler with all the other stuff.

 

[tzolkin]

You wouldn't nuke the whole stick; just what you need. There's also some portion control when you do it that way.

Oh, I assumed people were microwaving the whole stick every time they needed any butter. Thanks for the clarification.

When I use butter to eat, I'm just using one pat/swipe with a knife. It would never cross my mind to get out a dish to microwave just what I needed.


The only time I microwave butter is to melt it in a little ramekin for popcorn. If I do too much and have some left I will only use it again for melting because it separates.

 

[LaurenLC]

This makes me laugh because this is a CONSTANT issue when we go visit my in-laws. We keep the butter in the fridge unless we are using it, but my MIL (who lives in rural PA) is ALWAYS leaving it out. Out of habit I am always putting their butter in the fridge and she is always 'fussing' at me!

 

[fraggle551]

You wouldn't nuke the whole stick; just what you need. There's also some portion control when you do it that way.

I nuke the whole stick, use what i'm gonna use, and put it back in the fridge. Done it that way my entire life, and so does everyone in my family.

 

[roscoepc1]

I'm just blown away by how many of you use real butter! The last person I knew that used butter was my late MIL twenty years ago (and she died of a coronary occlusion from high cholesterol)!

My whipped low-fat margarine stays soft in the refrigerator.

Ok, as a dairy farmer, I just have to say this: Unless she was eating butter by the POUND, it was not butter that killed her! The amounts eaten by a person in general is nowhere NEAR enough to cause a coronary occlusion all by itself! I'm sure there are gluttens out there that are the exception to the rule, but they'd be the extent of "death by butter"!

Margarine is only one chemical process away from being plastic. G.R.O.S.S.!! Ie, they only do one more thing to it, before it becomes plastic in a factory setting....same plants, same procedures (up to that last one), same industry....

I can quite honestly say that I know where my butter came from....and I know what that cow ate, where it lived, and how it was treated....in some cases, I even know the cow's name, and/or helped it enter this world!!

That being said, the dairy standards here in Canada are FAR stricter than the standards in the U.S. where you have to worry about growth hormones etc...

To the OP....I don't keep it out on the counter, but I do keep it in a kitchen cupboard with the salt, pepper, etc...I take a chunk off the pound block in the fridge as we use it up...

It is VERY obvious when butter goes bad...it stinks, and will grow mold. Up until that point, it is completely safe.

 

[cheshireqt]

Life's too short to eat fake butter!

You may be right, although it makes my Dr happy when I tell him I am using a low cholesterol brand! It goes on my toast, and butter -from the fridge- goes in cookies and baking. Shhhh don't tell him.

 

[flamingglobessigmund]

I have a butter bell on the counter. It keeps the butter soft enough for spreading. I change the water every couple of days. The rest of the butter is in the fridge.

 

[lillygator]

both - always have a stick on the counter and the rest in the fridge.