Must Have Kitchen Gadget: Butter Bell


I don’t normally talk about kitchen gadgets or cooking tools mainly because I don’t spend money on anything too niffy. This is one of the few exceptions. Butter bells are an old tool, from my understanding, they were a French invention designed to keep butter fresh without refrigeration. They also keep butter at just the right temperature to be perfectly spreadable. They are not quite life changing but it does change the bread and butter game.

How these work:

Fill the base about 1/3 of the way full of water and the lid is filled with room temperature butter. I was able to fit one whole stick of butter (1/2 C. | 1/4lb) of butter in my bell’s lid. When the lid is on the water creates a seal around the base of the lid. The water also slowly evaporates, keeping the butter cool. There are two main rules, replace the water at least every three days and if it gets above 90°F wherever the butter bell is then move it to the fridge.

You can buy butter bells online from various retailers but we bought ours from a ceramics vendor at the Saturday Market in Portland, OR. We were very happy to stumble across something we had been wanting and support local. When researching these butter bells are also known as French Butter Dishes and French Butter Crocks.

Have you ever heard of a butter bell, have you used them? If you enjoyed this kitchen gadget review let me know in the comments! Happy cooking.

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