Here's a good reader question that we've often pondered:
Is it safe to leave butter out of the fridge in a butter dish for a few days? In the fridge it's just too hard to spread but I don't want to eat it after it's gone bad. How long is too long?
This question is subject to many different opinions. Many cooks say that they wouldn't touch butter if it's been out of the fridge more than an hour or two; others leave it out for up to a week. We found that official USDA guidelines assumed butter should be refrigerated and only softened "ten to fifteen minutes" before use. Which is all well and good for those who like their butter cold and hard, but we like ours very soft and spreadable! Is it all right to leave it out on the counter to soften?
Butter is made from pasteurized milk so the chances of bacteria growth are relatively low in fresh butter. Also, there is a low water content in butter, and often there is added salt as well, which also inhibits bacteria.
The more immediate issue is rancidity, where the butter develops an off taste and smell. The rate of butter going rancid can be much reduced by always covering butter left out to soften. You want as little air in contact with the butter as possible.
One of the classic ways of preserving butter at room temperature is the French butter keeper. It keeps the butter in a small pot immersed in cold water. You can safely leave it out on the counter for cool yet completely spreadable butter.
• Butter Bell Crock, $19.95 at Butter Bell
Ultimately, we can't tell you exactly how long you can leave butter out. We have no problem with leaving butter out to soften as long as it is well-covered. It usually doesn't take us more than a couple days to go through a stick anyway! We've never had rancid butter in that time. But if you're concerned about freshness and bacteria, we'd suggest using a French butter keeper for soft yet still cool butter.
Here's one more answer on the question from the MU extension:
• My family leaves the butter out on the counter.
(Top image: Faith Durand)
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
How to Make Fresh Pasta Dough in the Food Processor
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
TW Salt Mill by Wil...
Small Cool Lessons: Discovering Small Space Design Ideas That Really Work
Marisa and Peter's Playfully Eclectic Home
You can make a spreadable version of butter that you can keep in the fridge. Take a stick of softened butter and blend with 1/2 cup of mild-flavoured oil, such as canola, or extra-virgin olive oil. Optionally add and 3/4 teaspoon of salt. Blend until creamy and refrigerate. It's yummy, lower in saturated fats & spreadable from the fridge. You can even have fun by adding flavoured oils, such as garlic-infused olive oil.
we have a small (2 tablespoons perhaps) and a large (1 stick) butter keeper like the one illustrated, and they work really well as long as you remember to change the water at least daily and use a clean knife to avoid leaving foreign particles. as the large one starts to get empty, there is the potential for air to get trapped inside the bell, which can lead to unpleasantness, but on the whole it's very efficient and convenient.
The comment about pasteurized milk and bacteria isn't quite right, sure it starts out virtually sterile but odds are good that you are inoculating it with bacteria from your hands or a knife almost immediately which pretty much erases any benefit of pasteurization. You are right that butter isn't a great growth media and you can enhance this by getting rid of all of the water by making clarified butter or ghee which are shelf-stable much like your favorite oils.
My grandparents always kept real butter in their cupboard. My grandma is still alive at 87!
I second that comment Aleec - I grew up with butter in the cupboard. I really didn't know there was another way.
My family always keeps butter out in a covered butter dish stored in a cabinet (if that makes a difference). I ate it that way for many, many years, as my parents still do and never once has the butter gone rancid.
Of course, we had a large family so the butter never made it a week anyway...
I keep my butter in a tupperware butter keeper. It is in no way air tight (it's older than I am), and I've never had any issues. My boyfriend decided he could cram an entire pound of butter into it and that was the only time I found it started to go rancid... simply because there was too much in there to use in time.
butter belongs on the counter. I'd love to have a french butter bell, but I'm content with my yellow tupperware.
