Stupid Guest Tricks

OK, this annoys me. I was in the Mouseketeria the other day and decided I wanted some butter. The butter pats are kept IN THE REFRIGERATOR! What am I supposed to do with that? Buy the butter on my way in and put it in my locker so it will be ready for lunch? This really annoyed me, but when I asked the cashier about it she seemed surprised and thought that that was the normal way to keep butter. I never heard of keeping butter (unless it was still wrapped in a 1/4 lb stick) in the refrigerator, has anyone else seen something like this? One of the things we have always done in my family before going to bed is check the butter dish to see if we need to get a stick out so it will soften up overnight; I always thought this was a universal practice but the cashier seemed to think this was totally wrong. So now I am wondering if other people agree with the cashier and keep their butter refrigerated right up until they use it. And if you do, how do you get it to work?

-Harry

In my family, butter lives in the fridge. There's a little compartment for it in the door. If you want your butter soft for some reason, you get it out, maybe... 5 minutes before... and put it back right away after you use it... cause it's dairy and dairy needs to be in the fridge. One time a stick of butter got left out while we were at work and school and mom threw it out because no way was she going to trust dairy that'd been out for 6 hours.

As for how to get it to work, we slice it thin... though I don't know that that will help you with little butter pots. With those, if they didn't come in a basket of warm bread, which helps them warm, rubbing it between your hands a little helps.

You really leave your butter out for days?

8^S

I hate refrigerated butter and always make sure there is some out for other people to use. It seems I am the only one to do this in my house, however, because often when I go to get butter someone has used it all and not pulled anymore out(leaving it out isn't a problem for use because we use it so fast).

Before the advent of margarines, butter was traditionally left out. I remember it was always out at my grandparents house.

I did find out later that they would put it in the fridge overnight.

Mayonnaise wrote:In my family, butter lives in the fridge. There's a little compartment for it in the door. If you want your butter soft for some reason, you get it out, maybe... 5 minutes before... and put it back right away after you use it... cause it's dairy and dairy needs to be in the fridge. One time a stick of butter got left out while we were at work and school and mom threw it out because no way was she going to trust dairy that'd been out for 6 hours.

As for how to get it to work, we slice it thin... though I don't know that that will help you with little butter pots. With those, if they didn't come in a basket of warm bread, which helps them warm, rubbing it between your hands a little helps.

You really leave your butter out for days?

8^S

That compartment is for sticks of butter that are waiting to be unwrapped, butter for eating lives on the table or counter in a butter dish. I'm sure it would eventually go bad but it's fine for a day or two which is the absolute limit to how long a stick of butter could survive uneaten in my house.

You know in New Zealand that little butter compartment has a heater in it to keep the butter warmer than the rest of the fridge (but still colder than the house.)

-Harry

Our unwrapped Butter Sticks Live in the Box, on the Shelf of the fridge, any excess boxes beyond the open one, live in the freezer. My roomate's family was the same way, I know because there was no question when we moved in together and stocked our fridge where to put the butter, and when I go looking for butter in my boyfriend's kitchen, it's in the butter warmer too.

Perhaps it's a regional thing? I am all the way up in New York.

8^S

Mayonnaise wrote:In my family, butter lives in the fridge. There's a little compartment for it in the door. If you want your butter soft for some reason, you get it out, maybe... 5 minutes before... and put it back right away after you use it... cause it's dairy and dairy needs to be in the fridge. One time a stick of butter got left out while we were at work and school and mom threw it out because no way was she going to trust dairy that'd been out for 6 hours.

This is our family rule/tradition, too, though we'll leave it out a little longer if necessary, maybe half an hour on the counter to soften, or in a butter dish on the table for the length of the meal. But then back in the fridge it goes. I'd always assumed refrigeration was necessary -- anyone know for sure?

Does anyone remember Last Tango In Paris?

hobie16 wrote:Does anyone remember Last Tango In Paris?

trying to forget that sad sad movie.


As to the butter, back when it was freshly churned, it was often left out.
My grandparents used to churn their own when they still had a farm. Later when they move to the "city" they would just buy it. but they would still leave it out in the covered dish.

I did find this:

http://missourifamilies.org/quick/foods ... afs649.htm

and this:

http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/brow ... ar3=SEARCH

All this talk about butter made me hungry.

*Eats a PB&B Sammich.*

8^)