Everything You'll Ever Need to Know About Keeping Butter at Room Temperature

If you’ve ever tried spreading butter straight from the fridge on practically anything, you know the struggle is real. Cold butter is a total pain, but we keep it that way because we think it’s the safest way to do it, even if it tears our toast, and soul, apart.

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The thing is, if you’ve been keeping butter in the fridge because you’ve been told storing it room temperature is akin to creating a bacteria frappe, you’ve been living a lie!

Peter Cassell of the FDA told Takeout it’s totally fine to store butter at 68°F for up to TEN DAYS!!

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With that goes the disclaimer that the kind of butter you have makes a difference concerning contamination worries, i.e. if it’s salted, made with pasteurized cream, that kind of stuff.

Photo Credit: Prensa

The takeaway is that as long as you’re working with quality butter, ten days is no problem (keep it covered though). You can even go 20 days, if you keep it at 50°F as a compromise.

Quality butter is so awesome – you can even freeze it for two years, and it will still be good!

Photo Credit: 21Food

It all comes down to using some common sense. If it smells rancid, it probably is. When dust is gathering on it, it needs to go. If flies are using your butter as a flop pad, say goodbye to it. However, if it looks and smells good, it’s most likely good to go and ready to enjoy.