By Izzy Giacoppo

We know the struggle too well. You look forward to a nice piece of buttered toast or a side of buttered bread and anticipate an effortless set up. But instead of your knife gliding smoothly through the butter, you scrape out hard pieces. It only gets worse from there. After attempting to spread the butter, you end up with a slice of bread that has been torn to pieces. Yet your piece of butter is ironically still intact. At Baked, we are not fans of being mocked by our food. So, of course, we love unique appliances and tools that make our meals less frustrating. We also love accessorizing our kitchens!

To save the day, let us introduce you to the butter bell. With the butter bell, there will be no more embarrassingly unsuccessful attempts at spreading butter. Once I had a butter bell in my kitchen, my life felt so much easier. First, if I want spreadable butter, it is right there on the counter! Second, setting it up is incredibly easy. 

The butter bell has two parts: the lid and the cup. The cup should be filled with ¼ to ⅓ cup of cold water and changed out no longer than every three days. You can also change it out daily or, if your kitchen is hot, twice daily. Butter bells may vary in size so to know exactly how much water to add, you should make sure the butter and water touch. Doing this is important because it will prevent the butter from going bad. Next, in the lid, you will tightly stuff a softened stick of butter. After doing these two steps, place the lid into the cup and the butter is ready to be used. 

One of the great advantages of the butter bell is its ability to keep butter fresh. As long as the butter is touching the water and therefore not exposed to any air, it will not spoil. It is important, though, to remember that butter is something that will still eventually go bad. If you do not use butter very often, you can use half a stick of butter instead of a whole stick. This way, you are not using up more butter than you actually would over a 30 day period. After 30 days, you should dispose of any leftover butter and clean out the bell before adding a new stick. 

Butter bell maintenance is easy to remember and requires little effort which makes this genius invention a must-have for your kitchen.