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According to FDA spokesperson Tamara Ward, butter will last up to 10 days at room temperature before turning rancid. Rancid means that enzymes that are naturally present in milk begin to digest the fats in the butter, causing a sour flavor and aroma. The butter isn’t unsafe at that point, it just tastes bad.
Be sure to keep your butter well wrapped or covered in a butter dish, however, and safe from cross-contamination from dirty knives or hands. Butter, whether it's on the counter or in the fridge, will pick up strong smells if exposed to the air.
“Butter, and every other lipid, acts like a solvent—like acetone or hexane,” says Dr. Scott Rankin, the chair of the food science department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Lipids will absorb volatile aroma compounds from the air. So don’t leave butter unwrapped next to onions or garlic, unless you want those flavors on your morning toast.
I keep butter on my counter all the time, although since I use it all the time a stick never lasts longer than 2 days.
Since I can remember my family has refigeratered "long-term" butter, but we keep butter on the stick in a butter container on the kitchen counter. I've done this for 45 years. I cannot stand trying to use hard butter on bread, etc. - it's not the optimal temperature for toast/baking from my novice perspective. Everyone in my family does this (we're all in the Pacific region). If there's health...+READ
Since I can remember my family has refigeratered "long-term" butter, but we keep butter on the stick in a butter container on the kitchen counter. I've done this for 45 years. I cannot stand trying to use hard butter on bread, etc. - it's not the optimal temperature for toast/baking from my novice perspective. Everyone in my family does this (we're all in the Pacific region). If there's health risk we've not encountered it. I think pats of butter that you can see when you eat are super yucky!-COLLAPSE
Butter will keep well if not exposed to air all the time. I use a French style 2-piece butter keeper which keeps the open top of a butter container under the water in its normal UPSIDE-DOWN position. No, the butter is packed in there and won't fall out. I live in Tennessee and use on every summer.
I'm printing this out and taping it to a cabinet somewhere. People keep putting my butter 'away' in the fridge!
Salted butter does not actually last longer, it just masks the rancidness. We leave ours on the counter for way longer than 10 days, sometimes start to notice the taste, usually not until it is mostly gone. Tried one of those butter bells but found it went moldy, which I have never had happen with butter without the bell
I have been my unsalted butter for the last 18 years, since I first met my husband. He is a sailor and has lived in the Bay Area (San Francisco) so he is very open-minded about EVERYTHING. I unwrap the stick of butter and put it in a covered glass dish. We did have a problem with mold a couple of years go, but we would just clean off the mold and pop the dish back in the fridge. Maybe it was the...+READ
I have been my unsalted butter for the last 18 years, since I first met my husband. He is a sailor and has lived in the Bay Area (San Francisco) so he is very open-minded about EVERYTHING. I unwrap the stick of butter and put it in a covered glass dish. We did have a problem with mold a couple of years go, but we would just clean off the mold and pop the dish back in the fridge. Maybe it was the humidity or the butter itself. I use cheap, store brand butter. But we haven't had the mold issue anymore...-COLLAPSE
We just leaves ours (unsalted, please) on top of the fridge in the paper wrapper. It lasts as long as it needs to, a few days a stick at most. Never had an issue, and the cats don't go up there, so there's no need for a defensive apparatus like a butter bell.
You must keep it covered, or your cats will eat it! This surprised me but then I realized they could detect the dairy.
10 days? Who doesn't finish a stick of butter in 10 days? I guess if you're one of those, "I want to be healthy and live past the age of 50" people then Whatever! ;~} Seriously though, my family of four goes through a pound of butter easily in 10 days. A measly 1/4 pound stick doesn't stand a chance of going rancid around here. We go through about a stick every 2 days or so. A butter bell would...+READ
10 days? Who doesn't finish a stick of butter in 10 days? I guess if you're one of those, "I want to be healthy and live past the age of 50" people then Whatever! ;~} Seriously though, my family of four goes through a pound of butter easily in 10 days. A measly 1/4 pound stick doesn't stand a chance of going rancid around here. We go through about a stick every 2 days or so. A butter bell would be a waste of space around here.-COLLAPSE
Dear PseudoNic: If you like soft butter, get a butter bell, preferably a ceramic one. We've used one for several years now, and have never had a problem. As for changing the water; simply change it whenever you open and use the bell. Don't have to remember when you last did it,that way. I too grew up with the butter dish sitting on the counter. I think, however, that the bell is a bit safer in...+READ
Dear PseudoNic: If you like soft butter, get a butter bell, preferably a ceramic one. We've used one for several years now, and have never had a problem. As for changing the water; simply change it whenever you open and use the bell. Don't have to remember when you last did it,that way. I too grew up with the butter dish sitting on the counter. I think, however, that the bell is a bit safer in extreme heat.-COLLAPSE
I think unsalted needs to be kept in fridge. Salted is OK out because the salt is the preservative.
