Growing up, we didn’t keep butter in the refrigerator… we liked the spreadable texture of room temperature butter. A stick of salted butter was stored in a covered butter dish on the counter, available to anybody who wanted a smear on toast. It’s the old fashioned way, the way my grandma did it and her grandma before her.
I’d spread it on my whole grain toast each morning (the way I usually start my day), watching that gorgeous yellow butter melt into the nooks and crannies of my golden slice of toast. Heaven.
When I got to college, I noticed that my friends all kept their butter in the refrigerator. I was perplexed. Why would you want to do that?
Butter won’t spread straight from the fridge. It’s hard and cold, not soft and melty. They cited food safety as a concern– the refrigerator, they claimed, was safer for storing butter.
I tried to jump on the chilled butter bandwagon, but it didn’t work for me. It was too hard, wouldn’t melt fast enough, and more often than not left a big chunk of semi-soft butter in the middle of my toast. Blech.
While searching for an alternative I transitioned to margarine, which was spreadable and salty and fine, but not as yummy as butter. I was willing to compromise– the “spreadable” factor was most important for me.
Then I learned about the many health concerns attached to most margarines on the market. They’re heavily processed and many contain trans fat, which increases blood cholesterol and the risk of heart disease. Yuck.
While butter substitutes are good for certain things, like cooking dairy-free or serving with a kosher meat meal, I vastly prefer the flavor of natural butter. Over time I found some healthier butter substitutes, like Organic Earth Balance Buttery Spread. Trouble is most of them contain soy, which negatively effects my hormones.
I yearned to take my good old fashioned butter back to room temperature for that easy spreading texture… and really, there’s no reason not to have it that way. Butter will last for about 3 weeks in a covered butter dish at room temperature before it turns rancid.
Even after it turns rancid, the taste is bad, but it won’t make you sick (though honestly, who wants to eat anything with the adjective “rancid” attached to it?). I bought a covered butter dish from a local vintage market and returned to my roots, keeping my butter at room temperature again. Unfortunately I’m the only butter fan in my house, and sometimes the stick would go rancid before I had a chance to finish it.
My little jade-colored chicken butter dish.
The solution came in the comments section of another website (for the life of me I can’t remember which one), where people were discussing this subject of room temperature butter. A woman claimed that she made her own spreadable chilled butter by combining room temperature butter, olive oil, and salt. The resulting butter was spreadable straight from the fridge.
I loved the idea, so I gave it a try. The first batch wasn’t very successful– it tasted way too much like olive oil. I tried again with a smaller quantity of light olive oil (which is less olive-y tasting). The light olive oil was better in terms of flavor, but it’s really just processed olive oil, sometimes mixed with other vegetable oils.
Eventually I settled on avocado oil, which is a healthy oil choice (less processed than seed oils), and has a nice, neutral flavor. This mixture is perfectly textured straight from the fridge.
Nutritionally speaking, this Homemade Spreadable Butter is lower in saturated fat and cholesterol than pure butter. You can adjust the saltiness (and thereby the sodium) to taste.
Olive oil will work too, but you should try to find one that has a neutral or buttery flavor profile – and even then, it may give the spreadable butter a hint of olive flavor. That doesn’t bother me, but if you’re looking for a traditional butter flavor, stick to avocado oil!
Now my butter dish sits on my kitchen shelf, a reminder of the good old days. Homemade Spreadable Butter for the win! How do you keep your butter– in the fridge, on the countertop, or not at all?
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Homemade Spreadable Butter
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter (I prefer organic)
- 3/4 cup avocado oil (you may substitute a neutral-flavored or buttery-flavored olive oil)
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
Instructions
- Let the butter slowly come to room temperature. To speed this process, cut the butter into small chunks and separate them from each other. Do not try to speed things up in the microwave, even at half power... you’ll change the texture of the butter.
- Place the room temperature butter into a food processor along with the oil and sea salt.
- Process the butter, oil and salt for 1-2 minutes, scraping the sides of the processor periodically, till all lumps have disappeared and the mixture is smooth and soft. It will be quite liquid, but don't worry, it will firm up in the fridge.
- Pour the softened butter into a container that can be sealed airtight (like a Tupperware). Refrigerate for 1-2 hours until fully chilled and firm.
- This Homemade Spreadable Butter will last up to 3 months in the refrigerator. It is spreadable straight from the refrigerator. Do not leave the butter at room temperature too long or it will start to separate. If this happens, you can stir the oil back into the butter before refrigerating again.
NOTES
Nutrition
Try using
1 lb butter – softened not melted
1c water
1c canola oil
1-2T lethethin
Beating in mixer. The water makes it go farther without adding calories and fat
I love this idea, especially since my joints desperately need more Omega-6 fatty acids to work properly. I am definitely going to try it out. I always keep grape seed oil on hand to use as a carrier oil.
On a side note, if you ever long to have 100% butter at room temperature once again, you could always try a French butter keeper (also called a butter crock or butter bell). It keeps butter good at room temperate for up to 30 days.
I have made “better butter” for years too.
Here is the recipe:
1 cup room softened unsalted butter
1 cup olive oil, preferably organic
1 cup store bought buttermilk (or milk with 1 Tab. vinegar added and stir until curdled)
Put all in the cuisinart or food processor until nice and smooth. put into a tupperware with lid. Very smooth and very “buttery flavored” the buttermilk helps.
