Cool Hunting

A recent well-loved addition to my own kitchen, a butter bell is a ceramic dish with a simple ingenious design that keeps butter at the perfect consistency for spreading while also preventing it from turning rancid. The bell-shaped lid holds about a stick of butter and stores away into the crock creating a vacuum seal when filled with a bit of water and keeping the butter at room temperature. Other than changing the water every few days, it requires little more maintenance than a regular butter dish and the round footprint saves some counter space.

I bought my own generic brand butter bell at a hardware store (it's one of those rare items where price and brand don't matter all that much), but it's available online in red, black and ivory from Chefs for $20 (pictured right). We also found a slightly more streamlined (and slightly more pricey) version by Emile Henry Couleurs—who've been manufacturing in France (where butter bells originated) since 1850—on Amazon (pictured left).

via New York's Best Bets