Gadget alert! Butter bells

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! )

[Robin Garr]

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!

[James Roscoe]

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?