ScienceFilter: How do butter boats keep butter fresh?

June 9, 2017 10:37 AM

After mutilating countless slices of sourdough, I keep saying we need a butter dish. I've been researching dishes and came across several butter bells. This post explains how the butter bell works, with the water in direct contact with the bell. A butter boat, in contrast, is designed such that the water does not come into direct contact with the butter. Without the seal, how does the boat design keep the butter fresh?
posted by onecircleaday to Science & Nature (18 answers total)

The water in the boat warms/cools the pottery in order to keep butter at a speadable stage. I don't think it does anything to keep it fresh.

I keep ours in a Tupperware with a lid. I just cut enough off to last 2-3 days
posted by Ftsqg at 10:55 AM on June 9, 2017

We keep ours in a regular white ceramic butter dish with a lid on it. As long as you use salted butter, I don't think anything else matters as long as you keep it covered (no dust, no odors). We always have at least one stick of room temp butter for whatever. I have never used a butter bell and have had soft butter on my counter for at least ten years, with no resulting deaths. That I know of ;)
posted by the webmistress at 10:59 AM on June 9, 2017 [24 favorites]

Came here to say yeah, room-temperature butter does not go bad for a long, long time. How often do you eat the sourdough (often, I hope *drool*)?
posted by Melismata at 11:07 AM on June 9, 2017 [9 favorites]

I don't put water in my bell. The butter stays fresh a long time. I clean it out like once a week?
posted by Malla at 11:14 AM on June 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Yeah I've always just used a butter dish and it's been fine, my whole life (and I lived in the South for many of those years with shitty air conditioning--worst case it got too soft and had to go to the fridge but it never got gross or anything!) . It tends to last a week or two but who even keeps butter around much longer than that?!
posted by masquesoporfavor at 11:29 AM on June 9, 2017

Another room-temper here. No special container needed. I've used real butter dishes, and since I started getting farm butter which doesn't come in a stick, I use little covered Pyrex dish. On the counter, winter and summer, never an issue.
posted by Miko at 11:33 AM on June 9, 2017

Actual butter bell user here. I change out the water every couple of days OR add more butter so it maintains contact with water. Stupid easy.

Of the two options, I prefer to just refresh the water every few days.
posted by HeyAllie at 12:50 PM on June 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

It doesn't matter if it's salted, either; I only buy unsalted and it keeps for ages on the counter in a covered dish. You can easily tell if it's gone off and it won't hurt you then either.
posted by fiercecupcake at 1:18 PM on June 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks, all! For the butter keeper/butter bell users - does the butter slide out when upside down? I live in a temperate climate but it does get warm before I turn on the A/C (80-85*-ish).
posted by onecircleaday at 3:15 PM on June 9, 2017

No, it doesn't slide out.
posted by HeyAllie at 3:21 PM on June 9, 2017

Hmm, I don't know what I was doing wrong then but I found that leaving butter out eventually ended with it tasting like off blue cheese. Then we got a butter bell used with water and problem solved. This was in Vancouver, Canada so pretty humid if that matters.
posted by carolr at 4:51 PM on June 9, 2017

(Butter bell user here) it doesn't slide out unless the butter is incredibly warm when you put it in the bell. If my butter gets too warm before I put it in, I just load it into the bell and throw it in the fridge for an hour.

I think it is a hundred times better than any microwaving as suggested in the article. It's always at the perfect temp, even if it's cool in the house. Just refresh the water every few days as HeyAllie said.
posted by getawaysticks at 6:11 PM on June 9, 2017

I got a butter bell because they are so cute! but my butter kept turning orange/purple after a week.

I now use a regular dish with a lid. No problems in years.
posted by rebent at 8:49 PM on June 9, 2017

The benefit to a butter bell is that the water seal prevents the "yellow oily layer" from forming on the butter. I don't think you can get this from a butter boat. But as others mention, the butter ought to be fresh/edible for ages.

If you buy a handmade butter bell from a thoughtful potter, the walls should slope in such a way that butter wont slide out. There may also be a ridge at the deepest point where the butter should go, to "hang on" to it.

Also, tip on butter bells: use heavily SALTED water. No blue cheese smell, nor mold, nor need to change the water every 2 days.
posted by cranberrymonger at 9:17 PM on June 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Vancouver, BC too - never had a problem with butter (salted) in a covered butter dish, even in the more brutal summers (>30^oC highs, >20 ^oC overnight lows for weeks in a row).

Commercial butter is pretty pure; "handcrafted" butter might still have a lot of (water)moisture and proteins and carbohydrates that microbes can easily use and will cause taste and possibly illness problems.

Lipase is relatively rare in human-interacting microbes; oil immersion/replacement-of-moisture has been a mainstay in food preservation qv duck confit and sausages from virtually all cultures.

If covered, oxidative rancidification is minimal; the exposed parts of the butter (maybe 2-3mm depth) might take on a darker colour but I've never noticed a change in flavour.

Commercial butter should be fine at room temperature, especially if covered from the drift of normal fungal ecology, for weeks.

Random interwebs sources suggest a shelf life of 3+ years for butter in a root cellar.

I also leave bacon grease out, uncovered/lightly-covered and its good for at least 10 days/a couple of weeks (have never had it last unused longer). But I'm also good about making sure there's no "jelly" or other water moisture in the bowl of rendered fat. Crunchy bits are fine; if they've lasted till the end of the fry, their small volume means that the moisture has cooked out and replaced by fat.
posted by porpoise at 1:53 AM on June 10, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm from Europe. Butter is best kept at room temperature, for up to a week or so, in a sealed dish. The US fascination with chilling it seems to me to be a consequence of early fridge marketing.
posted by meehawl at 10:35 AM on June 10, 2017

> We keep ours in a regular white ceramic butter dish with a lid on it. As long as you use salted butter, I don't think anything else matters as long as you keep it covered (no dust, no odors)

I leave unsalted butter out in a butter dish 24/7 and it's fine. We go through butter quickly though, as we are sensible people.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:02 PM on June 10, 2017

You do have to make sure the bell of the butter bell is dry before putting the butter in , too. The only times I've had it slide it were when it was both (a) warm and (b) the butter wasn't in the best contact with the ceramic because there was a little water from a prior washing.
posted by annabear at 5:31 PM on June 10, 2017