after almost two months, it finally came to me the term for this thingamajiggs -- butter bell or butter keeper. when i visited junko
@jyokota with
@domenicododaro and his family last august, junko has this thing where the soft butter remained fresh tasting even after sitting on the kitchen counter for hours and hours.
i've been to a few friends' homes where they had their butter sitting by the kitchen windows in an effort to have soft butter ready when they needed it. but having learned food safety in my hospitality management course, dairy, as well as any meat or meat products, left in room temperature for more than four hours can lead to e-coli or salmonella bacteria to multiply and could be dangerous for one's health, especially if you happen to have a weakened immune system. so when i saw junko's butter bell i knew i had to have my own.
there was one problem when i got back to toronto: i forgot what it was called. so browsing through amazon on tuesday, i typed in "butter container" in the search window and this was one of the several that showed up and it was called butter bell (for the shape of the cup that holds the butter) or butter keeper.
i liked this straightaway and put it in my 'cart' and i ended up buying two, the other a gray marble. when they arrived the next day, i fell in love with this porcelain one. the marble butter bell smelled very rancid and felt like it had been used. it might have been that a previous buyer had used it then returned it without proper cleaning. as i was happy with the blue porcelain, i returned the marble one right away.
how to use: pack the bell cup (on the right that looks like an inverted bell) with softened butter. pour cold water on the base container (on the left) then place the bell cup onto the base container. the water creates an airtight seal to protect and preserve butter’s flavor and freshness. this cost 24.00 canadian dollars with free shipping.
the softened butter will also prove handy when baking and you forgot to take out the butter to soften. tip: you can hasten the butter's softening by using your grater.
note: this is made of glazed porcelain and is very shiny, which was a bitch to photograph as it takes on a lot of reflection. so what to do? i put it in the fridge for twenty minutes; it would take on a matted look and you get no reflection.
