Norpro Marble Butter Keeper,Off-White

12/25/18My husband and I buy "presents" for the sake of opening something on Christmas morning. I was so excited that this order came before Christmas. I've been looking at the reviews for many, many, butter bells. The different materials i.i porcelain, marble and ceramic. I chose the marble one because I have a marble mortar and pestle. I knew that the marble is consistently cooler. The marble is beautiful. Not too dark, not too bright. It's been in the house for > 24 hours and it feels nice and cool. I can't use it. It stinks like rancid fat. I'm sure that someone used this, returned it and it was turned around and sold to me. I can't even wash it because I don't want to wreck the opportunity to return it. Marble is a porous stone, so I don't even know if I could even clean it. I am so incredibly disappointed. ⁓⁔⁓I gave it 2 stars because it has 2 good things - it looks good and it's nice and cool. That's all I got.I may change this review pending vendor response.******1/7/19Up to 5 stars from 2I'm so sorry this is late. I was very busy on my side of the screen.After I wrote this review I started the return procedure. The following day, Christmas Day, I received an email containing the return instructions.I returned the rancid butter bell on 12/26/18. All I had to do was bring the package to a UPS store. The cost to me was $3. and something. I think the quick turn around is because of our Prime membership. I never thought I'd hawk a membership in a review before now, but I am. And, FTR: NO! I'm not a professional reviewer and I am a citizen of the USA. I have no benefit for saying that I love Amazon.On 12/28/18 I received a new one. the new one was the darker gray that a lot of people complained about. I sorta' get why, it's all gray with darker gray streaks where the first one was white with gray streaks. To me the white with gray streaks looks more marble-y.Today (1/7/19) I'm good with the color. I love the functionality of it. My butter is no longer oxidized on the outside of the stick - which was what started me on the Butter Dish search in the first place ⁀‿⁀

We have had this for a few weeks now and I am very pleased. I am used to having to have butter in the refrigerator and so hard or in a butter dish on the counter and rancid. We have had this through multiple 90F hot days (inside getting to 80F) and the butter has stayed perfect. It is very spreadable and yet not too soft and smells good.We change the water every 2 or 3 days as they say. Our area is very dry (25% or less humidity, usually 12%) and so I suspect I could change it only every week or so, but for now I am using their 2 or 3 days (since we use the butter regularly anyway).It was easy to load - I left a stick out for about 30 minutes and it was soft enough to push in with a spoon. I add more every few days as we use it. In that case, I just cut off a few tablespoons and leave out 10 minutes and then bury under the existing butter.I have never used one of these before, but read about them when I got a bread machine (so we have fresh bread every day). I chose the marble because it looks great and it does not change temp very easily, unlike thinner materials. Marble also is resistant to bacterial growth due to the nature of its pores - unlike ceramics and porcelains (glazed); this is why many people use marble (and granite) for rolling pins and surfaces for food prep.

I bought this butter keeper because I was fostering two predatory counter-prowling felines who were strong enough to push the usual kind of porcelain or stoneware butter dishes off the counter so they would smash on the floor, allowing access to the butter within.This butter keeper fixed that problem, absolutely: the marble is so heavy the cats couldn't possibly move it. I'm sure they tried, but failed. :)But beyond that, even if you don't have competitively and opportunistically food-hunting cats (don't worry, they got their fill of top of the line food, they just knew where to turn for more, as cats mostly always do) butter when kept in this keeper is not only fresh, but *always* looks good, unlike how it looks in a normal butter dish, where when you move the cover on and off it often hits on the butter and gets smeary, so the whole assembly gets sloppy looking.I broke my first marble butter keeper a couple years ago, after the foster cats left. I definitely miss it. Heads up: just because it's stone doesn't mean it's invincible. Don't tap the upper portion on the lower in order to move anything. I can't now remember the circumstance in which I wanted to do that, but just don't.Still missing my wonderful marble butter keeper, and if somebody doesn't get it for me for my next birthday or Christmas, I'm going to replace it myself.

I love this concept of keeping my brother at room temperature. I used to have a ceramic one but the butter kept on falling in to the water. And the marble keeps it cooler and it sticks to the surface better. I love it!