For toast we tend to cut off a chunk and put it in the microwave for 5-10s which makes it pretty spreadable. Not too long mind.. unless you like liquid butter!

For bread I prefer Utterly Butterly but you can't beat real butter on a toast, a baked spud or runner beans.

Gareth

When making toast, I usually hold the knife over the toaster to heat it up then cut off slices of butter maybe just under 1mm thick

You sound like the EC specification for making a cup of tea - believe me, it exists -something like"slices .972mm thick" would sit easier in the statute book.

Tell me, and I am with the leave the butter out clan, can anybody not tell that "I can't believe it's not butter" is margarine - I can tell straight off, when Mrs.Boxer uses it and reckon that I could pass any blind test?

new boiled potatoes and butter yum

I grew up with butter out, but now we use the fake stuff for toast and I think it works great. My wife even cooks with it, so we hardly have butter around.

However, we visited my wife's grandmother over Thanksgiving and she keeps the butter out. What I didn't realize, however, is that every time the "mound" of butter she keeps out gets low, she piles more on. That means the bottom butter is, well. . . old. I was grateful that she had just put more on before we ate because at least what I was getting was fresh. It was at that point my wife informed me that her grandmother "shapes" the butter with her bare hands and doesn't wash them first. . . and she did this after cooking with raw chicken. At least I didn't get sick, but I'll be very careful what I eat next time we go.

Yeah, that's also kinda gross.

I try to clean the butter dish as much as possible between sticks. Each time I just take a paper towel and wipe the rest off. Then every 3 sticks or so I stick it in the dishwasher.

Again, it hasn't killed me yet

EC specification for making a cup of tea

ISO 3103
BS-6008

My girlfriend bought this really far out butter dish at the King Arthur Flour store in Vermont.
Its a ceramic cup that you fill with butter and then invert into a larger ceramic cup filled with water.
The water seals the butter and keeps it from getting nasty while not in use. And when you take the butter out of the water its not all wet 'cause its, well, butter.
At first I thought this was gross, but it works quite well, and you always have room temp. butter.
You just need to change the water every couple of days.
Apparently it's French.

Here you go:
http://ww2.kingarthurflour.com/cgibin/htmlos.cgi/14140.5.754905739317257303

Zachary

I really don't know whether to laugh or cry...

I don't suppose there's one for teaching your Grandma to suck eggs?

Boy, kinda like that ButterBell I linked above, huh?

So, on a similar topic, what's the verdict on Ketchup? In the fridge or on the counter?

So, on a similar topic, what's the verdict on Ketchup? In the fridge or on the counter?

How about nowhere?

Cupboard. I hate cold ketchup. (Besides, is the vinegar going to go bad?) But I hate Hunt's more.

um.. yeah...

ahem....

Please forgive me, I just got back to New England from 2 months of sailing in the tropics (CA to HI) and I think the numbing cold here has slowed the ol' synapses.

Wont happen again...

Today...



Z~

In the cupboard.
Next to the Franks Hot Sauce.
Although they both will change color and flavor if left unrefrigerated for long periods.
i.e. more than 6 months. Dont ask...
I just buy a size that know I'll use up in a couple of months.

Z~

Hey, I can't believe this thread stayed on topic for about 60 posts. I think that's a new record.

Anyway, here I go:

Ketchup (Ketchup, Catsup, Ketchup, Catsup...) - in or out, doesn't matter
Maple Syrup - you're supposed to refridgerate it after opening. syrup can go bad
Mayo - uh...fridge
Milk - I like a nice, curdled milk, so...radiator.

I can't think of anything else...

Hmmm I'm a cold ketchup guy. Not sure why, I just like the contrast of cold ketchup on a hot burger.

Ketchup (Ketchup, Catsup, Ketchup, Catsup...)

Obligatory Simpsons reference of the day...



"These tomatoes are going to be Heinz Ketchup. And these tomatoes are going to be Hunt's Catsup!"

I remember his riveting post

Riveting...(blush).

Waaal, I'm pretty cautious about drawing on my increasingly rusty body of medical/nursing know-how, but if you ever need to be catherized in a jiffy, or if you need your endotracheal tube suctioned, feel free to get in touch.

