Bringing ingredients to room temperature before cooking

Francl27
Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I can't find an answer anywhere and it's driving me nuts.

How long does it take butter, egg, cream cheese to get to room temperature if I leave them out? Keeping the temperature at 70 right now...

Replies

  • stuffinmuffin
    stuffinmuffin Posts: 985 Member
    It would depend what temperature your room is?? I would say a couple of hours would do it.
  • sadrithmora
    sadrithmora Posts: 121
    Is there a specific reason you're doing this btw? I've read a quite a few recipes that called for that, but I was always too impatient to actually wait that long, and didn't notice anything bad about the meals afterwards. Just curious about what it actually does to the cooking?
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    It's easier to mix I think? The main thing is cream cheese, if it's not room temperature it clumps and you end up with cream cheese bits all over. Butter obviously is a pain to mix if it's not soft.
  • evileen99
    evileen99 Posts: 1,564 Member
    Cut the cream cheese into about 4 pieces and microwave for 20 seconds. Hey presto! Softened cream cheese!
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Cut the cream cheese into about 4 pieces and microwave for 20 seconds. Hey presto! Softened cream cheese!

    Yeah I've done that, but I want to avoid it, I'm making a tiny cake with like 3 tbsp of butter and 1 oz of cream cheese and I don't want to actually cook them in the microwave, lol.
  • sadrithmora
    sadrithmora Posts: 121
    It's easier to mix I think? The main thing is cream cheese, if it's not room temperature it clumps and you end up with cream cheese bits all over. Butter obviously is a pain to mix if it's not soft.

    Oh yeah, I guess it makes sense. I don't really mix things outside of the food processor, so it didn't even occur to me :D
  • mike_ny
    mike_ny Posts: 351 Member
    No easy answer, here.

    It depends on how cold they are to start with and the mass of what you're trying to bring up to temperature.

    I always leave a stick of butter in the butter dish out all the time, though, so we always have softened butter. Butter is salted as a preservative and saturated fats are extremely stable (lard & coconut oil can stay out for months with no breakdown. It's the non-saturated fats that oxidize and turn rancid) I knew some dairy farmers growing up and they always kept butter that would be used in the next week of so out at room temperature. I consider them a long term study as they did this for decades and never had any issues with it going bad or getting sick from it.
  • FunkyTobias
    FunkyTobias Posts: 1,776 Member
    Keep checking back to this thread. When you either:

    (a) Get a definitive response.
    (b) See cat gifs

    Your ingredients will be ready
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Keep checking back to this thread. When you either:

    (a) Get a definitive response.
    (b) See cat gifs

    Your ingredients will be ready

    Thanks :laugh:

    I use unsalted butter by the way.
  • DataSeven
    DataSeven Posts: 245 Member
    I do this with steak, I like mine medium and it's easier to cook properly if the meat is room temperature. usually takes an hour and a half or so.

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