I love my butter bell -- but it's hardly perfect. First of all, I can't imagine being able to keep butter fresh in it for a whole month -- mine is not marble however (plain earthenware, I believe), so maybe that makes a difference? Even when I'm good about changing the water out regularly (you have to freshen the water in the base every few days, and I tend to forget), it's my experience that butter gets moldy after more than 10 days or so.

Another caveat: I'm sure you can get these in more than one size, but the bells I see most often for sale (Burre Bell I believe is the brand) doesn't hold an entire stick of butter, which means you've got a tablespoon or two to use once you've mushed the rest into the bell.

And finally, butter bells are best for cold/mild temperatures -- once the mercury soars much above 80 degrees, the butter gets too soft to stay IN the bell, and it falls out into the water-filled base when you pick it up.

So, with all that said, I do still love mine, and use it throughout the cooler months, and I do my best to remember to change the water every 3-4 days, and it's great. But if you you don't want to have to remind yourself to maintain the water freshness, or if you live somewhere that's hot, or that gets hot in the summer, you might want to have a backup storage method for your butter.

I have used one of these before but for me it only seems really useful when I have just made bread - which I do in phases. If you eat toast or bread daily then this would definately be worth it, but I don't so... :( It's so tempting.

Instead, when I am on a bread making/eating phase I will just use an old fashioned glass butter dish. We keep the stick of butter on the counter, out of the sunlight and it keeps for almost a week. (Usually with just the two of us a stick will last about 5 days.)

I recently got a butter bell, and I do like it. Mine was a mere $7 from HomeGoods, and does indeed hold an entire stick of butter. If I remember to change the water every 4-5 days, my butter will stay fresh for 30 days. My house temp rarely goes above 80, so no issues there. If you regularly consume butter, then I'd definitely recommend a butter bell. But if you're going to spend $27, then take a look at the Emile Henry line of bells, which sell for $35, and come in many lovely colours. Mine was cheap, and isn't that attractive. But I wanted to start off cheap, incase it wasn't gonna work for me.

The comment by SaraHeartburn basically sums up my experience with a butter bell - lovely for a few days in the winter, but as soon as hot weather hits, look out for melted butter all over the jar.

And ditto for the comment about moldy butter (ewww), especially if someone in the house is careless enough to brush a breadcrumb into the butter (and then leave the breadcrumb soaking in water, to predictable results...)

Don't get me wrong, I LIKE the butter bell, but more in an "oh, hey, I made fresh butter with herbs, let's put this in a jar and keep it fresh for a few days" rather than as a permanent butter storage mechanism.

I had a butter bell, and I had basically the same issues with it that SaraHeartburn had: the butter gets moldy after not too long (even if you change the water religiously), and sometimes it falls out.

On the other hand, I've never had my butter go bad or moldy just sitting out on the counter. I put about 3-5 TBs at a time on a saucer on the counter, and use as needed until it's gone. It usually lasts me 1-2 weeks.

I have a butter bell and have been using it for years. I change the water daily and use filtered water (we have a reverse osmosis system). In our old house before using filtered water, if you happened to forget you could get mold growing in your butter within 3 days. I started changing the water daily then, and still do, but now if I forget it's not as big a deal. I luckily live far enough north that the melted butter issue hasn't happened to me yet, even during summer.

Yeah, my butter bell was just too high maintenance, especially during the warmer months. Since I thrifted my bell for a dollar or so it was worth a try but ditto what everyone else has said about melty butter and keeping crumbs out of the water and such. My conclusion was that, unfortunately, the claims for the butter bell were indeed too good to be true.

I have a butter bell but I go in stages where I use it or don't. Never had a problem w/the butter falling out in the warmer weather and I live in an area where regular high temps in the summer are 90-95 degrees. Then again, maybe its b/cause my air conditioner is also going full blast then too. What stops me from using it is the temptation to put butter on everything. When I feel like I need to cut back, in the cupboard it goes!

We have a butter crock that generally stays in the fridge chock full of salted butter. Doesn't get much use during the week, but first thing Saturday morning (could even be Friday night) I put it out on the counter for breakfast. While it means I may not have perfectly spreadable butter for my toast, it is softened enough to melt with the residual heat. With almost no maintenance or risk of mold its a compromise that works well for us.

I've had an emile henry butter keeper for years and I love it! I eat a lot of bread and butter and it's great to have soft, spreadable butter ready at all times.

I keep my salted butter in a regular glass butter dish. We must go through it pretty fast because I have yet to ever see moldy butter.

I like the idea of a butter keeper but it just seems too high maintenance for me.

My butter keeper always makes me feel like I'm going insane, because I read nothing but rave reviews about these things but every time I've used mine I've ended up with wet butter. And I'm not talking about just warm summer months, I'm talking about all the time. Sometimes pieces of butter would fall into the water, other times the top surface of the butter would just be wet. It ended up being so annoying I stopped using it. Not sure what the issue is.

Question for those who have used these things: do you actually submerge the butter IN the water? Or does the butter just hover over the surface of the water?

In Florida, with MY husband? LOL, LOL, LOL! I bake all our bread all of the time and there's no way he'd keep butter crumb free. Besides, I prefer my butter ice cold.

I love my ceramic butter bell from King Arthur Flour. It holds a full stick of butter, and stays fresh for a long while, so long as I don't drop crumbs in it. I switched over to using little butter bells--which hold about a tablespoon--for the summer, since I don't seem to use as much butter then and it will start getting a little greasy after a while when it's really hot out. I have six, from NorPro, and I fill them up all at once, keep one or two on the counter and put the rest in the fridge until needed.

(To dana at proofofthepudding--the butter mostly hovers. If the bell is completely full, the water may touch the butter a little, but it is mostly there to create a seal).

fall through spring I just leave my butter in the butter dish on the counter. it works out fine--we finish it off before it goes bad. during the summer I put just a couple of tablespoons out at a time in a ramekin on the counter.

it works perfectly.

crumbs in the butter...come on people get a butter knife and place the selected butter on your plate and then butter with your own knife.

I agree with Icg, a Butter Bell? I just put maybe a quarter of a stick in my regular butter dish and leave it on the counter and it has never gone bad, is always soft and spreadable. Who/What family takes a whole 30 days to eat a stick of butter!

Does not work in Arizona during the summer.
Source: Personal experience. :-P

ariellie:
I get wet butter too, but it's never so wet that I really mind. If you use real butter, not light, the fat repels the water so expertly that it isn't an issue for me.

I love it when I am breads or bagels but some weeks I'll be eating cinnamon buns or something that does not require butter. Then I forget about it, gets moldy and its disgusting to clean.

But butter does not get wet...as it is an oil (and hopefully still solid), it does not mix with the water. There are water beads on it when you lift it out but not enough to affect the texture or taste.