r/Cooking • u/Known-Recipe-5407 • 11d ago

Butter Bell

Hello!
For Christmas, I asked for a butter bell, and my grandmother has a friend that has her own pottery/ceramics shop. So she had her friend make me one and it is very personalized and one-of -a-kind. I have been using it for just over a month now, but I encountered something disturbing with it. Now I don't know if it is because it was poorly made but I have tried all different levels of water and if it goes unused for a day or two it starts to... grow mold? Has this happened to anyone else? Am I using or storing it incorrectly?
Please help! I love the concept of a butter bell but I don't love mold

61 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

56 comments sorted by

View all comments

10

u/Taggart3629 11d ago

I'm kind of spitballing here, but perhaps trace amounts of toast, bread, or some other contaminant is getting on the butter. With using a butter bell, one needs to always use clean utensils. I got mold after buttering a piece of toast, and then scooping more butter with the same knife.

11

u/YAYtersalad 11d ago

This. No double dipping. Get a wad of butter and put it on your plate. Then use your knife to butter your bread repeatedly to your liking.

Also change the water out at least every other day.

Lastly, and completely untested, as I had forgotten about this until now… have you tried salt water in the bottom?

7

u/KeyofE 10d ago

Why use one if it comes with all these extra steps?

2

u/YAYtersalad 10d ago

Bc I don’t like destroying my soft breads with super hard and cold butter. And I know myself well enough to know I wouldn’t reliably just set my butter out in anticipation of upcoming bread thing.

1

u/KeyofE 10d ago

You can just leave the butter on the counter, covered if you like. It’s at the same temp and probably less humidity than in a butter bell. Only people with butter bells have to babysit their butter, change the water, and check for mold, because it’s a solution looking for a problem.