How to keep Butter Soft Without Spoiling

I don’t eat margarine, ‘spreadable butter’, or ‘buttery spread’. I eat butter. I like the real stuff. I’m a firm believer in the simplicity of ingredients. If you have words you can’t identify much less pronounce on the ingredients list of your food, you probably shouldn’t eat it. Except for movie theater popcorn. The butter-flavored yellow fluid is completely acceptable in that particular instance.

Will a Warm Kitchen Break Your Buttery Breakfast Idaho?

I appreciate toast, pancakes, and waffles buttered. My butter is softened so it can spread easily. I don’t warm the butter. I leave it in a nifty roll-top dish on the counter. Am I doing it wrong?

How to keep Butter Soft Without Spoiling

The super official Department of Agriculture confirms that room temperature butter is completely safe. There is a small caveat. After 2 days, things can get dicey. Rancid is actually the word they use. Who wants rancid butter? Sounds like a great band name, though.

I found some rules for keeping butter at its most awesome self.

Keep it dark and gloomy - I may be keeping too much butter out, but I do go through it pretty quickly. I keep it in a covered dish that blocks out light as well as air. The clear butter dishes are only for special occasions for company.
Salt is a good thing - I only buy salted butter because I'm not in prison, and come to find out, unsalted butter spoils faster. Feeling pretty smart. Sometimes recipes call for unsalted. That will stay in the fridge because I’ll cook with unsalted, but it is not touching my waffles.
Stay frosty - Room temperature means no warmer than 70 degrees. My kitchen can get pretty toasty when I’m cooking, but if I just keep the butter dish as far away from the stove as possible, I’m golden.