but do they work with margarine?

While shopping at my local kitchen store (for practical items only, I assure you) I came across something I had never before noticed - a little pot specifically for melting butter:

Now, maybe I'm missing something but can't one melt butter in a regular sized pot as well? This little cutie holds up to two cups of liquid so one might make the case that it's easier to clean since it's so small. Why get the massive one and a half quart pot (the "small" in most sets of cookware) all buttery when this one will require milliseconds less time to clean and microscopically less detergent? Why? Who wouldn't want to spend $15-20 to own more clutter. Don't we all have extra space in our cupboards just begging (begging!) to be filled? Uh, no, most of us do not.


Now, you might think the story ends here. I know I certainly did. However, when one googles the words "butter melter" (you know, looking for a photo to put in ones blog) one discovers that there is something called a microwave butter melter. Intriguing, to say the least. A click later, I'm staring at this thing:






I honestly could not tell what was happening in this photo. What the hell was that orange grate doing in there? Was it trying (and failing) to segregate the good butter from the bad butter? (Wait, no such thing as bad butter, what was I thinking?)

Turns out, the orange bit is for doing this:














Yes, that's right, it's a butter knife. Sorry, butter "knife". To think, all these years, I've been using something like this:
















What a fool I've been. Why, if only I has been thinking ahead a few hours to pull the butter out to soften at room temperature (you know, every time), I could have been using the orange plastic thing with the awkward handle. Damn it!


Additionally, the microwaveable butter melter has thought of everyone by including a spout on both sides thus making it suitable for both left and right-handed people.


Wow, finally southpaws can melt butter too. Someone alert Ned Flanders.