spreadable butter in a cold house

[Anonymous]

Wouldn’t OPs kitchen have to be in the 40s or barely 50 degrees to keep butter too cold to spread? That’s insane.

[Anonymous]

Butter is less spreadable in winter. In summer it gets downright sloppy. Here's what you do princess. Toast your bread. Immediately mash some butter into said bread. Warm bread will assist with the spreading.

[Anonymous]

We keep our house at 68 and our butter is not spreadable on bread that’s not been warmed/toasted. I usually put the butter dish in the microwave on the defrost setting for about 15-20 seconds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Zap the butter dish for 13-15 seconds. This isn't rocket science, people.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Warm your house better, renovate it or move. This is the 21st century, you don’t have to live in a cave!

[Anonymous]

You could try this: https://www.bustle.com/p/butter-knife-magic-a-tool-for-cutting-spreading-butter-makes-sure-cold-butter-spreads-evenly-every-time-8885683

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn’t OPs kitchen have to be in the 40s or barely 50 degrees to keep butter too cold to spread? That’s insane.

Well, no. The closest thing I could find to a food-science reference is Cooks Illustrated, which says softened butter is 65 to 67 degrees. My dining room is 65 degrees but butter is still pretty stiff in there. I just stuck my instant thermometer in the butter in the kitchen out of curiosity, and it registered 59 degrees. Had some friends and their kids over for dinner and so the kids could put ornaments on my tree, but dinner was 4 hours ago.

The main reason this was on my mind re: the butter is that around Christmas I make lefse (Norwegian potato-based flatbread, kind of like a flour tortilla made mostly out of potato but thinner). It's taken me several years to achieve proficiency and I am relishing the reward. But lefse is fragile, butter probably needs to be more like 72 degrees. And butter is kinda a requirement.

Someone said "move/renovate/turn up the heat". Aside from the privileged aspects of this response, I've never kept a thermostat over 65 during the day in winter even when I lived in places with very efficient and economical heating, and 62 at night. Multiple reasons, but highest are: unjustifiable expense when money could go elsewhere including savings; environmental/global warming/ coal (the source of the electricity that powers my boiler); I totally love wearing wool sweaters at home in the winter and sleeping in a cool room under heavy blankets. Stiff butter in a small price to pay for that.