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Can You Freeze Butter – How to Freeze It Successfully

Can You Freeze Butter – How to Freeze It Successfully

Oh, butter, butter, butter!

I don’t even know how to explain my inexplicable love for this divine food item. I simply love to put butter on top of and inside every dish. Whether it’s used in soups, curries, stir-fries, mashed potatoes, pasta sauces, or scrambled eggs, nothing can compare to the delectable taste and richness that butter brings to a dish. 

Given my extreme love for butter, I always happen to buy too much of it, especially when it’s on sale! I’m sure you can relate to this and must have also stocked up on butter at some point in your life. 

So, what did you do with the excess butter? How did you store it? Did you refrigerate it or did you freeze it? Yes, you read that right, I mentioned freezing butter! 

So, now you must be wondering, “Can you freeze butter?” Well, read on to find out!

Can You Freeze Butter

The short answer is yes, you can absolutely freeze butter! So, feel free to chuck that extra butter you stocked up on in your freezer to extend its life and use it over the next few months. 

What’s more, is that freezing butter is a pretty easy task that won’t take up much of your time so you can easily do it whenever you have a few minutes to spare. 

Read on to find out how to freeze butter!

How to Freeze Butter

Freezing butter is an uber-simple process. Firstly, if you can, then freeze the butter in its original packaging as this way, you will have the best-by date right before your eyes. Just put the butter boxes, wraps, or containers in freezer bags before you freeze the butter. 

If you don’t have the original packaging, then you can take this easy route to freeze butter:

Things You Will Need

  • A knife
  • Butter
  • Aluminum foil
  • Heavy-duty freezer bags 

Instructions

  1. If you have a giant slab of butter, then it’s better to take a knife and cut it into smaller sticks with a ½ cup serving. This will make it easier to freeze it as the butter will take up less space and it will also thaw quickly.
  2. Carefully wrap each butter stick in a piece of aluminum foil and make sure each stick is fully covered. This will keep the odor of the other foods in your freezer away from your butter.
  3. Put the aluminum foil-covered butter sticks in high-quality freezer bags and seal the bags shut. This double layering protects the butter sticks from freezer burn and also keeps your butter free of the odors of the other food items in your freezer.  
  4. Label the freezer bags with the date when you bought the butter and the date when you froze it. Make sure that the bags are airtight and put them in your freezer. 

Pro Tip: As an added protection, keep your frozen butter sticks away from frozen foods with a strong smell, such as onions, as butter tends to pick up the flavor of the food that it’s kept with.

How Long Can You Freeze Butter for?

Properly stored, you can keep butter frozen way past its use-by date. Salted butter will easily last in your freezer for around 8 to 12 months, while unsalted butter will last around 6 months. 

With that said, make sure to smell and taste the butter to see if it’s still fresh or not before using it. Once you remove it from your freezer, make sure to use the butter within 30 days.

Does Frozen Butter Have to Be Thawed to Use It?

You don’t necessarily have to thaw frozen butter to use it. For instance, if you want to use butter to stir fry food items or to cook scrambled eggs, then you can use chunks of frozen butter as is. 

Just put however much you need in your pan and it will melt in no time. However, if you want to spread butter on a toast or use softened butter in your dishes, then you will have to thaw it and bring it to room temperature.

How to Thaw Frozen Butter

You can thaw frozen butter via different techniques. The time it will take you to thaw frozen butter, depends entirely on which method you choose to thaw it. 

Firstly, if you have a lot of time on your hands, then you can thaw frozen butter in the fridge. Depending on the temperature of your fridge, a pound of frozen butter will take anywhere from 6 to 7 hours to thaw completely. You can leave it in the fridge to thaw overnight. 

Alternatively, you can thaw the butter in an ice-cold bath. Just make sure to put the butter that needs to be thawed in a tightly sealed plastic bag and submerge it in cold water. 

It will take the butter about half an hour to an hour to thaw. You can also microwave frozen butter to thaw it. However, with this method, you run the risk of warming the butter up so much that it melts completely instead of getting softened. To prevent this from happening, defrost the butter in your microwave in short 10-second increments at a low temperature until it softens to the desired level. 

However, if you are in a time crunch and need a foolproof method to thaw frozen butter, then grate it. Use the large hole-side of your box grater to grate the butter. Make sure to place aluminum foil or wax paper underneath so that the butter flakes can land on top of it. Let the butter flakes sit on the paper for a few minutes only till the flakes warm up and soften to your desired level. Use the softened butter as desired.

Learn how to soften butter here!

How to Use Frozen Butter

Depending on the dish you are cooking, you might just be able to use frozen butter as is. For instance, if your recipe calls for melted butter, just put some frozen butter in a hot pan and it will melt right away. 

Alternatively, you can even microwave it to use in stir-fries or scrambled eggs! You can also grate the frozen butter directly in your dishes. Grate it into your gravies and sauces or on top of your hot toast or bagel! 

Moreover, you can use frozen butter for various baked goods such as pie crusts and biscuits as well. 

For instance, you can grate frozen butter in baking various dishes. Just grate the butter on top of the flour and toss them together. 

The frozen butter will keep your dough nice and cold and melt perfectly in the oven to form a delectable golden crispy layer on top of your dish! 

The bottom line

I hope this guide has helped answer your question, “Can you freeze butter?” Now that you have learned how to freeze butter, go ahead and stock up on as much salted and unsalted butter as you want and freeze it to use whenever you want. This way, you will never run out of this heavenly food item!

How to freeze butter - Yes you can freeze butter!

How to freeze butter - Yes you can freeze butter!

This is how to freeze butter so you can enjoy cooking with it all round the year.

Ingredients

  • Butter
  • Knife
  • Butter
  • Aluminum foil
  • Heavy-duty freezer bags 
  • Marker

Instructions

  1. If you have a giant slab of butter, then it’s better to take a knife and cut it into smaller sticks with a ½ cup serving. This will make it easier to freeze it as the butter will take up less space and it will also thaw quickly.
  2. Carefully wrap each butter stick in a piece of aluminum foil and make sure each stick is fully covered. This will keep the odor of the other foods in your freezer away from your butter.
  3. Put the aluminum foil-covered butter sticks in high-quality freezer bags and seal the bags shut. This double layering protects the butter sticks from freezer burn and also keeps your butter free of the odors of the other food items in your freezer.  
  4. Label the freezer bags with the date when you bought the butter and the date when you froze it. Make sure that the bags are airtight and put them in your freezer.
Nutrition Information:

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 0Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 0mgCarbohydrates: 0gFiber: 0gSugar: 0gProtein: 0g

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