Great news for butter lovers

An end to hard butter misery?

Nov 30, 9:31 AM (ET)

LONDON (Reuters) - Ever get frustrated with fresh-out-of the-fridge butter that is too hard to spread?

A UK-based company has launched a portable, temperature-controlled butter dish, ButterWizard, which keeps butter at what it says is the optimal spreadable temperature of 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

It has a built-in fan and a chip which together control the temperature, adjustable for different textures, be it super-soft bread, crusty toast or delicate biscuits. "We were trying to find out what people's frustration with butter was. It's either too hard or too soft," said David Alfille, managing director of East Sussex-based company Alfille Innovations Limited.

"ButterWizard heats or cools the butter and you can adjust the temperature to suit yourself."

Nutritionist Fiona Hunter said: "There are over 16 million UK households buying butter on a regular basis, but one complaint I hear time after time is the lack of spreadability of real butter."

"Butter has been part of diet for thousands of years. The important thing is to spread butter thinly," she added.

3 words---French Butter keeper!!! wonderful invention---been around for a LONG time--still works as well as it did way back in those "Olden times"!!! For those of you that dont know what it is--its a ceramic bowl---actuall TWO--one that set upright and had water in it--the other is filled with butter-it has a larger built in Platter that acts as a lid when you flip it upside down and drop it into the water filled one---the ceramic absorbs water--evaporates--and keeps the butter at a temp just right to spread but firm enough to not drain out. I LOVE them---once saw a small dinner house that used them---folks LOVED them so much that they started selling them.

Now I know what to get my sis for the winter holiday. It really bugs me to watch them take a stick of butter right out of the icebox and uselessly attempt to butter their bread. They end up leaving big chunks of cold butter in 3 or 4 places on the surface like pale yellow icebergs in a white sea.

Yes, QVC sells one called the "butter boat." They do work. My daughter has one.

Try Land O' Lakes whipped butter in a tub. It's spreadable even right out of the frig. I use nothing but butter for eating/cooking. I haven't used margarine in years.