Warming refrigerated butter at a table in a restaurant

Question

I love to cook. One of my favorite ways to cook is to go to a restaurant, look at the menu, get ideas, and order creatively. It helps to tip well.

For example, I've been successful creating diet ginger ale by ordering it cut with club soda and adding sugar substitute to taste. Also found breakfast burritos are very tasty if you substitute the tortilla with a crape. These work because the directions and goal are simple and understandable.

My current obsession is room temperature butter for the hot rolls. I want the butter to spread. I don't want the butter cooling the rolls. Can order the butter ahead of the rolls, if I must, but time is still at a premium.

If you're lucky you can order room temperature butter and get room temperature butter. More often I'm told they have to refrigerate the butter. I don't want to argue with them about the wisdom of their health codes. Some have tried to microwave it only to present me with abstract art sitting in a pool of drawn butter. This site could teach them how to microwave butter properly but I'm trying to communicate through a busy waiter.

Typically what I'm given is either small foil wrapped pats of butter or a 1 inch by 1 inch by 1/8 inch slice placed on a saucer.

What are your ideas for warming the butter before the rolls cool down? I'm willing to do some work myself at the table.

Answer 1

Body heat.

You're a balmy 98.6 or so degrees, so put the packet of butter in your pocket and leave your hand on it.

In a minute or two, it'll be soft enough to spread. Plus, you don't have to pester your server for anything additional, it should help you save the odd requests for when you really need their help :)

Answer 2

Ask for a heated glass!
Glasses freshly out of cleaning should be warm anyway, so chances are they have one. Putting the heated glass over your (opened) piece of butter unter the turned-over glass should have the desired effect.

Answer 3

Richard Bertinet softens butter for baking by covering it with the waxed, foil wrapper and pounding it with a rolling pin. Even cold butter becomes pliable with a few dozen wallops.

That's for big 250g blocks of butter and it makes a racket, but I wondered if you could do a small-scale version. Try this:

• take a square of greaseproof paper to the restaurant.
• wrap your thin pad of butter in the square
• squeeze between thumb and forefinger, like blutac or putty.

I reckon it will soften the butter sufficiently without requiring heat.

Answer 4

Put it on a plate and mash it out with a fork
It will quickly come to the temp of the plate