Butter question / help

[holehogg]

This side of the waters butter is for some reason very expensive and more so spreadable butter. There are times I manage to find standard butter at reasonable pricing and stock up.
Does anybody know of a method to make normal butter more easily spreadable.
Suggestions like nuke it or leave it out of the fridge will not be considered as good advice.

[MBMorgan]

Never tried it myself ... but if you google "make butter more spreadable" you'll get hits on plenty of how-to articles.

[holehogg]

Good advice. Now I will admit to being a little less keen on Google - ing recipes though I should have on this as it is far less complicated than I expected it to be. Made a mental note not to be so lazy in future.

[pkadare]

https://food-hacks.wonderhowto.com/how-to/why-you-should-stop-buying-spreadable-butter-and-make-yourself-0154046/

[holehogg]

Thanks did the a search and this is the site that came up on my search.

[mountainsmoker]

Despite your disclaimer. It is very safe to leave it out of the fridge for up to a week. Keep it covered in a good butter crock or stick holder. After a week freeze to kill any buggies it may have picked up and start over again. Never gotten sick doing this, but then never had to refreeze any either.

[JCGrill]

I may be playing with fire, but my butter dish sits in the cupboard all the time. When the stick is gone, wash the dish and begin again.

[Troutman]

Growing up my old Mom never refrigerated butter. Like JCGrill says, when used up, throw on a new stick. Of course butter never lasted more than a few days anyway so it wasn't like it sat there for a month.

[ofelles]

Ditto this

[RichieB]

Ever since my son married a woman from Northern
VT., I have not refrigerated butter. That's about 8 years now. Her father is a CEO of a dairy co-op. They know dairy. Me as her father, grandfather who was a dairy farmer and a lot of other Vermonters are alive and kicking consuming room temp butter.
I didn't look at the links in the thread but a simple hack, leave it in the pantry.
​​​​​

[holehogg]

I wonder sometimes at the quality of some of the butter on our shelves. I can taste the difference between the cheaper brands and the likes of Kerrygold for example. I wonder about some of the butter sold here and how pure it is. I wouldn't trust leaving it out. I purchase middle of the road butter made by big brand names mostly, but do spoil myself from time to time.

[Attjack]

Yes, 50/50 with olive oil in a blender or food processor.

[Ahumadora]

Also when frying with butter you can add a litte oil to raise the burning point.

[tbob4]

Very interesting. Never tried this.

[RonB]

You should make your own. It's very easy. All you need is a pint of cream, a pinch of salt and something to mix it in. You can use a jar with a lid, but that will take a while. It takes about 15 min in a stand mixer, and quicker still in a food processor. Here's an article from Serious Eats.

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/...ys-butter.html

And this one is safe to leave out if covered.

[JCGrill]

Used to do this when we were kids. Pretty amazing flavor.

[scottranda]

I never knew it was that easy. I may try over Christmas break.

[DiverDriver]

In prior career bus boy we would whip real butter 5lbs. in a mixer with wire attachment. It made butter go much further on the tables as a spread.

[Steve B]

I might be talking out of my uhm? IDK
But what I know is the reason you need to refrigerate butter is because of the milk solids in it. That’s what spoils.
So turn the butter into ghee. You remove the milk solids this way, and thus you remove the potential for the nasties. Ghee does not have to be refrigerated because of this. And at room temperature it’s easily spreadable.
Just my thoughts.

[DiverDriver]

yuppers you are spot o. But I love butter. Ghee to me is butter lite. A gift without a bow.

[shify]

Stainless steel will defrost things faster than a normal plate so if you want cold pats of butter to soften quicker, put them on a stainless baking sheet. After a few min, should be spreadable.

[Dewesq55]

Aluminum works for this, too. Even better, I believe. When I'm defrosting stuff, I put it on an upside down aluminum baking sheet.

[Bkhuna]

Ahumadora - The "raise the smoke point of butter with oil" myth has been debunked many times. You can't raise the physical properties of a substance (milk solids) by diluting it.

For example: https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/09/...oke-point.html

[Bigmagic]

I see this is still a matter of debate among many chefs.

Food safety arises when you start buying butter or fake butter that has been altered by trying to remove fat and salt content. Then you can be at risk of food borne issues.

The link is from the FDA's Evaluation and Definition of Potentially Hazardous Foods; Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety.

https://www.fda.gov/media/103613/download

I would direct you to page 37-38, specifically paragraph 7.4.

This will not put the matter to rest however, because whichever way grandma and mom did it, then that is the truth for each of us.

[parkerj2]

Yeah the "leaving it out won’t be considered good advice" line got me. What do you think restaurants do?

leave it out. It’s fine. End of story.

[Murdy]

My Grandmother used to have this ceramic, inverted crock, type thingy where you'd stick the canister holding the butter upside down into a larger canister full of cool water. I guess it would seal air out and keep the butter nice and fresh. The upside down cannister had a large rim to seal onto the bottom canister. She'd leave her butter out for days, and it always smelled fresh.

[T-bone]

We've use one of these and they work great!

[Cheef]

yep--we have used one for years and it works really well. ESPECIALLY with homemade butter.

https://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Andersons-Baking-NT333-Earthenware/dp/B001A2YQUM?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_11

[Murdy]

That looks like it!

[jfmorris]

I know you said NOT to tell you to leave it out, but that is what we learned to do a few years ago from my mother - maybe she did it when I was growing up, and I never paid attention. Good butter can sit out in a butter dish in the kitchen for days and doesn't spoil, and is spreadable.