The Real Reason Land O' Lakes Butter Uses A Wrapper

If you've ever taken a stick of butter from the fridge and found it to have a certain funky, non-buttery odor and taste, how you're storing your butter, and the packaging your butter comes in, may be to blame. As Urbo explains, butter is primarily fat, and one thing fat is great at is soaking up odors — like an odor sponge of sorts. Depending on what else has passed through (or is still in) your fridge, that could be a flavor disaster waiting to happen — no one wants onion-flavored cookies! This could happen even if you've kept your butter in its wrapper because not all butter wrappers are made equal.

Most butter tends to be wrapped in either foil or wax parchment. Robert Bradley, professor emeritus of food science at the University of Wisconsin, explained to Cook's Illustrated that parchment paper is "as porous as a summer screen on your window" and "does next to nothing in protecting the butter." Foil-wrapped butter did a better job at preventing odor absorption, which the Cook's Illustrated testers confirmed in a taste test.

Land O' Lakes Butter takes a slightly different approach. In 2004, the company switched from using paper-backed foil to heavy wax paper, after hearing from consumers who wanted to be able to microwave their butter while still in the wrapper (via The Washington Post). According to its website, its FlavorProtect wrappers are a special wax blend that "keeps other flavors out and the rich creaminess of Land O' Lakes Butter in." Robert Bradley confirmed to Cook's Illustrated that the Land O' Lakes wrapper is not just a gimmick; it's actually one of the best wrappers available and does a great job of keeping butter fresh.

When it comes to storing butter in general, you'll want to keep it in the coldest part of the fridge, usually in the back, in either its original case or in a covered container. Just remember to take your butter out ahead of time. Lydia Botham, PR Director for Land O' Lakes, recommended to Food Network taking butter out 30 minutes before you need to use it for a better butter experience. That being said, there are hacks that will bring butter up to room temperature fast for those times when you forget. And if you still need to microwave your butter, you can go ahead and toss the whole stick in — wrapper and all — if it's Land O' Lakes butter.