This Knife Could Solve One of Your Most Annoying Butter Problems

Nothing can ruin a morning like trying to spread a pat of rock hard butter on a freshly toasted piece of seven-grain bread. Just as bad: Trying to microwave butter to have some softened spread for the making of grilled cheese sandwiches only to have the stick go from a solid to a molten mess without more than a few seconds notice.

A kitchen gadget that could put an end to these culinary frustrations is a simply modified butter knife. Its creators think it's so genius they've named to the "Stupendous Splendiferous ButterUp" knife. Given that it has raised well over its fundraising goal on Kickstarter, it's safe to say others agree with its necessity in their kitchens as well.

Image source: DM Initiatives/Kickstarter

The ButterUp knife looks like any ordinary dinner knife, except on the dull edge, is a line of small holes. When pressed gently into the cold butter, the holes pick up the solid dairy product and curl it into small threads that are apparently easier to spread.

Image source: DM Initiatives/Kickstarter

"Our unique design features a built in grater to aerate and soften butter making it easy to spread. Easy to spread also means you use less too," the knife's creators DM Initiatives wrote on Kickstarter. "The grater shape has been specifically designed for butter and to avoid sharp edges so cleanup is safe and easy."

Watch this video about the ButterUp knife:

The invention has already raised more than $210,000 — significantly more than its initial $38,000 goal, and it still has 11 days left on Kickstarter. This isn't the first campaign for a relatively simple item to blow its funding goal out of the water either. Last month, a man raised more than $55,000 to make potato salad when he was only initially hoping for $10.

To get the ButterUp knife in time for Christmas, backers should expect to pay $15 in Australian currency (about $13.96 U.S.), plus shipping.

If you're not into the knife, you could just start leaving your butter out at room temperature. As Adam Clark Estes wrote for Gizmodo this week, " most of the world does not suffer from the murderous cold butter problem, because most of the world leaves their butter on the kitchen counter, where it belongs."

"One can get away with storing butter at ambient temperature for a while since the temperature usually won't be high enough to deform or melt the product and it will not appreciably accelerate the oxidative rancidity process, meaning that the butter will keep just fine for a while," a FDA food expert wrote to Estes.

(H/T: Wired)