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Temperatures in LA have been three digits for the past week. It dropped to a chilly 84 degrees last night when we had a spot of rain.
I cannot imagine keeping the butter out on the counter. I just take the butter out of the fridge a few minutes before I'm going to use it, then return it to the dairy compartment in the fridge as soon as I'm done. I've never even heard of a butter bell, know no one who owns one, and based on what I've read in this thread, it sounds like a lot of unnecessary fuss.
Unsalted butter will become rancid faster. Salt acts as a preservative.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DontH8Me
Temperatures in LA have been three digits for the past week. It dropped to a chilly 84 degrees last night when we had a spot of rain.
I cannot imagine keeping the butter out on the counter.
I live in Orange County, and have always kept the butter out. Maybe your house is different, but around here if it gets to be over 80 degrees inside, we turn on the a/c. That's maybe a week or 10 days out of the year, most years.
Unsalted butter will become rancid faster. Salt acts as a preservative.
I live in Orange County, and have always kept the butter out. Maybe your house is different, but around here if it gets to be over 80 degrees inside, we turn on the a/c. That's maybe a week or 10 days out of the year, most years.
It is different - there is no AC. We live close to the beach and up until just a few years ago, we never missed having it.
The only perishable food we keep on the counter are tomatoes and bananas. Stone fruits when they are in season.
It is different - there is no AC. We live close to the beach and up until just a few years ago, we never missed having it.
To be fair, our house HAD an a/c unit, but it was nonfunctional for the first twenty years we lived here. I could put up with a few days of heat myself, but about five years ago I could no longer put up with the vociferous complaining of teenage children, so we had our unit repaired.
Never had it spoil - salted butter should last at least 7-10 days as long as not melted and keep lid on when not in use. I wash the dish out a couple of times a month.
Oh, yes. Salted.
That might be different. I use unsalted.
Salt helps preserve and lowers the moisture content - According to the FDA and NIH, while most types of bacteria would be able to survive on unsalted butter, there is only one type of bacteria that can survive the conditions of salted butter. According to their tests - Regular, salted butter has a low risk of bacterial contamination, even when kept at room temperature for several weeks (they tested 3 weeks). In fact, salted butter is actually produced with the expectation that consumers will not keep it in the fridge (in FDA report above).
According to NIH stud - fats go rancid, or spoil, through a process called oxidation, which alters their molecular structure and results in off flavors in any foods made with the rancid fats. Heat, light and exposure to oxygen can all speed up this process. It has been demonstrated that it may take anywhere between several weeks to over a year for oxidation to negatively affect butter, depending on how it is stored.
So according to reports from the gov't, salted butter is fine to leave out for several weeks but unsalted should not be regularly left out for more than is necessary.
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