Spreadable Butter Without Oil Blends: Keep Real Butter Soft

It's a school morning, the toast is ready, and the stick from the fridge tears it into crumbs. You don't need a tub with oil in it to get spreadable butter: keep a small amount of real salted butter covered on a cool counter, below 70 °F (21 °C), for no more than a day or two, and it spreads like the tub does.

The tub blends are regular butter with vegetable oil added, and America's Test Kitchen says they become liquid at room temperature, so they go back in the fridge. Plain butter is about 80 to 82% fat, and that fat softens instead of pooling. Houseland's water-seal butter crock is built for that plain-butter job, with a lid cup listed at 4.7 fl oz (140 ml).

Why is fridge butter hard when the oil blends spread cold?

Butter only begins to soften at about 60 °F (15 °C), and your fridge should sit at 40 °F (4 °C) or below. America's Test Kitchen says butter begins to soften between 60 and 68 °F, and the FDA sets the fridge at 40 °F. That gap, 60 - 40 = 20 °F, is the whole problem.

The University of Wisconsin's Center for Dairy Research explains the chemistry. Milk fat is about 70% saturated, and saturated triglycerides stack neatly into solid crystals. Unsaturated fats have kinks, pack badly and melt lower. The more crystals, the harder the butter.

Canola oil flips that ratio. A 2013 review in Nutrition Reviews puts it at about 7% saturated fat, against 61% oleic, 21% linoleic and 11% alpha-linolenic acid, so 61 + 21 + 11 = 93% of it is those three unsaturated fats, the reverse of butter. Blend it into butter and the crystals get diluted.

USDA FoodData Central lists the ingredients for store-brand tubs made with canola oil, and they're short: cream, canola oil, salt. Some add skim milk and lactic acid. The oil is the softener.

Your butter isn't broken. It's just too cold.

Can spreadable butter with oil be left out on the counter?

No: keep the oil blends in the fridge and follow the storage line on the tub. America's Test Kitchen describes them as butter with vegetable oil added so they're soft straight from the fridge, and notes they become liquid at room temperature.

The counter guidance from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension covers salted butter only. It says salted butter may sit below 70 °F (21 °C) for 1 to 2 days in a covered dish or butter crock. It says whipped butter and compound butter should stay in the refrigerator every time. Blends aren't on its counter list at all, so the tub's own label is your rule.

• Salted stick butter: the one type UMaine allows on the counter, short term.
• Unsalted and cultured butter: UMaine says fridge, softened briefly before use.
• Whipped butter: fridge, tightly covered, because the air speeds oxidation.
• Tubs with canola or olive oil: fridge, by the label.
• Ghee: shelf-stable in a sealed container, per UMaine.

Tubs live in the fridge. Sticks can visit the counter.

For the stick you want soft, a water-seal butter crock keeps it covered on the counter; its lid cup is listed at 4.7 fl oz (140 ml), room for one U.S. stick. Recommended for this use case: the household that finishes a stick of salted butter every couple of days and wants it soft for toast should pick the Warm Gray crock, or the Blue or Green in the same size, packed with one softened stick. It is glazed ceramic, about 4.1 in (10.5 cm) tall and 3.9 in (10 cm) across, small enough for the spot by the toaster.

From the shop

Water-Seal Butter Crock with Lid, Reactive Glaze Ceramic Keeper

Best for keeping one stick of salted butter soft on a cool counter; glazed ceramic, lid cup listed at 4.7 fl oz (140 ml), about 4.1 in (10.5 cm) tall; the water needs changing every day or every few days.

View the water-seal butter crock — 3 colors & current price

Oil blend vs real butter: how do they compare for everyday toast?

Real butter wins on flavor and baking; the blend wins only on spreading straight from a 40 °F fridge. The numbers below come from USDA FoodData Central and America's Test Kitchen tests.

ATK's verdict was blunt: it does not recommend the tubs for any application. That is a test kitchen's palate, not a safety ruling, so if you love your tub, keep it cold and carry on.

