Viral kitchen hack shows hard butter can be made spreadable with this unexpected tool
PHOTO: Yueke
Tired of not being able to spread hard butter on toast? There’s a kitchen hack for that, and it involves an unexpected tool.
Scraping a handheld strainer across a block of butter appears to make the dairy-based spread easier to unfurl on bread and other foods that require buttering.
The technique has been demonstrated and shared on TikTok by food bloggers and people who like to test the validity of rumored hacks.
Dzung Lewis, a cookbook author and content creator who uploads food and parenting content via her Honeysuckle channel, is one of the latest internet personalities to test the strainer method.
"The BEST Butter Gadget Everybody already has," she captioned her TikTok video in June, which has generated over 383,100 views at the time of publication.
In her 36-second video, Lewis explained that she saw another TikTok content creator use a strainer to "grate their cold butter right out of the fridge," and she decided to try the method herself.
Lewis described the grated butter that gets pushed through the small strainer holes as looking like "butter hairs" before she confirmed that the trick works.
"New life hack unlocked," she said in her video. "This is the best butter gadget I’ve ever tried. Ten out of ten."
Fox News Digital reached out to Lewis for comment.
Dozens of TikTok users replied to Lewis’ video stating that they typically use strainers when they’re making tea.
The American grocery delivery and pickup service Instacart responded positively to the video.
"You learn something new every day," an employee behind the online app commented on the video.
Another TikTok user commented that they use a different tool to break and spread butter.
"I use a potato peeler, it’s also very good to have thin slices that spread very well," the commenter wrote.
Other TikTok users dared Lewis to test the strainer hack on cheese.
At least one commenter wrote that they think "it’s gonna be impossible to wash" butter out of the strainer mesh.
Despite the concern, several TikTok creators have tested the butter-strainer hack in the last year, and most have given the method a thumbs up, including regional grocery store chain Kroger.
The TikTok user who appears to have made the butter-strainer hack go viral is a woman who goes by the username @Roxy.369.
Roxy, who seems to be from Scotland, demonstrated the butter-grating method with a video she uploaded on Sept. 14, 2022.
The video has generated more than 4.2 million likes, 409,000 saves, and 17,500 comments.
"I need the hack for cleaning it afterwards," the TikTok post’s top commenter wrote, which earned over 29,800 likes.
"Great way to get butter that'll easily spread onto softer breads," another commenter wrote. "Plus, it melts quicker when put on top of warm foods."
"That’s the best thing I’ve seen all day," another TikTok user wrote.
"Just use a cheese grater," another user suggested.
Fox News Digital reached out to Roxy.369 for comment.