Do you like your butter to be room temperature? We always have preferred it this way since it enhances the flavor and allows one to spread it without ripping the bread! If I remember, I pull out the butter prior to serving time. Long ago, we used an on-the-counter butter keeper with an internal water reservoir, but the results were not entirely successful since the butter would slip from its chamber and fall into the water basin below. Splash! So, we were happy when my mother recently bought us a Butterie.
I can recall that my grandma always kept out her butter and she never had it go bad. I did research on this practice and learned that salted butter is the key. Butter's high fat acid content makes it less likely to grow bacteria. I have copied and pasted a portion of the findings from the developer of Butterie. When asked about the safety of unrefrigerated butter, Joelle Mertzel writes:
The reason I know it's safe is because I had a food safety lab conduct a shelf life study on butter. The butter was kept at room temperature and tested for yeast, mold, bacteria and rancidity. If food (i.e the butter) is going to spoil, one of those 4 things will happen to it. All 4 spoilage indicators were non-detectable for three weeks. And this is under a microscope! It was on day 23 that little things started to pop up.
This nifty storage bin not only protects the butter while it's sitting on the countertop, it is constructed of BPA-free plastic which is dishwasher safe. It is also compact and attractive. We love it!
If you decide you want to adopt the practice of having soft butter, you may want to try this product. I just wanted to spread the word to you! 😉