How long does butter keep?

I’ve actually been doing quite a bit of baguette baking the last week, but haven’t budged an inch on the Danish dough. Seeing as how it’s already Wednesday, I’m thinking I’ll pick that up next week…which will be just shy of too late for my $20 stash of butter. Much longer in the fridge and I’ll have Lurpak infused with leftover pizza and french onion dip (both of which are terrible matches with raspberry preserves).

As a general rule, you always want to freeze butter if you’re planning on storing it much more than a few days. Fat particles soak up ambient food odors like greasy little sponges. Close butter up in a fridge with all the tasty salad dressing and jam residues that cover your door shelves (oh yes, I know all about you, no one hides from the pastry man), and in a week the result is buerre au garbage. And don’t for a moment think that flimsy little plastic door is going to give you any protection. That’s just one more bit of shiny plastic Maytag put there for you to clean. The only reliable strategy for preventing butter stink is to practice good refrigerator hygeine. De-gunk the box often, use good tupperware-type food containers, and never, ever put smelly food like onions to bed wearing just that flimsy little layer of plastic wrap. At the very least use a good heavy-duty storage bag. The same rules go for your freezer, where the odor situation, despite the sub-zero temperatures, isn’t much better.

Remember, butter is the life blood of pastry making. Albeit a very rich, fatty type of blood. The kind that if not taken in moderation clogs up your arteries and causes a heart attack. That’s the sort of blood…butter is. So alright, it’s not a perfect metaphor. Cut me a break will you, it’s early. ‘,