I’m with you on hating hard butter. For years now, I’ve used the Butter Bell crock. Butter from the crock is always the perfect consistency. We use enough butter that we have no problem remembering to change the water every few days, and when the butter runs out, I put the crock in the dishwasher & a fresh stick of butter out on the chopping block to soften.
We leave our butter out, covered. I am intrigued by this idea of actual spreadable butter. I was wondering, do you bake with it? Or is this strictly for your toast and such. Thanks for the post.
Hi Amanda, I have never baked with it, but I’m guessing you probably could. Haven’t tried it myself though!
Yep! Butter left out on the counter top is soft and yummy! It’s the best! The only dairy-free “butter” that I’ve found that tastes good is Soy-Free Earth Balance Butter. I have a kid who can’t have dairy…period. Do you know of any recipes to make non-dairy butter-like “butters”?
I loved reading this article. My aunt used to leave the butter on the counter in her butter dish. I thought ,that can’t be good for you! well she has since long passed and I too leave my butter on the counter and buy 4 Lbs every time it goes on sale and put it in the freezer. I love the taste of real butter and am tired of all the fake things out there. within reason it is good for us. I love having soft butter for a muffin in the afternoon with a cup a coffee! thanks for all your knowledgeable articles.
I have a recipe for Better Butter from years ago:
1 C. vegetable oil
1 C. butter, very soft (2 sticks)
2 TBSP. filtered water
1/4 teaspoon liquid lecithin
Blend until very smooth and refrigerate. It spreads easily right from the refrigerator.
I made this Sunday – it works great. Thanks
Great!
I also like the spreadability of softened butter. I am single, so I cut a stick of butter in half and keep it on the counter in a plastic covered dish that came with the fridge. I like your dish better and may hunt one up for myself.
The 1/2 stick works very well for me. The other 1/2 sits in a sealed plastic bag until it’s needed.
I love your recipes and ilove reading all the comments.
Hi Tori,
My mother found a beautiful antique, beautifully decorated sterling silver butter dish several years ago, and being a practical woman thought, what the heck, I’ll use it as a butter dish! That’s what it’s for! This butter sits on the countertop, kind of in an out-of-the-way/cool corner so it doesn’t go bad. And we eat it for toast/waffles/banana bread in the morning, sometimes for bread or even as a simple way to dress up pasta and fish. So it doesn’t go bad, although we try to be judicious about it when we use it.
The rest of the butter is indeed kept in fridge or freezer and mainly used in baking for American-style sweets. If the countertop stick is done we rotate one out of the fridge.
I love antique dishes!
I don’t use canola oil for any thing as it is not good for you. It has been sold to the public by the food industry hyoe and every one knows that they are not interested in most cases in our health, but in making the most money they can from a product. Check out the history of canola oil and find out for your self.It is also a GMO product.
Evidence please Joan.
Nothing wrong with Canola oil – in fact it has some great properties vs other oils.
That said, the big change in usage of oils originates NOT with the “big bad evil food conglomerates”, but rather with the supposed vegan/vegetarian/health crowd inaccurately labelling things like peanut oil and lard as inherently “bad”. (Lard is one of the greatest food storage inventions ever, as it holds on the shelf for months), thereby prompting a *required* change, which the producers (corporations) then HAD to provide, since the market for these “old evil oils” was regulated into non-use by restaurants. I was a cook at the time this started in the 80’s…the switch from traditional oils to the supposed “healthy” oils was a joke among those of us working with it daily.
I suggest a firm background in biology, chemistry and food science before repeating the catch phrases of many groups. GMO isn’t *automatically* bad, any more than anything else is. We’ve been genetically modifying crops for tens of thousands of years (one of the greatest examples is maize/corn – which has saved MILLIONS of lives because of man’s intervention and modification of the plant’s genome).
Countertop! But, since moving to Las Vegas, the summer heat does not allow the butter to last very long. This is the perfect solution. It gets so hot here, the butter will practically melt right on the counter. Thanks so much for a great tip!
Hey there! I love this idea. I always have at least 1/2 a sick of butter in my butter dish on the counter 🙂 I have thought about the butter bells however I got leary after reading an article saying some contain lead (especially if from China). Looking forward to chilled spreadable butter, but I bet I will still have some on the counter too 🙂
I use a butter bell. I change the water twice a week. Always tastes fresh. Make sure to use bottled water for changing water. I can’t wait to try your butter spread recipe.
Just popping in to say I love your butter dish! I love colorful dishes like that added in to the kitchen!
Another simple solution to your rancid butter problem is to only put half a stick of butter in your covered butter dish on the counter.
Shopping around in a kitchen store, I found what is called a “butter keeper”. I believe it is used in France. It is a cup like top that you fill with room temp. butter and then invert it into it’s holder filled with cold water. Water has to be changed every few days (which I often forget to do). It keeps butter on the counter for weeks at a time without going rancid. We love it!
Thank you so much for this. I love using grapeseed oil and here where I live the price has come down quite a bit (for some reason). My mother-in-law and I used to do something similar years ago. I love your idea better. And I am crazy about your chicken butter dish. 1) I love that vintage green glass and 2) I am a chicken fanatic.