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How to soften butter at room temp quickly?

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William Dissen
Chef and Restaurateur

08/12/25 11:52pm

Well, if you have a microwave, you can use a microwave for a couple of seconds. I'd say up to maybe 10 seconds. But that can be difficult – if you take it too far, it ends up melting, and the butter fats and the oils separate, and that's no longer room temperature butter.

Here are a couple of tricks that you can use. You can take the tines of a fork and run them sideways across a stick of butter, and that will help to take really thin strips of butter off. You could use a peeler as well. And that's going to take thin pieces of it, which will help to soften the butter more quickly.

You can also leave it directly on a counter if you have a granite or marble countertop. Those actually help to act as an induction to pull the temperature from the stick of butter. If you wanted to thaw a piece of meat, you could do it that way, too. But again, you don't want anything to sit out for too long. Butter is one of those things that a lot of people wonder about: can you leave it out, or does it need to be refrigerated? For me personally, I may leave butter out for three or four hours, but I usually put it back in the refrigerator after I'm not using it.

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Ollie George Cigliano
Private Chef & Food Educator

04/07/25 10:54pm

Put your butter out on the kitchen counter to soften it. According to the USDA, it’s safe to keep butter at room temperature, just not for too long. If it's left out for several days, it can turn rancid and cause off flavors, so the USDA recommends not leaving it out more than 1-2 days.

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wikiHow Editorial Team

04/07/25 10:30pm

To soften butter quickly, cut it into cubes or grate it using a cheese grater (especially if it's frozen), then leave it out at room temperature. These methods create more surface area, which allows your butter to warm up and soften faster.

If you’re really pressed for time, try microwaving a whole stick of butter in short 5-second increments until it’s soft enough, being careful not to melt it too much. If you have more time, place the frozen butter in your refrigerator overnight to thaw, then leave it out on the counter for several minutes until softened.

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