[steve]

i dont leave stuff out of the fridge. in fact when in doubt i always through food away. it never stays in my fridge for more than 3 days.

over mothers day i was at a family dinner and i noticed that the butter stick had been out of the fridge for HOURS and was practically melting off the serving dish. i know this is common practice to soften it up. i made a side comment to another family member about how i was concerned and would not eat it. to my surprise he took offense.

it looked like a science experiment to me. would you eat it ???

[GT182]

Yeah, sure I would. LOL If it was real butter it should have been ok. Was it warm that day where you were? If so it probably wasn't out for hours. We used to keep butter in the cupboard, not the frig, so it was soft. No joke, and we never got sick.

Nothing worse than trying to spread cold hard butter on sandwich bread of a dinner roll.

[Engine-Ear]

I agree with GT182...real butter will tell you when it is going rancid (usually after several weeks in a covered butter dish that is out on the counter) by smelling foul ( check out more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butyric_acid) ...short of that, and in the immortal words of the chairman of the board, "Start spreading the news..."

[69 T/A]

Agreed, butter can be left out for a long time, I forget if it's the salted type butter that can be left out or the unsalted kind. Salt is the presevrative.

[sdbob]

I don't want to get to far off the subject.The bacteria on your key board can be worse than your toilet seat according to an article I just read.Why? because of what we eat while on the computer.

[Stuart]

When I was a kid, my mother never put the butter in the refrigerator - it was just in a covered dish on the kitchen counter. I don't remember it ever being around long enough to get rancid.

[Stuckinda60s]

You throw food away after 3 days in the refrigerator? I might consider it after a week. Even fish and chicken will last longer than that in the refrigerator, if you don't let it sit on the counter for very long before you put it away. It's also important to have a tight lid on it so it doesn't dry out.

If you think food spoils in 3 days in a reefer, I'd advise you to never, ever, eat in a restaurant, especially things like creamed desserts, tunafish and salads. Food is routinely recycled into stews, soups and the like. Even pies might be that old and many of them aren't refrigerated.

[Engine-Ear]

maybe his internal components don't play well with food that's not very fresh??

I have a friend who gets such a violent reaction to wilted food that he has to grow and eat the freshest stuff available...expensive but for him, that's what it takes...

[GT182]

Originally Posted by Stuckinda60s

If you think food spoils in 3 days in a reefer,

...... never buy what's trucked to a grocery store either. Fresh and frozen goods come by way of reefer too. I usd to haul fresh produce from the west coast to the east coast, north to south and south to north. I buy all my food from a store and I ain't dead yet from it.

[Primitive Artist]

Originally Posted by Stuckinda60s

... I'd advise you to never, ever, eat in a restaurant...Food is routinely recycled into stews, soups and the like. Even pies might be that old and many of them aren't refrigerated.

I'd advise you to not even eat hospital food. You never know what might get recycled there. Especially, if the kitchen is near an obstetrics clinic

Originally Posted by steve

...i made a side comment to another family member about how i was concerned and would not eat it. to my surprise he took offense.

it looked like a science experiment to me. would you eat it ???

You should have formulated your comment in a way that would have made your family member think you were implying that he was conducting some kind of biological experiment with that butter. He may not have gotten offended, by your indirectness.
You could have made him laugh at the suggestion that old warmed butter could be used to build a WMD, even.
If both methods fail, you could save other family members money, by cutting him out of your will

[steve]

momma raised me on good ole fashioned margarine, this "butter left out all the time to get warm thing" is new to me. i cook. i have worked in lots of restaurants....thats why i dony play with "old" food and have been spoiled by being able to cook what i want.

there is no way bacteria isnt growing on that butter within moments of beig pulled from the fridge !

[zbuickman]

OK I grew up on a farm and if you think there isnt bacteria in the milk the second it hits the lines or bulk tank your sadly mistaken. it even sits in a bulk tank for a day- two before Homoginization or pasturization. butter has always sat out in a covered butter dish. Ive never seen it go bad. ever ..Wierd... i still only use butter and wont /dont like whipped veggie oil dirivitives. dairy products are driven by bacteria.... what do you think cheese is??? do you eat cheese??

[mitchgto]

Originally Posted by steve

momma raised me on good ole fashioned margarine, this "butter left out all the time to get warm thing" is new to me. i cook. i have worked in lots of restaurants....thats why i dony play with "old" food and have been spoiled by being able to cook what i want.

there is no way bacteria isnt growing on that butter within moments of beig pulled from the fridge !

Margarine?!?!?? That stuff is cr@p, cant stand it, has more junk in it than "sitting out all day" butter

[Primitive Artist]

Don't you have a butter & egg compartment, in yer fridges, where it's somewhat warmer than in the rest of the fridge?

[gregneun]

You guys ever heard of him.

My point is that the cream is pasturized prior churning. It's not like they put the raw cream, seperated by gravity, into the old wooden churn any more.

A modern Dairy plant is full of stainless steel equipment that has a clean in place system.

And the bacteria has to be introduced after it is removed from the wrapper. That being said, bacteria multiply every 20 minutes at room temperature.

I was raised on OLEO, too.

I just put some Sweet Cream butter and cheese into the spinach bowl now.

[TTS]

No saturated fat has to be refrigerated, thank about Lard. That stuffs good forever unrefrigerated, and it's animal fat.