Butter is a commonly used ingredient in many different dishes. In cuisine it has a surprising amount of uses; this is no different from the number of its everyday applications. There are plenty of things for you to use excess butter for—around the house, in health and beauty, and around the kitchen/in cooking—not necessarily in the conventional way, either. If you have read our article about dishes that feature a hefty amount of butter, we doubt you’ll have any spare. On the off chance that you do have some left, here are some other ways in which you can utilise it.
Household. WD-40 is useful, but it’s also easily substituted with extra butter. Grease up door hinges with butter and prepare yourself for silent doors. Do your tables and cabinets have watermarks on them? Rub butter into the watermark and let it soak overnight. Wipe up the excess in the morning, and voila, it’s gone. If you get ink on plastic items, try rubbing butter on the affected areas, place it in a sunny area, and leave it for a few days. Wipe it off with soap and water and the ink should come right off.
Health and beauty. Butter is an excellent way to kelp those dastardly pills slide down your throat. Press a tablet into a small amount of butter and pop that sucker down. Are you covered in sap or glue? Rub some butter into the sticky area before you wash it, and the grease from the butter should help it come off quickly. Everyone has had gum stuck in their hair, but did they try rubbing butter in? Applying butter and gently wiping with a cloth should help ease the gum out before you have to shave your head. Dry skin? Brittle nails? Here’s the solution, butter. Rub some butter into the cuticles of your fingers and wear some gloves. When you wake up in the morning, the nutrients from the butter should help moisten your fingers back up to normal.
Butter is already used in the kitchen, but did you know about its alternative kitchen uses? Coating the outside of hard cheese with butter will help prevent the moulding process meaning it’ll keep longer in the fridge. Do you have half an onion left over? Rub some butter on it and wrap it up in tinfoil or glad wrap and it should keep well. Ever make brownies or pies and have trouble cutting them crisply? Apply some butter to the knife before diving in, and it should mean that nothing sticks to the blade as you cut. Finally, when cooking pasta, it can be easy to look away for a second only to hear the hiss of the stove and see bubbles coming out the pot. Adding a small amount of butter helps reduce the amount a pot will boil over.
It’s time to bust out that butter that has been sitting idle in the fridge and get practical.
