Photo : Claire Lower

In this house, we strive to have two types of butter available at all times: cheap cooking butter (kept in the fridge), and snacking butter (kept at room temperature for easy spreading). But I am not a perfect person, and sometimes I forget to refill the butter dish, leaving my kitchen devoid of spreadable snacking butter.


This makes buttering toast a slight challenge. Yes, you can do what Lifehacker’s managing editor Virginia Smith does, and rub the butter on your twice-cooked bread—much like a glue stick!—but that leaves crumbs in the butter, something not everyone is comfortable with. If that’s a deal breaker for you, do not fret—perfectly buttered toast and crumbless butter is easily achieved; all you need is a vegetable peeler.


Much like those fancy Japanese butter knives, a vegetable peeler renders cold butter into wispy, thin slices that melt beautifully. Just take a stick out of the fridge, run the peeler across the top of it, and place the cold butter slices on hot toast. The slice will melt after a few seconds of contact, creating a perfect ratio of melted butter to toasted bread.

Even if toast isn’t your bag—there are some true freaks out there—peeling cold butter is a useful trick to know. You can peel butter into hot popcorn, place a shaving on a delicate cracker, or toss the sheets with roasted vegetables for even melting. It’s the best use for a vegetable peeler I know (though making cocktail garnishes is a close second).