HOT, hot weather can mean a HOT, hot kitchen. And that condition can mean folks will often store their butter in the fridge. Which is OK, until you want softened butter (NOW) for your toast, muffin, pancakes, etc. (I almost included “your chocolate chip cookie recipe you’re making,” but I decided not to, because it’s too hot to bake, which is why the butter is in the fridge in the first place!)

Anyway, I ran on to this short and very helpful article on a favorite site, www.food52.com, and thought I’d pass on their clever suggestion for quickly softening your butter, in case you’re one of those that have moved it to the fridge.

The article author, Valerio Farris, is a chef, food author, and very smart cook. She says, “Butter is an art, not a science. Cream or milk is churned—ferociously, lovingly—until it achieves the thick, spreadable consistency we love on toast, folded into cakes, or melted into shallots. Butter, that cornerstone of French cuisine, takes many forms. Like a chameleon, butter adapts to its surrounding temperature. In the freezer it is solid, icy even. In the fridge, butter stays stiff and shaped. Left on the counter, it achieves a level of cream that renders it perfect for slathering. And melted, in a pan or microwave or on the stove, butter is a silky golden liquid.

“All forms of butter are worthwhile, some recipes even specify butter temperature to achieve certain textures. But it’s moving between these forms that proves difficult; any good chemist knows process is necessary to shift between states of matter. One transformation that leaves bakers consistently stumped is getting cold, hard butter soft enough to spread. We all know the feeling of pulling a dense stick of butter out of the fridge—or worse, the freezer—only to find it impossible to manipulate. Well, rest assured because this video butter trick is can solve all your butter softening needs.”

Any good trick should be simple. And this one is. Just place your butter in a warm cup and place a saucer on top of the cup. The covered, warmed cup creates a lightly heated environment and gets your butter going in mere moments. It’s a hack like this that hits the sweet spot, perfect for those never-knew-you-needed-it-until-you-did kinds of moments. So, go forth and give it a try because we’re not all lucky enough to have a butter keeper (yet).

BUTTER KEEPER? What’s this? Well, I talk about this little treasure almost every summer. In some circles they’re called butter bells. It seems the French first created it, and this time-honored method of keeping spreadable butter at hand is as easy as turning on the tap.

Simply add about 1/3 cup of cool, fresh water to the lower basin of the crock. Then pack a stick of butter into the Butter Bell’s lid. Once you set your lid onto the basin, the water forms a seal that protects the butter from going rancid for up to a month! Now you can keep your butter on the kitchen counter for an always-available, always-spreadable, and always-fresh condiment.

To maintain maximum freshness, it’s recommended that you replace the water in your basin about every three days.

So HOT or not, here’s to keeping your butter soft and ready for any use!