I've always kept salted butter in a covered butter dish on the counter. It's *never* gone off....I don't know what people are talking about! :-)
We had a bottle of Annie's Goddess dressing break in our fridge recently and I had to throw out the butter because it absorbed all of its pungent flavors. Not the best thing to taste on your english muffin in the morning!
We tried using a butter bell but our soft-butter usage is very unpredictable. So one week we'd use a whole batch, the next it would get all moldy.
I just started using the...+READ
We had a bottle of Annie's Goddess dressing break in our fridge recently and I had to throw out the butter because it absorbed all of its pungent flavors. Not the best thing to taste on your english muffin in the morning!
We tried using a butter bell but our soft-butter usage is very unpredictable. So one week we'd use a whole batch, the next it would get all moldy.
I just started using the Land o' Lakes "Spreadable Butter" which is just butter mixed with vegetable oil. Tastes fine and stays spreadable in the refrigerator. There aren't any emulsifiers listed in the ingredients so I don't see why you couldn't just make it yourself with butter and oil.-COLLAPSE
I grew up with a stick of room temp butter in the cupboard, on a butter dish. I don't remember it ever lasting more than 10 days in our house. If you don't use that much in 10 days, cut the whole stick of butter, paper and all, in half, and only leave out half a stick (or a quarter if that's all you would use). I hate when I eat breakfast out, or stay at a friend's, who keep their butter in the...+READ
I grew up with a stick of room temp butter in the cupboard, on a butter dish. I don't remember it ever lasting more than 10 days in our house. If you don't use that much in 10 days, cut the whole stick of butter, paper and all, in half, and only leave out half a stick (or a quarter if that's all you would use). I hate when I eat breakfast out, or stay at a friend's, who keep their butter in the fridge. When it doesn't spread easily you end up using more than you need. As a pastry chef/chef, I couldn't imagine ever using margarine, or some other "spread".-COLLAPSE
I keep my butter in a halfpint wide mouth canning jar, and leave it on the counter, one stick at a time. The only time I have ever had butter mold was some Amish butter--I think it was not washed enough to remove all the buttermilk.
Butter was 'invented' to save the cream from spoiling--of course it keeps without refrigeration. Refrigeration is relatively recent--butter has been around for...+READ
I keep my butter in a halfpint wide mouth canning jar, and leave it on the counter, one stick at a time. The only time I have ever had butter mold was some Amish butter--I think it was not washed enough to remove all the buttermilk.
Butter was 'invented' to save the cream from spoiling--of course it keeps without refrigeration. Refrigeration is relatively recent--butter has been around for millenia, just like cheese.-COLLAPSE
i hate it when i room with people who store the butter at all times in the fridge. Drives me crazy when I want me morning toast!
I grew up in a cool weather climate (San Francisco Bay Area) We always kept butter out. Now living in the tropics I never leave it out. If butter goes rancid you won't need to taste it to know, as soon as you cut into it the smell will tell you it has gone off. May not make you sick, but i hate to think what that smell (and flavor) would do to whatever the butter is being put in or on.
I use a glass butter bell. Change the water weekly. But as it only holds one stick of butter, it usually gets changed more often. Keeps air completely out.
This really seems like a non-issue to me. What's the big deal: you cut off a bit of butter--whatever you would use over a three-day period--and put it in a covered dish to keep at room temp. When it's used up, get some more out of the fridge. BTW, I keep unsalted butter like this and it's never gone off.
garlic & onion butter. yum.
You can cut butter sticks in half and put the other half in the freezer if you don't go through it quickly. I have been tempted by the idea of the bell, but I don't want to have to worry about changing the water.
My mom always kept a stick of (salted) butter out near the stove, in a regular covered butter dish, and I don't remember there being any problems.
I grew up keeping butter in a plastic bell-type container and it was fine. It was helpful to have it at room temperature.
We use a butter bell in a 2 person home. I don't really know how quickly we use a stick of butter, but we've been doing it for 3 years. We've never gotten sick from it, it's never tasted weird and it's always perfectly spreadable. I see no problems!
I agree with @flinta that salted butter lasts much longer. However, recently I purchased some Amish salted butter--I didn't leave it out but kept it in the fridge, and I noticed some mold on it after about two weeks? Closer to cheese, maybe?
I have had big slabs of salted butter in a covered dish at room temp for a few weeks at a time, and it has been fine. Unsalted may be a different story. What is the worst that can happen. A diaper will fix any potential issue in the worst case. You won't be hospitalized. Sit by a window, you will be fine.
I use one regularly and do not actually consume my butter that quickly. I go waaaay longer than ten days without issue. I am not sure if this article is supposed to address "bells" or "bombs" but I have no rancidity problems.
I've been debating getting a butter bell. Does this mean I shouldn't? I don't think I can eat that much butter in ten days.