Some things are like a bicycle. You never forget

(edit: Oh, crap, I need to say something about butter, or *I'll* be blamed for taking this weirdest of all threads off-topic! ....Ummmm......ummmm...... butter, mayonnaise, and such are actually pretty low risk as food poisoning vehicles, but you still want to keep that butter covered if you subscribe to the warm butter school...)

ketchup... out, if you disagree just remember that diners don't refrigerate the bottles.
Maple syrup.... I agree, the fridge... but if you buy the nifty short bottle once you can microwave to taste.
Milk... a separate fridge kept barely above freezing, not for safety, just because it tastes better that way.
soy sauce.... soy sauce will out live us all, and probably our children no matter what the climate... it is the culinary equivalent of the Dead Sea.
Honey... I've heard that they actually found unspoiled honey in pyramids, so its probably safe in the cupboard.

EC specification for making a cup of tea
ISO 3103
BS-6008


Since that BS-6008 search has expired here is a news article from when they got the 1999 Ig Nobel prize for literature.

Might have to slip into the Uni library to have a look next time I'm in town, or get my dad to print if off at work.

Gareth

I'm mostly with the Reverend on this:

Milk, very cold (mmm)
Soy sauce, just like worcester sauce, out (vinegar and salt as natural preservatives)
Honey, out (sugar as a natural preservative)
Ketchup, out (unnatural preservatives)

Maple syrup, on the other hand, I'm quite happy to keep on a completely different continent. It might be useful for seasoning one's cricket bat, but I'm not putting on my breakfast.

Peter

In reply to:

---

Maple syrup, on the other hand, I'm quite happy to keep on a completely different continent. It might be useful for seasoning one's cricket bat, but I'm not putting on my breakfast.

---

ROFL

I should be amazed, but strangely am not, that BUTTER should spark this many replies.
But here goes,
Milk - nice and cold
Soy - out
Honey - out
Ketchup - in for some reason

Finally,
Butter is OUT during winter and IN during summer. If it gets left out in summer we have a pool on the countertop, its funny - until somebody gets hurt.

I can find no logic in this...but doesn't it seem natural for ketchup in a glass container to be out of the fridge? And yet I have an odd instinct to put ketchup in a plastic bottle in the fridge.

I'd say that personal ketchup should be in the fridge, as I don't go through it fast, and it's liable to sit there for who knows how long. Diners go through it by the gallon, and leaving it out only means it'll be open and exposed for a few hours before it's gone.

Strangely enough, it seems all the restaurnts in california have changed to plastic ketchup bottles in the last six months. I think it's some health regulation, but I havn't investigated...

Matthew

PS: Butter in, because there are only two people in my appartment and we don't go through it fast enough. But more than two people, leave it out so it's spreadable.

Maple syrup, on the other hand, I'm quite happy to keep on a completely different continent.

One wonders if this might have to do with the fact that it has travel to you from another continent. (Maple is one of those species that doesn't exist in Europe, right?)

it seems all the restaurnts in california have changed to plastic ketchup bottles in the last six months

Same here in North Carolina, although it's been longer than 6 months. Are they also the opaque plastic bottles in CA, too? So that no one can see when they're getting empty, which means that they always are? That really pisses me off. (And I doubt that it's a health thing. I imagine that Heinz just started offering restaurant plastic packs less expensively than glass.)

> Maple Syrup - you're supposed to refridgerate it after opening. syrup can go bad

Hmm, I never have, and haven't had a problem. Cold Syrup is A) Cold, which sucks because I like a lot of it on my pancakes, which cool down fast enough as it is, and B) viscous as all hell, which makes it tough to get out.

As for the rest:
Ketchup - in (I too like the contrast of hot burgers and cold ketchup)
Butter - out, but not forever, even in my butter butler. I'll give it a week or two out before I start to get nervous about replacing it.

And Mayo and milk of course in and honey of course out, I doubt there is much disagreement with those.

Does anybody else put their bread in the fridge? I started doing it several years ago because it really does help with its lifespan, but I don't know anybody else who does.

I put my bread in the fridge. And sometimes the freezer if it's something I don't eat too often (hamburger/hot dog buns, dinner rolls, et. al.)

It may depend on the syrup. We usually get grade A amber from Vermont or Maine or some Canadian province. That's a little more runny. I also kind of like cool syrup, much like the cold ketchup/hot burger thing.

Actually, I was making a different Simpsons ref Remember when Mr Burns is in the grocery store by himself? That's the one I was talking about

Well, the entire time this thread has been going, the vote has been about 1:2 in favor of keeping butter in the fridge. I still like my nasty, warm, spreading butter, thank you

And I agree, I never thought this thread would fill up so fast. We're near 100 posts in under a day!