WineLovers Discussion Group

My wife received a butter bell as a Christmas gift. Seems like a pretty nifty gadget and I have not noticed any postings about it on here so I thought I'd start one.

A butter bell is a two piece ceramic device intended to store butter on your kitchen counter to keep it soft and spreadable yet also keep it from spoiling. The base of the device is a topless cylinder, think of a coffee cup without the handle. The top of the device is a bell with a disk attached to its closed end.





The way to use the device is to cram a stick of soft butter into the bell. Put about an inch of water in the base. Invert the bell and insert it into the base. The water rises and creates a seal inside the device. No air gets in so the butter does not spoil. And since the butter is not exposed to air, it can be kept on a counter at room temp leaving it very spreadable.

Cost of the one pictured that holds a stick of butter is about $15. Smaller ones are available for about $10. More decorated ones cost $25.

Anybody have extended experience with one of these things?

We always leave butter out and have never had a problem with spoiling.

(That might be because we go through it so quickly it probably doesn't get a chance to! )

MikeH wrote:Anybody have extended experience with one of these things?

Mike, we don't own one, but a nice coffee shop near where my mother and my sister live on Florida's Space Coast has one out that they serve with sample slices of their breads, and I love the spreadable texture. I always assumed that they kept it in the fridge at night, or as Cynthia says, they may just go through it too fast for that to be a problem.

It had never occurred to me to look for one for use at home, but they really do seem cool, and now I'm tempted.

We keep the butter out, in a covered butter dish on the counter. We get the spreadable texture, and we've never had the butter go off. My wife prefers it that way, but frankly, I was raised with whipped butter, straight out of the fridge, and if I had my choice, that's the way I'd serve it. I like the small lumps of butter I get that way. I let Cindy win on this one, though, as I know enough to pick my battles.

That looks like a pretty cool device Mike. We don't have one but I have seen them advertised and wondered how they worked.

Like some of the others, we also leave our butter on the counter in a pottery butter dish. But we only use salted and we go through it everyday, so it's not out more than a day.

I have left unsalted butter out for a day and that has spoiled...yuck! I wonder how it would do for that?

Let us know how it works!

We have had one for years. The butter constantly falls into the water and we never use it. If you keep your house at a constant temperature, it might work, but I don't see the advantage over a butter dish. In fact, you have to use a scraper to cet out the bits inside the "ball". that's not a problem on the dish. Cleaning was also a problem. It does look much better than having the yellow stick of milk fat sitting on the counter.

We have butter crock without the water business that is a family heirloom. Keeps butter just fine on the kitchen counter. We keep our house pretty close to 65 degrees F all year round.

Where do the batteries go?