I Tried This Viral Hack for Softening Butter in a Hurry. Here’s How It Went.

There are a lot of different methods for softening sticks of butter — some of which don’t work well and a number of which are actually quite helpful in a time crunch, such as when you forgot to pull your butter out of the fridge for a baking recipe or just want some soft butter to spread on toast or warm dinner rolls. With this in mind, I was hopeful that this hack I stumbled upon on TikTok would be another good go-to technique for getting the job done.

According to this technique from user Roxy.396, which has over 3 million “likes,” all you need is a block of butter and a fine-mesh sieve. To get the butter soft, you simply use the underside of the sieve to scrape the surface of the stick of butter, which, in theory, should produce finely grated, softened butter.

When I tried this technique, it definitely worked, to an extent. The butter definitely came through the sieve and it was very soft. Where I ran into logistical issues, however, was getting the butter out of the sieve.

Whether I used a butter knife or my index finger, I found it difficult to actually remove the butter from the sieve without it simply spreading more into the holes on the sieve. In a way, it became almost too soft, too quickly.

In the future, whether I need a little softened butter for a piece of toast in the morning or a large amount for basic buttercream or chocolate chip cookies, I’ll stick to the top rated method from our Skills Showdown on the best way to soften butter quickly (or remember to take the butter out of the fridge ahead of time).