Early in my marriage, I was at my in-laws’ house, rifling through the fridge in search of butter.
“It’s in the cabinet,” my mother-in-law said. As in: the non-refrigerated, just regular old room-temperature kitchen cabinet.
Whaaaat?
This was my introduction to the various different views on how to store butter. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that butter doesn’t have to be kept in the fridge. And when I finally found it in the cabinet, it was already at the perfect temperature to join the rest of my cupcake batter. What a cool discovery!
I suppose I always put butter in the fridge because I consider it a dairy product. And if you leave milk or cheese on the counter for over four hours, it can grow bacteria.
But butter is different.
“The pasteurization process butter goes through reduces any pathogens initially found in the cream, and the churning process immediately afterward changes butter into a solid state, Janilyn Hutchings, a food scientist at StateFoodSafety and certified professional of food safety, told Insider. “Along the way, the water molecules in butter become separated by fat, which is almost impenetrable to bacteria. This protects butter from microbial growth.”
Plus, butter is about 80% fat, and fats themselves have a relatively long shelf life. After all, we store our shortenings and oils in room-temperature cabinets for months.
But the rules of butter storage are a little more complicated than that.
Butter’s Shelf Life Depends on How You’re Storing It
First of all, while fats are relatively long-lasting, they do have an expiration date. Depending on which fats you’re talking about, they can last up to one to two years in a kitchen cabinet.
Butter has a shorter shelf life than fats like shortening and vegetable oil because it “has a lot of milk solids that make it go rancid, or spoil, faster,” Matt Regusci, a food safety expert with ASI Food, told Reader’s Digest.
How quickly that happens depends on a few factors, but mostly it’s about how it’s stored.
When butter is exposed to elements like heat, light and oxygen, its fat begins to break down. This leads to spoilage. But storing it in a cold fridge or icy freezer will put that spoilage off.
In the freezer, well-wrapped butter can last up to a year, after which its flavor and quality will be compromised. It may also develop freezer burn.
In the refrigerator, well-wrapped salted butter can last up to five months without spoiling. Salt is a preservative that prevents microbial growth and extends shelf life. Unsalted butter can last up to three months in the fridge. (If the butter is unwrapped, shorten those projections to about two months in the fridge.)
And in a cabinet or on the counter, you can leave butter out for a few days to a week without it spoiling.
No matter where you store it, use a covered butter dish or wrap the butter tightly in foil or wax paper. This will keep it from picking up errant smells around it.
How do you know when butter has gone bad? There are two ways to test it, according to Venae Watts, a butter maker at Minerva Dairy.
“Looking at the butter, do you see any spots that look like mold or something that does not look like it belongs?” she told Reader’s Digest. “After passing the look [test], try a little bit for the taste test. If it is bad, you will know.”
If you’d rather not taste it, try giving it a whiff. A sour smell can also tip you off that it’s time to buy some new butter!
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Spoiled butter will have a sour, bitter taste, and may also change in color and give off a subtle, unpleasant odor. It may also taste like the other foods in your refrigerator, as it quickly absorbs the flavors of any strong-smelling ingredients in its vicinity.
In the refrigerator, well-wrapped salted butter can last up to five months without spoiling. Salt is a preservative that prevents microbial growth and extends shelf life. Unsalted butter can last up to three months in the fridge. (If the butter is unwrapped, shorten those projections to about two months in the fridge.)
Refrigerated butter should last up to a month past the printed date if it's unopened. If the butter has been opened, it can last up to two weeks past that printed date. If you're storing the butter longer term, unopened butter stored in the freezer can last anywhere from nine months to a year past the date.
Although you should look for mold, you're more likely to see subtle signs of spoilage like changes in color or texture and off smells. And although spoiled butter probably won't make you sick, it certainly won't taste good.
Ultimately, butter can still be eaten and used in recipes despite what the expiration or sell-by dates say. Venae Watts, a fifth-generation butter maker and co-owner of Ohio's Minerva Dairy, advises, "You can absolutely eat butter past the sell-by or expiration dates.
But things like milk, cheese, fresh vegetables, and fruit should not be eaten past their prime because they can harbor bacteria that can be dangerous to your body. This is caused by the natural breakdown of organic matter. You'll also be able to tell that these foods have gone bad based on their appearance and smell.
How Long Can You Leave Butter on the Counter? The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends leaving butter at room temperature no more than two days. After that period of time, the butter can turn rancid. This will cause off flavors and unpleasant texture.
Many of the oxidation pathways are not entirely understood. Salted butter was developed to prevent spoilage, and to mask the taste of rancid butter. A sour-bitter taste is identifiable with rancidity (i.e. soapy, baby-vomit, blue cheese). Rancid butter becomes yellow to brown and the flavor becomes harsh.
(As a fellow food writer often says to me, “It's food—do whatever you want with it!”) Your mileage may vary, but the US Department of Agriculture recommends that you leave butter unrefrigerated for no more than two days, after which its fat content can turn rancid and take on unpleasant flavors.
The butter you used may have been rancid, which would cause a change in the color of the butter and an unpleasant flavor. Since your cookies will be baked, I would consider this a very low food safety risk. But it will affect the quality and flavor of your cookies.
The butter packets usually have the 'best before' dates on them but it's completely safe to use butter past the 'best before' date. You will be surprised to know that even if you store butter at room temperature, it's safe to consume it a week after the expiry date.
Properly stored butter can be frozen for up to four months if frozen prior to the USE BY date on the package. Butter may begin to lose its fresh butter taste and pick up flavors and odors from the freezer if stored for longer than four months. Once the butter is removed from the freezer, use it within 30 days.
If you've gone to use butter and found it to be past its expiration date, don't fret. Odds are, this butter is probably safe to consume, provided you keep an eye out for signs of spoilage. While many dairy products have a short shelf life, butter is an exception to this rule. This is because of its composition.
Of course any visible mold, discoloration, and changes in texture are visible cues that it's time to throw the butter in the trash. As they say, if in doubt, throw it out—there's no reason to risk it.
Spoiled butter can contain harmful bacteria, such as E.coli, salmonella, and listeria, which can cause illness if consumed, although there are some sources that dispute this and say that the worst thing that can happen is that you get a really bad stomach ache from eating bad butter.
When left on the counter, raw butter will become more rich, bold, and flavorful. It will also develop a slight smell of parmigiano reggiano cheese. That is what you WANT raw butter to be like! This exquisite flavor and richness is not experienced with pasteurized butter because the bacteria are dead.
In contrast, harder, denser foods like hard cheese or salamis might be salvageable by cutting away the mold – at least there's some good news for your charcuterie board. So, back to the butter. I'd say it's a no-go. It's not worth the risk to your health or the off flavor it could give your food.
Butter fortified with oil will, in general, last twice as long past the expiration date as pure butter (which you can keep on the counter, by the way). Margarine has more additives than butter and thus lasts longer. Opened margarine lasts roughly 2-3 months, and unopened from 4-5 months.
Introduction: My name is Lakeisha Bayer VM, I am a brainy, kind, enchanting, healthy, lovely, clean, witty person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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