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We got a friend who was a potter to make us a container like that - it exactly fits one tub of the Earth Balance and makes it look so much better when it's out on the table.

I love my butter bell! Here are some options...

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=butter bell&x=0&y=0

I use a tiny, covered Le Creuset baking dish. It nicely accommodates a stick that has been cut in half.

I have a butter bell, but it never works. A suction forms andd pulls the butter out. Any advice?

leepert, you may be putting your butter in when it's too cold. Let it soften, not completely to room temperature but enough that you can spread it, then put it in the bell. OR it may be too warm when you put it in--seems silly but the temperature does matter. If I had to guess, I would say 60 degrees?

I have a ridiculous-looking butter bell that I keep in the cupboard and only pull out when we use butter at the table. The part the butter sits in is pretty enough for the table, thankfully. I bought it for five dollars at Fred Meyer, marked down from thirty dollars.

My grandmother had a beautifully simple one and I have never found one like it - it was pottery like flower pots are made of, with a glass insert. The pottery was glazed on the bottom (so protected surfaces) and unglazed on the top. Water in the pottery part surrounded the glass insert, and evaporation kept it all cool. Does anyone know where I might find one? I do look and google search periodically but no luck so far.

I have a butter bell and it gets used enough that I still have it but it is my ideal solution.

I want to love my butter bell, I really do, but it always winds up spoiling the butter (which winds up smelling like blue cheese). I could use a solution, too. Thanks!

We have a butter bell, too, but the butter usually falls out into the water. Was just thinking I need to go back to my small glass vintage pyrex refrigerator box, at least for the summer.

I love the butter bell, but yea, I've had butter get moldy in there when I didn't use it up within a couple of weeks. I suppose you could put it in the fridge if you knew you weren't going to need it for a while.

Anyway, I have a marble one, and the inside of the cup where the butter goes isn't polished but slightly rough just like the grinding surfaces of my marble mortar/pestle. The butter has never fallen out of mine, so I'm wondering if you all who are having problems with that have bells that are ceramic and glazed on the inside of the cup?

My mom has a crystal (looking) butter stick dish that has a cover to it. She takes it out of the fridge in the morning and puts it back in the fridge at night. She's used a butter bell before.

I have a butter bell, but rarely use it. Lately, the only way I've been using real butter is in my popcorn popper...so it's just refrigerated.

with butter bells, you have to be really careful not to get crumbs or food (toast, etc) in the butter. This guarantees mold. Also, I always shake a teaspoon or so of salt into the water. It supposedly helps kill any creepy crawlies that might want to grow in there. :)

i use a french butter keep (butter bell) that i've made.

Changing the water every few days definitely helps keep things fresh, and i think that leaving much of the ceramic unglazed also helps with the evaporation/cooling/keeping the butter at the right temp to not fall out.