Butter too hard

[Kathy Hutchinson]

When the butter is too cold or hard to spread on the bread, hold it in the palm of your closed hand for a minute it will soften up. I was taught that on my first cruise by the waitstaff. Of course it only works if the butter pats are individually wrapped.

[LukeJ]

It is annoying when that happens, I don't tend to have butter on my bread when I'm aboard. I just don't have the patience to wait for it. I can see and agree with people's annoyance and I can also see the reasoning on why it has to stay cold in the galley. With so much waste on the world, why add unnecessary wastage too. If you have the patience, then warm them up in your hands, enough to finally spread the butter.

[PaulB]

We are certainly into first world problems when people find the need to complain that their butter is too cold. I had to chuckle when I first read this, and wondered how little a complaint can go.

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@Kathy Hutchinson I do this too! It's a great butter softening hack and it doesn't take that long! Are you a salted or unsalted butter person? I have noticed many American cruise lines offer primarily salted butter unlike the European lines that offer mostly unsalted butter. Typically the pad of butter in the MDR are served on ice too, which doesn't exactly help the consistency. To be clear, I will take my butter any way, but softened butter for my bread is preferred. Thanks for sharing your trick! 

[thorpemarlene]

I understand the reason why butter is on ice, but most people really do not like it.  My wife and I have a way that easily softens up cold butter in a wrapper.  If you are hot tea or coffee drinkers place a couple of pads under the hot drink for a few seconds, it will warm up very quickly.

[LukeJ]

I can totally understand why the butter is kept cold in the galley, as the first thinking is down to waste. I think to keep wastage and costing down, this is the only way forward. I read that John Heald has also suggested that you can ask to put butter out sooner and that should help. We can all warm it up at some point, which is a small inconvenience to wastage. Most kitchens run on negative budget because of wastage overall, so to tighten up would make a world of difference.

[Cruising Caribbean]

@thorpemarlene I love that trick! I haven't even thought of that before, but I will totally be trying it on my next cruise. It's easy to just get a cup of tea in the MDR! Thanks for that. I also prefer softened butter so I can spread it on my bread before my main course!