Yeah, you're probably right about this, though I use knives to spread things because I hardly ever use the knives and I don't want to get a spoon dirty just for that
I do that with toast sometimes. The problem I run into is the butter temp has to be just right to both not mush out and over butter, or be too hard and rip the bread
The only reason I would say for not doing this is because of how awkward it is to get excess butter/stuff off of a curved surface compared to a straight surface like a knife. Sometimes you have to break out another spoon or something else just to get it off, so you’re messing up twice the dishes. A knife just easily allows you to scrape off the excess.
I can't tell if you're mistakenly thinking we use the front of the spoon, which definitely would result in a lot of wasted stuck butter. Or if you just imagine it's way harder to spread it all off the curved surface than it is.
I'll be the person that disagrees, at least under certain conditions. Spreading with a spoon it's impossible to spread all the stuff leaving none stuck on the spoon. With a knife that's possible so unless the area is large enough that the overhead becomes small knife makes more sense. Consistency of the spread also matters, if it's sticky or hard once again a knife is easier for the job
I admit it can be situational, for example I still use a knife for peanut butter just because it's annoying to try and get a spoon into the jar. But I'd argue your first point is what the kids these days refer to as a "skill issue" 😉
spreading it, maybe. But getting that butter onto the correct (convex) side of the spoon in the first place is way more difficult and basically fucks whatever advantage the spreading might provide.
Convex surfaces (ie. the back of a spoon) don't scoop. It just slides across the top of the butter. In order to load up the butter on the spoon, you need to scoop it with the other side and then what...use a finger to move it to the back so it can be spread?
I've never tried the spoon method and can't imagine it working but I don't see how a butter knife is any better than a steak knife. Cold butter still spreads like shit either way.
The correct, superior truth is as follows: the shape of the buttering thing (spoon, knife, etc) should match the shape of the buttered thing (bread, toast, erc). Flat shapes for flat surfaces, curved shapes for curved surfaces.
Lunacy, but I'll try the next time I'm applying butter. If you convert me and I have to explain myself to others for the rest of my life, know that I'll hate you.
I use a butter spreader for butter, but a spoon for jam/jelly. I don't think I would like the spoon for butter myself, but it's neat to see other people who use spoons to spread condiments.
Arrow down, because I always thought that was how you should do it. Wife showed me her using a fork, and I was like "what kind of monster raised you?!?"
We mostly get spreadable butter because life's too short. Although, when I was little I remember my grandma used to use that old-style block butter and would have to leave it sitting out at room temperature for a while before trying to use it for anything, so let's agree that too-hard butter is an annoyance regardless of spreading implement used.
My family always used to question me when i get a spoon out for this exact thing. No one ever tried it though, they just say thats what butter knifes are for.
A lot of people have commented about butter being hard and I'm wondering if it's a location-dependent thing? Those solid butter blocks are a thing here (UK) but I don't know anyone who uses them as a normal daily butter for spreading, they're mostly just if you're cooking or something and it doesn't matter that it's a big solid lump.