I keep butter out on the counter (in a covered dish to keep flies and cats out). A stick of butter will last us a few weeks, but it's never gone rancid or developed any kind of bad growth. I find butter is more likely to develop off-odours in the fridge, picking up all kinds of smells from whatever we have stored in there.
i used a butter bell for a while, but found that i had a hard time getting the butter packed in there without leaving any nooks or crannies for the water to get into. consequently water would get between the butter and the 'bell' and the ball of butter would splash out into the water. i finally gave up and went back to using a saucer on the counter for my spreadable butter.
http://threadtrace.wordpress.com
The only time I've ever had a problem with rancid butter is in the summer, when the house gets really hot. I grew up my whole life with butter in the cupboard. If I knew I had some real germaphobes coming over, I might put it in the fridge right before they came. Otherwise, no.
My parents leave the butter in a covered butter dish right on the counter. I didn't know people put it in the fridge until I got an apartment with my friends.
I have to say, this is the first time I've heard of leaving butter out of the refrigerator for anything other than baking! *blush* I guess those covered butter dishes make more sense now.
I've known many, many people who leave butter out (in a covered butter dish) all the time, including my grandparents and everyone I know from Europe. Salted butter, in my experience, you can leave out for a couple of weeks without problems. Unsalted goes rancid a lot more quickly.
How about eggs? Does everyone keep them in the fridge? My partner, who is from South Africa, is bemused by the American insistence that eggs be constantly refrigerated.
I keep my butter out on the counter in the winter all the time in a covered butter dish. in the summer I usually just keep a couple of tablespoons out--I do find that it gets a little weird (not rancid, but not quite right). I do go through a lot more butter in the winter than I do in the summer.
i totally leave mine out - but we eat it really quickly. toast for breakfast, after school snacks, and midnight snacks is popular in my house!
another option is to buy earth balance margarine at trader joe's and leave that in the frig. it's vegan/organic and you can still spread it. it tastes ok, too.
Aithne - yeah, I was surprised to find eggs in grocery stores in England stored on unrefrigerated shelves - much like the bread in American stores. Since spending a year there, I'm now far less concerned if I forget to return my carton of eggs to the fridge over night or something.
I live in Tucson in a poorly cooled house. During the summer months (read: most of the year) I keep *everything* that could possibly melt in the fridge. If I leave butter out, it will be a puddle the next day.
Butter doesn't come in little sticks in New Zealand. They come in big blocks of 500 grams. I guess we eat a lot of butter around here. 500grams is 1.10231 lb. I think you might be able to get a size smaller but it costs a fortune!
i buy a 'dairy blend' most of the time that spreads from the fridge. it has vegetable oils in it but tastes fine.
it gets too hot here to keep butter on the bench and i don't use it nearly fast enough.
New Zealand butter is divine though buda. yum!
I totally leave butter out in my cute little Pyrex butter dish and didn't even think about it until now. Funny!
Oh, I just remembered something cute. When I was a kid we had a cat who LOVED butter and would always get into the butter dish, so we started storing the the dish in the microwave (we'd remove it when we needed to zap something, natch). Even then I guess it didn't occur to my parents to put it in the fridge! Ha.
how funny mizrobot..hahaha..I started to 'bravely' leave my butter dish on counter..the only problem is..I use too much, all nice and soft on my potatoes!..: )
I just use Country Crock... *shrugs*
I live in Tucson in a poorly cooled house. During the summer months (read: most of the year) I keep *everything* that could possibly melt in the fridge. If I leave butter out, it will be a puddle the next day.----->> Same here in South FL and if I could leave it out I would be eating a stick a day- Better Not!
Having been around on the planet for a while, I've known many butter-leaver-outers at many times and in many countries. The very question of whether or not one should is such a non starter to me! Who, when, where, or why is what I wonder about the huge, new camp of those who persist in zillions of food worries!
My parents always left it out. I would too but my Fiance goes balistik...
I use a butter bell and I love it - it works great! The butter is always perfectly soft - but I do change out the water regularly. My grandma has one and has used it forever. I grew up always wanting one and finally got it as a gift this year. It's the little things...
i grew up with the butter sometimes out (fall, winter, spring), and sometimes in the fridge (summer). A few years ago when i started making ceramics, i got the hang of making butter bells, and have used one ever since.
Though i don't use a lot of butter, i find that if i change the water at least every other day, or daily, my butter keeps fresh and spreadable for a max of 10 days...after that, it starts to taste less fresh.
