Hard Butter[dropcap1]Q. [/dropcap1]One of my pet peeves in restaurants is that many of them serve butter that's stiff, hard, cold, and impossible to spread on the bread without squashing it. What do you think about this? [dropcap1]A. [/dropcap1]You share this distraction with more than a few people. It's one I hear all the time, although there are many others who aren't bothered much by it. While this won't make it any better for you, here's why it happens. Restaurants that serve butter on plates (as opposed to foil-wrapped pats, which belong only in very inexpensive places) get a bunch of butter plates ready at the beginning of service. Since the heat of a kitchen would melt the butter, these plates go into the refrigerator until right before they come out to you. Some restaurants get around the problem by serving whipped butter, which by its nature is on the soft side. But whipped butter is notorious for picking up odors of anything near it, and for becoming rancid faster than pats cut off a stick or a slab of butter. I'd suggest mentioning this to every restaurant you go to, and see what they say.
