This Simple Kitchen Tool Keeps Your Butter Soft and Spreadable at All Times

A butter crock (a.k.a. butter bell or butter keeper) is a two-piece butter storage container that lives on your kitchen countertop. Fresh butter is stored in the top piece known as the bell, and water is stored in the base or the crock. The major difference between a butter dish and a butter crock is that a butter crock uses water to seal off the bottom of the butter from the air, keeping it fresh for longer than butter exposed in a butter dish. While a butter dish needs to be kept in the refrigerator, a butter crock can be kept at room temperature on your countertop for up to a month. That means you can have soft, spreadable butter at the ready for smearing onto jammy egg toast, spreading on charred corn on the cob or swirling on top of blender pancakes. It's a game-changer!

In the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances and Innovation Lab, we tested eight butter crocks side-by-side to see how they compared. We filled each butter crock with each brand's suggested amount of softened salted butter and water and conducted weekly testing for a month. Butter crocks were evaluated based on ease of use and quality of butter throughout the month. We used 40 ounces of butter, logged 32 temperature readings and water was refreshed four times per butter crock to determine the best butter crocks of 2022.

Our top picks:

You can read more about how we tested butter crocks in our Lab — plus everything you need to know to shop for your perfect butter crock — at the end of this guide. Looking for more food storage solutions? Check out our guides to the best food storage containers, food vacuum sealers and adult lunch boxes.