@ Aithne & Laetitiae:
i don't know how long eggs take to make it from chicken to store in England or S.Africa, but that may have something to do with the general difference in storage. Eggs are naturally protected from bacteria by the oils/compounds found on the shells, but this barrier breaks down over time. Really fresh eggs have traditionally been kept at room temperature all over the world, and i would do this too except that i've heard it sometimes takes as much as 3 weeks to get an egg from the chicken to the store here in N.America...thus leaving the egg much more susceptible to bacteria. One more reason to support local farming initiatives!
My family always refridgerated the butter, but my in-laws leave it out all the time. I thought that was really bizarre when I found that out, but now I find it more convenient. They've never had a problem with the butter going off, so why not. It's just like when my grandparents say their parents/grandparents would cook 3 different types of meat at once and just leave it on the table covered with a sheet until it was finished. We'd never do that now.
I found an answer to the egg question a few years ago. I think I'm getting this right: Eggs have a natural membrane layer over the shell that keeps them impermeable - no bacteria can get in. By law, American eggs are washed with detergent before they're sold. This lowers the risk of salmonella (which is usually on the outside of the shell), but it also breaks down the membrane and leaves the eggs permeable, so they'll go bad eventually. European eggs are also washed but not as vigorously, so the membrane is intact. So European eggs really are more shelf-stable. It's not just the age of the eggs. (And I wouldn't be surprised if the European eggs are no more likely to have salmonella, but I don't know.)
I always leave butter out and have never had problems.
You're right about the eggs, Liana, the last step in the chicken before laying is a thin clear protective layer. I leave the eggs from my chickens out all the time, and usually just wash them right before using them. Of course, when I cook eggs for breakfast on the weekend I usually just use them straight from the coop, so they're no more than an hour or two old.
I love the taste of softened butter and admit I never ever leave butter out (bacteriaphobe). I never saw it left out until my brother-in-law came along.
I also love olivio! That stays creamy,even in the fridge!
lol my butter has been sitting on the counter for a week now, i'm glad i stumbled onto this thread
oh and i've discovered a source of soft butter : heavy cream cartons :) you have to get the ones that you can rip open and then just stick your knife in there or a spoon ;) yummy and stays in the fridge 99% of the time
I leave my butter in a dish on the counter too. It has never gone rancid. I make sure to thoroughly clean the dish between sticks of butter, so that there isn't any old butter residue getting funky on there. I prefer it to cold, hard butter most of the time (although there are times when thin slices of really cold butter on a sandwich is wonderful.)
@heylucy, you're giving me egg envy!
We leave our butter out all the time. It's got its covered dish, and as long as we get through it fairly promptly, it's fine. I do live in a rather cool climate, though; it has to be a real heat wave before the butter starts slumping out of shape.
Clearly no bureaucrat at the USDA has never made cookies or cake and if they did, I bet they were rock hard. Things like this infuriate the baker inside of me.
Our butter is always out. always. In a covered butter dish of course. During hot weather and cold . . . . doesn't matter. Butter is out. :) I don't think I've ever run into butter going rancid. We probably eat too much. ;)
I leave butter on a plate in the cupboard, only a table spoon or two, for using on toast and such. My house is cold enough though that it's still hard to spread even if kept out of the fridge.
A note on eggs though. My friend sailed across the Pacific a few years ago on a tall ship. It didn't have refrigeration so to keep the eggs from spoiling they rotated them. Apart from redistributing air that seeped in I have no idea how this would stop things from spoiling but the eggs kept for the whole trip.
I use a butter bell. I love it. Some are weirded out by it. I let the butter soften in the package on the counter for about 15 min. When I open it I place one end of the stick in the crock and use the paper to cover the opening and smoosh it in with my hand. Works wonders.
Thanks for the butter tips. Regarding the eggs, I think the rotation method and shelf-life, non-refrigeration is okay. If you think about it, birds have their eggs stolen from nests all the time by preditors. It's instinctive to leave eggs out, and instinctive to eat eggs that are left out. And I'm sure the birds rotate their eggs in the nest sometimes too. Ha