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Keep Butter Out Of The Fridge? We’ve Got Grim News For You

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Despite what I’ll tactfully call conflicting opinions in my household, it turns out that yes, butter is almost always safe to eat after being left out on the counter.

Not only is room-temperature butter better for spreading and creaming sugar while baking, it turns out that you can leave properly stored butter out for a surprisingly long time.

“Butter is safe to eat after being out at room temperature,” Bri Bell, a registered dietitian, and food safety expert, told Allrecipes.

“One reason it doesn’t go bad as quickly as other dairy products at room temperature is because it’s low in carbohydrates and proteins, which are mould and bacteria’s preferred food sources.“

But does safe mean tasty? Is there an upper limit to how long you can leave butter out on the side? And if so, what is it?

It’ll be safe for ages ― but delicious for as little as a couple of hours

Part of it has to do with storage. On one, more extreme end, bog butter ― butter buried under a bog to preserve it for longer ― has been found to last for literally hundreds of years without posing a health threat to anyone who eats it.

But unless you’ve got an airtight, subterranean cubby-hole of your own, your best bet is probably a butter dish or something similarly airtight that won’t absorb smells from your cooking. This should keep it safe to eat for ages, provided your kitchen isn’t too hot.

However, the question of safety is different to the question of flavour. While butter might be safe to eat after a couple of days on your countertops, its taste might be impacted by leaving the fridge.

Tonja Engen, Culinary Content Specialist for butter experts Land O’Lakes, told Allrecipes “Do not leave butter at room temperature for more than 4 hours. Always return any unused butter to the refrigerator and be aware that butter left outside refrigeration may become darker in colour and have the flavour affected.”

If you need to soften butter for baking or spreading, she says that “you can cut the butter into small chunks and let stand at room temperature for about 15 minutes.”

Or grate frozen butter for a quick-fix for baking, she adds.

The United States Department of Agriculture’s recommendations say that “Butter and margarine are safe at room temperature. However, if butter is left out at room temperature for several days, the flavour can turn rancid so it’s best to leave out whatever you can use within a day or two.”

In other words, while your butter is safe out on the counters for a remarkably long time, its creamy flavour might degrade in a matter of hours.

Honestly, this is the most clear-cut case of “ignorance is bliss” I’ve ever seen…

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Noticing This While Brushing Your Teeth Could Be A Sign Of Dementia

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In his new book How To Prevent Dementia, Dr. Richard Restak (neurologist, neuropsychiatrist, author, and professor) shared that some signs of dementia can show up first in everyday tasks ― including brushing your teeth.

“Four impairments underlie the outer expressions and inner experiences of the Alzheimer patient,” the doctor shared in his book. He called these the “four As.”

One sign is amnesia, he says ― simply forgetting things. Then, there’s aphasia, which involves not being able to understand, find, or use the right words.

“Neither amnesia nor aphasia in their milder forms is always abnormal,” Restak says. But “the third and fourth of the four A’s are always a sign something is amiss,” he adds.

One of these is agnosia, or “an impairment of correctly understanding information provided by the senses of seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting.” For instance, someone might not be able to recognise a beloved family member by sight.

The final one, apraxia, refers to an inability to perform “purposeful and highly practiced actions despite normal muscle strength and tone.”

Brushing your teeth is a good example of where apraxia may show up

It’s not necessarily about forgetting how to do the task, nor is it about not being strong enough to follow the steps, Restak says. Instead, the issue lies in tying all the actions and thoughts together correctly and in the right order.

“A person with apraxia may be able to recognise and even name a toothbrush and toothpaste but may be unable to carry out the act (praxis) of squeezing the toothpaste onto the toothbrush.”

Or they could struggle to put the brush in their mouth and scrub their teeth. “All the muscle components are present but can’t be coordinated,” Restak shared.

Tooth decay has been linked to increased dementia risk, though Dr. Restak doesn’t suggest apraxia is the cause of this in his book.

Other forms of apraxia can cause people to fall, speak, and, for those in the later stages of Alzheimer’s, dress and bathe themselves, the neurologist says.

