Picture this. You’re frying some eggs, crisping bacon, and ready to slather some sourdough toast for a perfect weekend breakfast. In goes your knife into the stick of butter and...nothing. No give. Hard as a rock. Only fools take a stick of butter straight out of the fridge for spreading! Trying to spread a cold pat o’butter is going to get crumbs everywhere, and there will be no edge-to-edge melting coverage on your toast.

Here’s the hill I will die on: You should always leave softened butter on the counter. Room temperature or bust. But, but, doesn't butter go bad? I hear you protesting. The short answer: yes. The long answer? Not as quickly as you think. Butter is a little more resilient than other dairy, especially when it’s salted, which helps preserve it. You should have it covered in some capacity, either in a butter dish or in a French butter keeper, which uses a little water to seal the lid so air doesn’t get in, and keeps things cool inside the crock. Air is the enemy of butter, because it oxidizes the fat and makes it spoil.

Butter can keep for at least a few days at room temp, but I’ve gone close to two weeks before something tasted a little off. For me, it was an odd, stale, bitter taste with a slightly funky smell. I knew immediately. I’m sure that if I tasted it the day before, I would have noticed less. So if you want to be more cautious, only take out half a stick at a time, or as much as you’d reasonably use in a few days. Stick it in the fridge if you’re going on a trip, or if it’s summertime and hotter than 70° in your house. In both of those cases, it’s either not being used (because you’re not there to enjoy it) or it’s warm and the butter will start to melt and lose its shape, just like you do in the summer.