The Best Way To Store Butter Wrappers Is In The Freezer

If you live by the words "waste not, want not," there's a good chance you've heard of ways to repurpose your butter wrappers. When you've used up a stick of butter, instead of throwing away the wrapper, you can save it and store it in the freezer for future cooking needs. While leaving them in the fridge is fine, storing the wrappers in the freezer will keep them fresher for longer. Butter keeps for a couple months refrigerated but can last for several months or longer when frozen. Simply store the butter papers in a resealable plastic bag to make it easy to grab them from the freezer when needed. 

But why would you need a butter wrapper in the first place? After using up a stick of butter, you might have noticed that the wrappers are coated with a thin layer of butter or sometimes even small chunks. Sticks of butter aren't exactly cheap, so why waste a lick of it when you can put your wrappers to good use in your cooking and baking? It might seem pointless to save something so meager, but butter wrappers can come in handy more often than you think they might.

One of the smartest ideas for leftover butter papers is to use them to grease your baking pans. You can use a single wrapper to grease an entire muffin tin or cake pan without getting your hands dirty. Simply hold the non-buttery side of the wrapper and rub it around the pan until every corner is well-greased. This pro tip is too good for bakers to pass up. Start saving your butter wrappers and storing them in the freezer. Pretty soon you'll have a stack you can reach for every time you need to grease a pan (which, in baking, is often). 

Other clever uses for your butter wrappers include as a substitute for parchment paper. For instance, they make excellent dividers for frozen foods like hamburger patties, cookies, chicken breasts, steak, etc. Try stacking your food with butter wrappers in between to make it super easy to separate them — the thin layer of butter left on the wrapper will help the paper peel cleanly off the food. You'll also have a tiny bit of butter left on your food, which most would agree is a bonus. The wrappers are also perfect for buttering your corn on the cob, greasing a knife for difficult-to-cut baked goods like Rice Krispies treats, or wrapping sticky caramel candies. You can even use butter wrappers for mess-free microwave melting by using them to cover your dish of butter. 

Redditors had lots to say in response to a tip on using butter wrappers to grease baking dishes. In the Frugal subreddit, repurposing masterminds argued that saving butter wrappers is a brilliant but simple hack that everyone should be doing. While a couple people admitted to using them as fire starters or just licking the butter wrappers before tossing them, most agree that they make greasing your baking pans super easy. 

One Redditor explained it isn't just non-refrigerated butter that leaves a residue on the wrapper, stating, "Even cold there is some residue. You might need 2 wrappers to grease a 9x13 pan. Bonus feature is your fingers don't get greases [sic], and you don't waste a paper towel." Some said they used butter wrappers to line their cake pans, similar to how you might use parchment paper, making it easier to remove the cake from the pan after baking. Another person said they set the butter wrapper on top of whatever they are cooking to get every last bit of remaining butter onto their food before grabbing a new stick. No matter what they use the butter papers for, many agreed with either refrigerating the butter papers or putting them in a Ziploc bag (folded in half to keep the butter from rubbing off) and storing them in the freezer for future cooking or baking needs.