One thing a tub can't do: stand in for a cold stick in pie dough.

How do you keep real butter soft without an oil blend?

Pick one of five methods, based on how fast your household goes through a stick. Each keeps plain butter and no added oil.

1. Soften on demand: FDA guidance quoted by ATK says butter may be softened at room temperature for 4 to 6 hours. Pull a stick after lunch for dinner rolls.
2. Keep a covered dish on the counter for salted butter only, below 70 °F (21 °C), and finish it within 1 to 2 days, per UMaine.
3. Use a water-seal crock (French-style butter crock). The water blocks air, and ATK's bells kept butter pale and fresh at room temperature for about 2 weeks with the water changed every 2 or 3 days.
4. Rush it: ATK puts a cold stick in a zipper-lock bag and beats it with a rolling pin, which it calls the most efficient way to soften butter.
5. Rescue it: if it melts, ATK chilled over-softened butter with ice cubes back to around 70 °F, and cookies and frosting still worked.

Softened for baking means 65 to 67 °F, per ATK's butter temperature guide. Toast is more forgiving. For the fast bag method in more detail, see how to soften butter fast for a crock without melting it.

Soft butter is a temperature, not a product.

Which butter belongs in a water-seal crock, and how much fits?

Salted stick butter belongs in the crock; tubs, whipped butter and compound butter stay in the fridge. That follows the UMaine list above, and ATK's note that bells are meant for room temperature only.

The crock works by water. You pack softened butter into the lid cup, pour cool water into the base, and set the lid in upside down. Houseland's product FAQ gives the same steps, and asks for the water to be changed every day or every few days depending on your kitchen temperature.

Size is the part to check. A U.S. stick is 1/4 lb, which ATK equates to 1/2 cup, and 1/2 cup is 4 fl oz. The lid cup is listed at 4.7 fl oz (140 ml), so one stick fits, with a little room, and a second stick waits in the fridge.

The trade-off: the crock holds one stick at a time and needs fresh water every day or few days, so a slow butter household does better with a covered dish in the fridge. Hand wash it with mild soap. If the water turns cloudy, how often to change butter crock water walks through the schedule, and the rest of the counter gear sits in the kitchen and home collection.

One stick in, cool water under it, and the tub can stay at the store.

What kitchen temperature is too warm for butter on the counter?

Above 70 °F (21 °C), move the butter back to the fridge. UMaine sets that line for salted butter and warns that warmer summer rooms make butter go rancid faster.

• 60 to 68 °F (15 to 20 °C): butter begins to soften, per ATK.
• 65 to 67 °F (18 to 19 °C): ATK's softened butter for baking.
• 70 °F (21 °C): UMaine's ceiling for counter storage.
• 90 to 95 °F (32 to 35 °C): butterfat crystals melt, per ATK.

A cheap room thermometer by the toaster settles it. Keep the crock out of direct sun and away from the stove: UMaine wants counter butter protected from heat, light and air. The FDA's own advice, quoted by ATK, is still to store butter in the fridge, so the counter is a convenience you choose for a cool kitchen, not a rule.

For July kitchens, whether a butter keeper melts or slides out in a hot summer kitchen covers what the water does in the heat.

Your thermometer, not the calendar, says when butter goes back in the fridge.

Shop kitchen & home from Houseland

-17%Stainless Steel Cutting Board, 304 Food Grade, Double Sided with Juice Groovefrom $49.99$59.99-14%Titanium Frying Pan, Uncoated, Induction Safe, with Tempered Glass Lidfrom $119.99$139.99-25%Stainless Steel Finger Hand Protector, Knife Guardfrom $29.99$39.99-14%Kitchen Knife Sharpener, 3-Stage and 4-Stage Manual Pull-Throughfrom $29.99$34.99-20%Stainless Steel Bench Scraper and Dough Cutterfrom $29.99$37.49-50%Salt Cellar With Spoon, Ceramic Seasoning Jar With Bamboo Lidfrom $39.99$79.99

See all kitchen & home →