“Many, if not all, expressions of Alzheimer’s can be explained by reference to the four A’s,” Restak stated in How To Prevent Dementia.

What if I suspect dementia?

If you think you or someone you love could have the condition, the NHS advises you to see a GP as soon as possible.

If you’re supporting a loved one, “You may like to suggest you go with your friend or relative to see a GP so you can support them. You’ll also be able to help them recall what has been discussed,” they say.

“A diagnosis of dementia can also help people with these symptoms, and their families and friends, make plans so they’re prepared for the future,” they add.

How To Prevent Dementia is available from Penguin

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The Secret To Sparkling Baking Trays Is Hiding In Your Food Cupboard

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I don’t know what it is about baking trays. Maybe it’s the fact that we’ve designed them for a lifetime of inferno-like suffering in our ovens – but no matter how carefully I clean mine, they seem to get incredibly filthy in a matter of months ― almost as if they’re doing it on purpose.

Forget sponges. Forget dish brushes. Once my baking trays have achieved the crusted-on hue of shame, it feels like nothing will help to clean them.

So you can imagine how intrigued I was to hear from Tasting Table that the humble spud could help to remove the rust from my trays.

All I have to do, they advise, is halve a raw spud, dip the potato in washing-up liquid and salt or baking soda, and get to scrubbing. I was sceptical too ― but having tried it, I’ll never go back.

I know! It works because potatoes are high in something called oxalic acid, which is sometimes sold in its pure form as a rust remover.

When this comes into contact with rust, it creates a substance called iron oxalate, which can easily be washed away with water and soap.

The addition of washing-up liquid will help to cut through grease, while salt and baking powder will exfoliate the surface of your trays.

Sweet potatoes are higher in rust-reducing oxalic acid than other kinds, Tasting Table points out.

Yep! I’ve tried wrapping my entire oven (baking trays included) in clingfilm overnight after applying a baking soda paste before ― this worked brilliantly.

You can also try submerging your baking trays in hot, soapy water for a minimum of half an hour before scrubbing away the grime. This works, but requires a lot of sink space.

Baking soda and boiling water can also do the trick, Oven Pride suggests (though keep your hands safe during this method).

And of course, you can’t go too far wrong with a wire scourer and good ol’ elbow grease…

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It Looks Like Netflix Just Accidentally Let Slip The Exact Release Date For Squid Game Season 3

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It would appear that Squid Game fans’ patience when it came to season two is being rewarded.

Squid Game returned for its long-awaited second season last week, more than three years after the South Korean drama became a global hit thanks to word-of-mouth.

A third and final season has already been filmed, with Netflix revealing earlier this week that the show would be back on our screens later this year.

However, it looks like the streaming giant may have revealed more than it intended to.

News of Squid Game’s 2025 return was confirmed in a video that was shared on Netflix’s social media pages.

According to Forbes, the version of this video that briefly went live in South Korea featured a more specific message listing the launch date of Squid Game season three as 27 June 2025.

If this is true, fans will have to wait just six months for the final outing of the award-winning drama, compared to the epic wait between its first and second seasons.

HuffPost UK has contacted the Squid Game publicity team for clarification.

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Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk recently claimed that he only wanted the show to run for two series, but when putting together the idea for its second run, decided this would work better as a two-season arc.

He explained: “I originally envisioned it as a single series, so both seasons two and three as a single series when I was writing it.

“But then, as I wrote the story along, it became to be too many episodes and too long of a story because you see Gi-hun’s journey where he returns to the game, but also he goes through a revolt, and that is actually the climax of that storyline, where he tries to create an uprising, but then that all goes to failure.”

Dong-hyuk also told Variety: “As for the storyline of the third season, Gi-hun having lost everything, including his best friend, and all of his attempts going to failure, it’s now, what is he going to be like? What state is Gi-hun going to be in? And what will he choose to do?

“Will he continue on with the mission? Is he going to give up or persist? And so you’re going to meet our character Gi-hun at a very critical crossroads as we begin the third season. Gi-hun will not be the man he was in season two.”

The first two seasons of Squid Game are available to stream now on Netflix.

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