The 16th-Century Kitchen Tool Our EIC Swears By

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This is not a particularly hot take, I realize, but I believe eating a fresh, sliced baguette or a nicely toasted piece of sourdough bread slathered with a borderline obscene amount of butter is one of life’s great joys.

And I am being only slightly hyperbolic when I say that there is perhaps nothing worse than trying to slather on that butter if it’s been taken directly from the fridge and not given enough time to properly soften. Who among us hasn’t had the unpleasant experience of eating a piece of bread with cold, unevenly distributed butter? Or inadvertently just kinda stabbing your toast and tearing it to shreds because the butter simply would not cooperate? Softened butter is more easily spread and actually tastes better — cold temperatures, after all, have a way of muting certain flavors.

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Why wouldn’t I just be sure to take my butter out of the fridge 45 minutes before I plan to use it, you might ask? Well, because I’m 46 years old and I have never in my life managed to do this with any consistency, and it would be foolish to act like I’m suddenly gonna start now. And couldn’t I just pop it in the microwave for a few seconds? Yes, but if you let it go even slightly too long, it winds up melting from the inside out and it makes a huge mess and sorta ruins the rest of the stick for everyone else in the house.

So this past Christmas, I asked for and received a butter crock, or a butter bell as they’re sometimes known. And, reader, I am glad I did.

A butter crock consists of two pieces: a hollowed-out bell-shaped lid, where the butter goes, and a flat-bottomed container, which you fill with roughly a quarter-cup of water. The thing about butter is that it does just fine at room temperature — as long as it’s not exposed to air. And because water and fat do not mix, the water essentially creates a barrier, keeping air from reaching it and keeping your butter soft and spreadable for up to two weeks.

The one I have (and most on the market, as far as I can tell) holds exactly a stick of butter. It’s a little bit of a pain in the ass because you have to allow it to fully soften before loading it into the lid (we’ve established that this amount of forethought does not come easy for me), and the water does have to be changed every 2-3 days. It’s the kind of old-timey “technology” I’d probably be drawn to even if it didn’t have some practical application in my daily life, but it really is a game-changer. Below, four to consider adding to your kitchen counter.

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