What is a French Butter Press?

I have wanted a French Butter Press for awhile but many people do not know what it is. And despite having attended lots of pottery and craft shows, I have only found about three or four or five.

Number One I bought for my Mom who refused to use it for about three years until I threatened to take it away from her. She now uses it and loves it!

Number Two was wonderful and colourful and I should have bought it then. Regrets...

Number Three through Five were made by a potter who had absolutely no idea how it functions and was simply weird.

Finally I have found one. It is boringly white. You probably don't know what it is - because they are not very popular. Let me tell you about it and you'll want one too!

This is a French Butter Press:

When you open it up it looks like this:

The inside should be round. Not a tube like the freaky one I saw at a market one time. The idea is to press your butter into the lid like so:

You smooth the butter so it looks nice:

In the lower portion of the bowl, you place cool water and invert your lid with it's butter into it. Based on the principal that water repels oil, the butter sits in it's lid, being cooled by the room temperature water.

TAH DAH! The water should be replaced every week. Another trick is to not get bread crumbs into the butter. Guess we will see how that works out. Oh, and it holds about 1/4 cup of butter, just incase you are wondering that too.

This little baby is replacing a rather ugly butter holder I throw in and out of the fridge now: