Sadly, the best kitchen gadgets appear to be the ones you rarely see -- like the automatic butter spreader.
It's essentially a mechanized roller, the cousin of the hot dog roller at QuikTrip or 7-11, that allows for the even coating of toast or whatever you slide across the roller face. Both the warming and non-warming models have the capacity to hold one pound of butter.
The only time I've seen one in operation is at a grilled-corn stand at the Kansas State Fair, where butter was applied liberally to the corn they were selling. This was a serious bit of walking snack food.
Seeing a butter spreader in action is like watching cotton candy
be made for the first time. Your mouth falls open slightly and your jaw
slackens as you find yourself amazed at each time that the relatively
simple machinery nails its job.
While it might be a bit of overkill, don't you think you'd enjoy
your toast or bagel at breakfast a lot more if the butter was applied via roller?
Forget scraping your knife against the bread and having a bite with too
much or too little butter. The electric butter spreader retails for $120 (the heated version is $150), but is available on eBay
for $80. At that price there's no question this is a luxury or intended
for use by restaurants; however, since you're probably doing a lot
more cooking with butter these days thanks to Julia Child's resurgence, you might as well invest in a spreader.
[Image via Flickr: rakka]
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