Do This Before Throwing Away Your Butter Wrappers

Whenever we finally finish off all the butter in a package, most of us probably just toss the empty, greasy wrapper into the nearest garbage can and open up a fresh pack of butter. But it turns out butter wrappers aren't simply trash. They often still have plenty of utility, as well as plenty of butter left on the wrapper. It turns out that butter wrappers are the perfect tool for spreading butter on pots and pans. 

Simply turn the paper butter side in, and use your hand to rub it around the surface of a pot. With the flat wrapper, the butter can spread much more evenly, and you can easily grease hard-to-reach corners of pans. If you hang onto your butter wrappers rather than tossing them in the garbage, you'll never have to struggle to grease a pan again. Not only that, but you will reduce waste and save money on butter and costly cooking sprays.

But that's not all butter wrappers are good for. They actually have a host of uses, so there is more than one reason to start a home collection of empty butter wrappers. While they can be used to butter pans, they are also ideal for buttering hard-to-manage foods like corn on the cob. By wrapping the flexible wrapper around the cob, you can quickly and easily spread butter evenly over the corn and reduce mess. Butter wrappers can also serve as an easy and tasty alternative to wax paper. You can use them as freezer-friendly wrappers to separate and wrap foods like hamburger patties, thus recycling the paper while adding a nice savory, buttery taste to your meats and veggies.

Butter wrappers can even improve the flavor and quality of baked goods. Simply place the wrapper over the top of the bread or muffin for a few minutes once it is done baking and allow the buttery flavor to soak into the top for an extra rich, decadent dessert. So the next time you finish up a big baking project, don't be so quick to discard the empty papers. Instead, keep a Ziplock baggie or other container on hand to store those used butter wrappers. The next time you have to butter a dessert or grease a pan, you'll be glad you did.