I mean, it's the season of giving, right? I might as well snag as many good giveaways as possible for you guys!
The idea behind the Butter Bell is that you smoosh softened butter into the cup (it holds one stick's worth of butter, or 1/4 pound, if you like weights) and then you put cool water into the bottom crock and the you upend the butter into the water.
The water creates an airtight seal on the butter, which keeps icky stuff out. You're supposed to change the water every three days, which I'm guessing is most important if you've got people leaving crumbs in your butter, but it's a good idea even if your butter and water are pristine.
The Butter Bell is kept at room temperature, so the butter stays at a nice spreading consistency. The Butter Bell people say that it's good for 30 days, but if it's taking you a month to use a stick of butter, maybe soft butter isn't really on your agenda.
The butter seemed to be a little cooler than room temperature, perhaps because of the water or evaporation or something, but in any case, it wasn't melted, nor was it hard. It was juuuuust right.
My one concern was whether the butter would actually stay put in the cup. For some reason, I imagined it might just slide out and I'd find it bobbing in the water. But, no, everything was fine.
While the Butter Bell is attractive enough to keep on the table for family use, if you're having company over, you can just flip the butter cup upright, and it stands up nicely for serving and passing around at the table. Very civilized, and you don't need to worry about guests sloshing water everywhere.
Maybe your guests aren't the sloshing type, but in any case, leaving the butter out of the water during a meal means there's one less thing on the table for people to be passing around.
The Butter Bells come in a whole bunch of different colors and designs that you can see on the Butter Bell website.
Right now, there's a Buy 2 Get 1 Free Special Offer from Butter Bell. Great for holiday purchases. For every two Butter Bells that you buy through December 12, you get a Classic White Retro Style Butter Bell Crock for free.
If you want more info on this gizmo, it was featured on the television show Unwrapped and you can find the video here along with a bunch more facts. You should check it out - the video is cool.
Who's it for: People who want soft butter always available
Pros: Looks pretty. Lots of colors and designs. Keeps butter soft.
Cons: You do need to change that water.
Wishes: A half-pound bell? Would that be too big? Teeny individual bells would be neat for dinner parties.
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
looks pretty similar to most. But then I read the instructions, and there are actually two levels for cork-pulling, which makes sense. When you use a normal corkscrew of this type, there's a point where you're pulling at an odd angle which can crack the cork if it's a little dry. With this one you pull, readjust, and finish pulling, so the cork is moving mostly vertically.