Can you freeze butter?

Butter is mostly fat with very little free water, so there is almost nothing for ice crystals to damage. It comes out of the freezer essentially unchanged. The one thing to guard against is odour: fat absorbs smells readily, so unwrapped butter next to fish or onions will taste of them. Salted butter keeps longer than unsalted in the freezer, and frozen butter grates beautifully straight into pastry.

How to do it properly

1. Keep it in its original wrapper and put that inside a freezer bag
2. Freeze in whole blocks or pre-cut sticks so you thaw only what you need
3. Thaw in the fridge overnight, or grate frozen straight into pastry and scones
4. Use salted butter within a year and unsalted within about six months for best flavour

What goes wrong

• Unwrapped butter picks up freezer odours permanently
• Repeated partial thawing at the door of the freezer degrades it faster

Other "can you freeze" questions

• Can you freeze cheese? It depends — Yes, and it stays safe indefinitely — but hard cheese comes out crumbly and soft cheese comes out wet.
• Can you freeze milk? Yes — Yes — leave headspace for expansion and shake it hard after thawing.
• Can you freeze eggs? It depends — Not in the shell. Beat them first, or freeze whites on their own.
• Can you freeze bread? Yes — Yes — freezing is the best way to store bread, far better than the fridge.
• Can you freeze bananas? Yes — Yes — peel and slice them first, because the peel turns black and welds itself on.
• Can you freeze cooked rice? Yes — Yes, and freezing quickly is the safest way to keep leftover rice.
• Can you freeze raw chicken twice? It depends — Only if it thawed in the fridge and never got above 4 °C (40 °F).
• Can you freeze breast milk? Yes — Yes — freeze it flat in bags, and use within six months for best quality.
• Can you freeze avocado? It depends — Yes, but only as a purée — frozen slices go grey and watery.
• Can you freeze soup? It depends — Yes for most soups; cream, milk and potato-based ones separate or go grainy.
• Can you freeze cooked pasta? Yes — Yes — undercook it slightly and toss it in oil first, or it thaws into a solid block.
• Can you freeze mashed potatoes? Yes — Yes — mash with plenty of butter or cream, which protects the texture through freezing.