Yes, You Can Freeze Butter! Here's How to Do It the Right Way

Bought a few too many sticks of butter at the grocery store and don't foresee yourself using them anytime soon? If you're wondering, can you freeze butter? The answer is yes!

Freezing butter is a great way to make it last even longer. Butter has a pretty long shelf life in the fridge already (about 4 months for unsalted and 6 months for salted) but you can extend that time even further by freezing your sticks of butter when you get home from the grocery store!

If there's a big sale on your favorite brand of butter or you just aren't going to use your current supply as quickly as you thought, just freeze it! Once you're all stocked up on butter and popped it in the freezer, you can plan to make some of our favorite extra-buttery recipes like Ree Drummond's easy yet impressive recipes for Garlic Butter Steak, Bacon-Wrapped Scallops with Chili Butter, and this super easy Strawberry Butter that's great on biscuits, waffles, or pancakes! (And there's always an All-Butter Pie Crust you can keep handy for holiday baking.) Read on for more tips on how you can freeze butter the right way.

How do you freeze butter?

Butter is best frozen in its original packaging. Just place the unwrapped sticks in their box right in the freezer. If you've already opened the butter, then you should wrap each stick tightly in plastic wrap or foil and place them in a freezer bag to store.

How long can you freeze butter?

Salted butter can be frozen for up to one year, and unsalted butter for up to 9 months. The salt acts as a preservative so it makes it last a bit longer than the unsalted variety. (Still, that's longer than it would last in your favorite butter dish on the kitchen countertop!)

How do you thaw butter?

Here's how to soften butter: just place in in the fridge for 24 hours! Then, simply use it as you normally would. If you need melted butter right away though then you're in luck! Just melt the butter straight from frozen in the microwave.

How can you tell if frozen butter is bad?

If your butter has been in the freezer for longer than 1 year, it's time to toss it! As long as your freezer maintains its temperature then your butter will be good up to one year frozen. Label the packaging with the date you froze it so you can be sure it is still fresh!