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November 2006
Updated February 2008

Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Cheese-Butter-Yogurt

Butter Tips

It’s Delicate And Needs A Little TLC

CAPSULE SUMMARY: Whether cow butter, goat butter or other milk-giving mammal, butter is one of the most delicate foods in the refrigerator. It easily picks up flavors and odors. You can do a lot to keep your butter fresh.

• Storing Butter
• Salted Versus Unsalted Butter
• Softening Butter

Storing Butter

• Contrary to what refrigerator designers lead us to believe, butter should not be left unwrapped in the convenient butter tray on the refrigerator door. It should be kept in its original wrapper (the paper or foil around the bar) and box, and stored in the coldest part of the refrigerator—which is the meat and vegetable drawers at the bottom. However, while extra butter can be stored there, this is admittedly not the most convenient storage space for an item many people use frequently. So, follow the rest of these tips.
• If you prefer to keep the bar in the butter tray, wrap it tightly in the paper or foil it came in. We use an extra layer of plastic wrap. For the freshest flavor, don’t stock up, but purchase butter more frequently.

If you’re not a big butter user, look for Half Sticks, pioneered by Land O Lakes (we expect other companies will follow). By unwrapping one small half-bar instead of a full bar, your butter will stay fresher longer—the protective covering helps to preserve freshness. Don’t keep more butter in your refrigerator than you plan to use in a two-week period. The butter will say fresher longer if you freeze it until you need it. See the last bullet for freezing tips. Do not store butter near foods with strong odors, such as onions or garlic. Further protect bars that are not in immediate use by keeping them in their original cartons and putting them in heavy-duty plastic storage bags. Snack-size bags work for single bars.

Land O Lakes was the first to introduce “Half Sticks” (in the foreground) for greater convenience and freshness.

• Salt acts as a preservative: Salted butter can be refrigerated for up to a month. Unsalted butter should be used within two weeks. Will it go bad in more than this time? No, but just as you want the freshest food in any category, the fresher the butter is, the better it will taste. Freshness is noticeable in butter sauces and baked goods, not to mention when using butter as a spread.
• Butter can be frozen for up to six months. To protect it from absorbing flavors and odors in the freezer, place the original carton in double plastic freezer bags.
  

Salted Versus Unsalted Butter

The only difference between the two butters is that one has salt added and one does not: It’s a personal taste preference.

• Generally in savory dishes, you can use salted or unsalted butter interchangeably because salt is added to the recipe to taste. In sweet baked goods, salted butter should not be substituted because the sweet flavor of unsalted butter should shine through.
• When one or the other is specified in a recipe, it is because the recipe was developed with it and the amount of salt has been adjusted accordingly. If you enjoy the added salt in salted butter, you generally won’t notice the added amount of salt in the recipe.
  

Softening Butter

Soften butter for baking by removing it from the refrigerator and letting it stand for 30 to 45 minutes at room temperature.

• To soften butter quickly, cut it into 1-inch chunks and allow it to soften at room temperature for about 15 minutes. If you need it even faster than that, place the chunks between sheets of wax paper and smash them with a rolling pin, flipping the wax paper so that you smash each side.
• While you can melt butter in the microwave for cooking, it is not recommended for baking: It alters the physical properties of the butter so that it adheres differently to the flour, and won’t achieve the same texture.
• To soften butter in the microwave for non-baking purposes, select the defrost setting (30% power). Check sticks of butter every 5 seconds so that they do not over-soften or melt completely—the butter can quickly melt even when watched carefully.
• If you want to keep butter softened for ease of use, you can keep it at room temperature for 3 to 5 days. The flavor and color may be affected, but it is safe to use—it’s what people did before refrigeration! You can store butter in any covered dish, but many are made specifically for butter. Here’s a selection of butter dishes, ranging from the traditional to the modern:

Alessi Butter Dish. The international design guru crafts this modern wonder of a butter dish in stainless steel and crystal. Pricey but fun. Click here for more information.	Pfaltzgraff Stoneware Butter Dish. The Ocean Breeze pattern features a neutral off-white with a tranquil blue and green country border. Dishwasher-safe. Click here for more information.	Pfaltzgraff Stoneware Butter Dish. In the Empire pattern, handsome black and charcoal glazes. Dishwasher-safe. Click here for more information.

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