Covered Dish or French Crock? Choosing the Best Butter Dish

Butter straight from the refrigerator tears a soft bolillo in half and sits in cold lumps on a hot tortilla. A butter dish fixes that by keeping a stick within reach and covered between meals, ready to spread on a split roll for molletes, a stack of pancakes or the toast that goes with a morning café de olla. It is a small thing, and it gets used every day.

There are two kinds worth knowing. A covered butter dish holds a stick on a tray under a lid, on the counter or in the fridge. A French butter crock, or beurrier, packs the butter into a cup inside the lid and seals it with a little water in the base. This guide names eight worth buying, from Butterie, OXO, Butter Bell, Priority Chef, Norpro, Cuisinox and Anchor Hocking, and explains what two university extension services say about leaving butter out.

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Quick verdict: which butter dish to buy

Five butter dishes side by side

Our five standout butter dishes and keepers, one for each kind of kitchen. All eight are reviewed in full below.

Product images from Amazon. Capacity and stick fit are as stated by each maker or listing; measure your usual butter if it is an unusual shape.

Our picks for the best butter dish

These eight cover the main ways people keep butter: a covered dish on the counter, a covered dish that lives in the fridge, a wide dish for European-style butter, and three water-sealed crocks. The materials run from plastic and glass to stainless steel, ceramic and marble. Each pick gives the stick size it fits, as its maker states it, and how to clean it.

Covered dish or French crock: the best type of butter dish

Covered butter dish

A tray with a lid. It holds a whole stick as it comes out of the wrapper, works in the fridge or on the counter, and is the easiest to clean. The trade-off is that the butter is covered but not sealed, and a loose lid has to go somewhere when you open it, which is the problem the Butterie solves.

French butter crock

Also called a butter bell or beurrier. You pack soft butter into the lid, and a little water in the base seals it from air. It keeps one stick soft and spreadable and serves it at the table, but it needs the water changed every few days and the crock washed between refills. It suits a household that uses about a stick a week at breakfast.

East Coast or West Coast sticks

American butter comes in two stick shapes that weigh the same: the long, thin East Coast (Elgin) stick and the shorter, fatter West Coast stick, often called a Western stubby. A narrow one-stick dish may not close over a stubby, and few makers say which shape they designed for. European butter, such as Kerrygold, comes in a wider block again. If you buy one shape, measure it before buying a narrow dish, or choose a two-stick or wide dish such as the Butterie, the wide OXO or the Cuisinox.

Leaving butter on the counter: what extension services say

Whether butter belongs on the counter is a fair question, and the answers here come from university extension services, not from us. In an article for Ohio State University Extension, family and consumer sciences educator Joanna Rini explains that butter is about 20% water and generally contains salt, which makes it a place where pathogens are unlikely to grow. Citing University of Missouri Extension, she says butter is recommended to be stored in the refrigerator, covered between meals, but that you do not need to worry “too much” about the safety of butter that has not been refrigerated. Refrigeration, she writes, virtually assures safety, and the main reason to refrigerate butter is to extend its shelf life and prevent rancidity.

Oregon State University Extension adds storage times. Unopened butter keeps up to four months in a refrigerator at 32 to 38°F, but once the package is opened, stored in the refrigerator door or left out for a period of time, the storage time is only a couple of weeks. Salted butter generally lasts longer, and butter you will not use within a couple of weeks should go in the freezer.

In a warm kitchen, that suggests a simple routine: keep only what you will use in a few days in the dish or crock, keep the rest in the fridge or freezer, and keep the dish covered. Several makers advertise how many days or weeks butter lasts in their dishes; those are their claims, and we have not repeated them.

How to choose a butter dish

Counter or fridge. A narrow covered dish like the OXO fits a fridge door. A crock is for the counter. A flip-top or stainless dish works in either place.

The butter you buy. Match the dish to your stick shape or block, as above. Two-stick and wide dishes are the safest bet if you switch brands.

How much you use. A crock holds one stick. A family that bakes or butters a dozen bolillos at a time needs a two-stick or one-pound dish.

Material. Glass and stainless do not hold odors. Plastic is light and shatterproof. Glazed ceramic looks the nicest on the table; buy from a maker that states its glaze is lead-free, as Butter Bell and Priority Chef do. Marble has no glaze at all.

Cleaning. Butter leaves a film, so a dish that goes in the dishwasher (Butterie, both OXOs, Cuisinox, Anchor Hocking) is the easiest to live with. Crocks and marble are usually washed by hand.

How we picked these eight butter dishes

We looked at covered dishes and French crocks from Butterie, OXO, Butter Bell, Le Creuset, Emile Henry, Norpro, Sweese, Kook, Priority Chef, Martha Stewart, Zulay, Cuisinox, Fox Run, Anchor Hocking, Luminarc and others, and kept only those showing as in stock on Amazon when we checked. Specifications come from the Amazon listings, with retailer listings used only for the material and size of the OXO and Butterie dishes where the Amazon listing did not give them. Butter storage advice comes from Ohio State and Oregon State University Extension; the East and West Coast stick shapes are described in a Food Network article.

For glazed ceramic, we only included makers that state on their listing that their glaze or ceramic is lead-free. We did not find that statement from Le Creuset, Emile Henry, Sweese, Kook, Martha Stewart or Zulay in the listings we read, so their dishes are not here; that is not a finding about their products, only a gap in what they state. We could not read Serious Eats’ or Wirecutter’s butter dish coverage, so we have not cited them, and we have not used these dishes ourselves.

Butter dish questions, answered

What is the best type of butter dish?

For most kitchens, a covered dish that holds two sticks and goes in the dishwasher, such as the Butterie. For soft, spreadable butter at breakfast in a small household, a French crock such as the Butter Bell.

Do butter crocks really work?

The water seal keeps air off the butter, which is what the design is for. How long the butter stays good is a separate question; Oregon State Extension says opened butter, or butter left out, keeps only a couple of weeks, so refill a crock with small amounts and change the water as the maker instructs.

What is the best butter for a butter dish?

Any butter you use quickly. Ohio State Extension notes that butter generally contains salt, and Oregon State says salted butter generally lasts longer, so salted butter is the more forgiving choice for the counter.

Which butter dish fits European butter like Kerrygold?

The Butterie and the OXO Good Grips Wide dish are both stated to fit Kerrygold or European-style wide butter. The Cuisinox holds a full pound and a cream cheese block, so it has room as well.

Is a glass, ceramic or stainless butter dish better?

Each works. Glass and stainless do not absorb odors and go in the dishwasher; ceramic looks best on the table if the maker states a lead-free glaze; plastic is the lightest and will not break.

The butter dish to start with

Keeping butter soft? See our guide to the best butter dishes for the counter.

Want a covered dish? See our guide to the best butter dishes with lids.

Related guide: Best sugar bowl.

Related guide: Best creamer pitcher.

Related guide: Best butter knives.

Buy the Butterie if you keep butter on the counter and want the lid out of the way, the OXO Good Grips if your butter lives in the fridge, or the Butter Bell if you want a stick soft and sealed for breakfast. Put the bread somewhere sensible too: our bread box guide covers keeping bolillos and pan dulce, and our bread knife guide covers slicing them. Carrying butter, bread and coffee out to the table at once? See the best serving trays. For a breakfast someone else cooks, our guide to Mexican brunch explains the dishes, or see the menu and call to order.