French Butter Dish frequently asked Questions

French Butter Dish, (butter bell): Things to know and frequently asked questions.
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How does the French Butter Dish work?:

    The unique design of the French Butter Dish keeps butter at the perfect spreading consistency.  The water creates an airtight seal  that keeps oxygen away from the butter or margarine (oxygen is what turns butter rancid).  Your butter will stay soft and fresh!   When you want to serve the butter, the top part rests securely on the table.

Why does the butter stays in the French Butter Dish lid?

The butter is held in by the surface tension. That is why the butter needs to be packed into the lid. The smaller the dish the more surface there is to create tension. Some of the larger butter dishes (like mine) have a cone shaped lid to hold the butter in even better.  I have found that 1/2lb of butter is about the limit for French Butter Dishes

 

What is that little hole doing in the side of the cone shaped lid?:

    The small hole in the side of the lid allows the water to stay close to the butter.  Some dairy  farmers kept their butter completely submerged in water in their spring house to keep it fresh.   I have been asked to make butter dishes (special ordered) with three holes so that water will always be in contact with the butter.  Also, the hole keeps the butter from being suctioned out when the lid is pulled out of the water.

Does the bottom of the lid  (the cone shaped top that sits on the table) need to touch the water when the it is on?  How often should the water be changed?

    The rim should always dip into the water.  As in the question above the water should be close to or touching the butter.  The water should be changed at least once a week.

Do you pack the butter into the crock right out of the refrigerator, or do you wait until the butter reaches room temperature?  Also, is there a problem with water getting into the butter, thus onto the bread, etc.?

    Let the butter warm up a little before packing it in to the lid, but not so long that it is completely soft.  Sometime, if I do not have the time to wait, I'll pack it in right out of the refrigerator.  Water and butter (oil) will not mix so there is no problem with water getting into the butter.


Both a friend and myself have butter bells and recently both of us have had mold infest the butter.   The water gets changed every 3 or 4 days.  What could cause this? 

    This mold thing has come up once in a while in my last twenty  years of making French Butter Dishes.  At first I thought some areas of the country may have a mold that is not present here in Oregon. ( I have never had this problem with my butter dishes in 20 years).  Recently a customer bought two butter dishes, one as a present for his sister and one for his himself. He wrote, asking me about mold in his butter dish. I made the mistake of suggesting he add a small amount of Clorox to the water (which did not help). He then asked his sister if she had the same problem. She did not, but she was using a different brand of butter. He switched to her brand and the problem went away.

    I also talked with a woman from the Alsace region in France. She told me her family always added salt to the water in their butter dishes.

    The idea came to me that it might be the salt in the butter which kept the mold away.  Maybe low salt and unsalted butter were causing this problem.  I ran an experiment with two butter dishes using unsalted butter.   I put salt in the water of one and not in the other.  There was  no mold in the butter dish with salted water!  There was mold in the other dish!  I now always put salt in the water, even with salted butter.  

    A process of evaporation takes place through the pottery (helping to keep the inside slightly cooler). This happens more with some glazes then others, and when adding salt it may precipitate to the outside leaving a floury powder.


(re: from email questioner above.
Hello Jim,
Thanks very much for your prompt reply.  I have been using unsalted butter, Challenge "European Style" (whatever that is but it does taste good when not moldy:)) to be exact.  Maybe first I'll try adding some salt to the water. After that maybe switching to salted version of my current butter or just another brand.  I really appreciate your help...It's rather hard to find anyone who knows anything about butter bells, .let alone troubleshooting them.
Chris
If mold starts forming in the butter dish add salt to the water in the base.
Also, French butter dish user Julie sent this in: I find that if you aren't careful to keep bread particles out of the butter (kids!), you get mold.
HTH--Julie

This summer the butter in my French butter dish started falling into the base, is there something wrong?:

   When the temperature approaches 90' F the butter will become to soft to stay in the lid.  If you do not have air conditioning you will need to put the butter dish in the refrigerator or add ice to the water in the base.   

French Butter Dish frequently asked Questions

Learn all about butter on the web:
http://webexhibits.org/butter/index.html

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Do you have a question? email me at jim@frenchbutterdish.com

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04/04/2008

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