I don’t even understand the butter tray in modern fridges. When I was a kid, that tray was basically in such a way that the cold didn’t really reach it so the butter didn’t get hard. These days that isn’t the case. What is the point?
Weird. I leave my butter out all the time and never noticed it going rancid. But we use it up pretty fast once it’s out. Also we get unsalted butter that’s heavily pasteurized so maybe it last longer? Today I learned.
How to Store Salted Butter If salted butter is your go-to, it can be stored on your counter for a few days! Leaving a stick or two out at room temperature will do no harm if your kitchen is kept at 70 degrees or cooler. The salt content helps keep butter fresh, even out of the refrigerator. Once it’s softened, salted butter should be used within one week.
Nah man. I thought this. My butter went bad and I didn’t realize until I ate a lot of it. I was putting it on bagels I was getting and I kept thinking they were mixing like rye seeds in there. That was the closest approximation I could conceive of because I thought the same as you.
Nope. I kept eating sour butter. It was fucking disgusting. Keep your butter in the fridge.
However, if butter is left out at room temperature for several days, the flavor can turn rancid so it’s best to leave out whatever you can use within a day or two.
It’s not actually necessary if you use a lot of it, but yes, a lot of people do in America. It got caught up in some health scare or another and people said “it’s dairy, right?”
I don’t know about new fridges, but some old ones had a heater in the Butter Drawer (usually a shelf with a door). It made the butter easier to spread. People weren’t concerned about energy usage back in the day.
The last one I measured drew a steady 10 watts.
Butter drawer top center (on the door), egg shelf below that.
A heater in the fridge! 😄🔥 I just put my butter on the table for a couple minutes and scrape a few “pieces” off the top so that it warms faster. Call me a caveman. 😐🤷♂️
You are correct. Eta: that was in fact constant draw, unlike the compressor which is only on when needed. Like I said, no one cared about consumption when electricity was cheap.
This was an old refrigerator I was renovating for a friend. It was it very good condition, it had been regularly cleaned but no longer worked. It needed a new contactor.
I plugged it in with everything disconnected (I thought) so I could check for wiring faults. After some head scratching I took the door apart and found the butter warmer.
The original plan was get it working and replace the ancient door gaskets. In the end it was that, and disconnecting the butter warmer, and putting modern insulation in it. Once all that was done the energy consumption was just slightly more than a modern fridge the same size. I was quite surprised because I thought it would be terrible. Her rationale was that she has way more solar than she uses and she loved the fridge. I’m not sure I agree with that but the embodied energy costs are certainly much lower. Made in the 1950’s still working today.
Oh, and because I did it as a favor, total cost was less than $100. Craigslist free (haul it away), labor free, parts about $80 something.
p.s. ask me about my Craigslist O’Keefe and Merritt range.
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