So I understand that the point of a butter bell is that your cup of butter is not exposed to the outside air because the water creates a seal. What I don’t understand is that there is still some air trapped between the butter and this water seal because the water doesn’t touch the butter. Is the reason why butter lasts longer because the amount of air and consequently bacteria the butter is exposed to less than if it was not in a seal? I would’ve thought that because the butter has the same surface area exposed to the air with or without the seal, the seal is unnecessary.
Please help, my girlfriend and I are fighting.
In: 24
It’s not bacteria, it’s oxygen. Butter does not go rancid because of microorganisms, it goes rancid because fat naturally degrades over time. Exposure to light, heat, and oxygen makes fat degrade faster. So, even though the butter in butterbell might have some of its surface touching air in a bubble, that air is trapped and not getting new oxygen from the rest of the atmosphere like the air touching the surface of butter in a normal dish.
Food can “go bad” in a number of different ways, and only some are relevant to butter.
You don’t have to be particularly concerned about bacteria or mold in your butter, especially if it is salted. The relatively low water content makes it inhospitable to most living things.
You do have to be concerned about the fat going rancid. This is an oxidization reaction that requires air. However, just like other oxidization reactions like rust or fire, it uses the air as “fuel.” Keeping the butter under a dish does the same thing as smothering a fire in a pan – cuts off the fuel source. The butter will still oxidize, especially if you’re constantly lifting the lid of the dish, but it will do so slower than butter exposed to fresh air at all times.
There is less air in contact with the butter and therefore less oxygen with which the bacteria can do their stuff. So the bacteria present in the butter from the start will fast run out of oxygen and stop multiplying, or at least they’ll be replicating more slowly after that.
as far as I am aware, the water is supposed to touch the butter. if you scoop some out, there may be a little air bubble trapped. You’re also meant to change the water every so often iirc.
look at the diagrams:
[https://www.butterbell.com/learn-more](https://www.butterbell.com/learn-more)
I’ve never heard of this product before. Don’t you end up with wet butter?
If you can go through a stick of butter in 1-2 weeks, butter bell is more work than its worth because you got to keep changing the water as stagnant water goes nasty over time.
Wife and I have always just keep a butter stick in a in a covered butter dish on the counter for the past 15 years now. The butter is constantly used and has never sat so long its gone bad.
My husband bought us a butter bell but I quickly abandoned it. The butter was actually going rancid WAY faster than just in a standard glass butter dish ( within a few days).
Does anyone know why that would be the case? How often are you supposed to change water in a butter bell? I couldn’t understand why the butter bell was doing the exact opposite of what it was designed for.
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