"B. Server" > wrote in message
...
> On Wed, 24 Dec 2014 22:53:15 -0800 (PST), Michael OConnor
> > wrote:
>
>>I was visiting some people for supper last night, and when I was looking
>>in a cabinet for a plate, I came across a cabinet filled with food, and
>>sitting inside there was an entire stick of butter, all wrapped up in the
>>wax paper. I asked the lady of the house about this and she said she
>>likes the butter to be soft when she goes to use it. Having never heard
>>of this before, I thought I would ask the other foodies here if any of
>>them also do this, and is it safe to not refrigerate sticks of butter.
>
> I guess it depends on the temperature of the room. Around here, for
> at least 6 months of the year, "room temperature" might be anywhere
> from 75 F (~24C) to 85F (~29C), depending on the outside temperatures
> and the A/C, so that butter would be rather soft to the point of
> sagging.
>
> On the other hand, in large parts of the U.S. in the not that distant
> past, rural homes often had a "spring house" and in it there were
> masonry troughs in which butter and similar foodstuffs were kept cool.
> I recall finding the disused spring house at my great-grandparents
> farm and wondering for what it was used. Put another way, we did not
> invent butter as a consequence of mechanical refrigeration.

And if they didn't have that it was put down in the well. They had other
ways of "putting up" butter in the old days to keep it fresh. I don't know
the particulars but I have seen it mentioned in old cookbooks.