Ever wondered if you could do anything else with a butter conditioner?

[turquoisedude]

I have to admit, I have always loved the idea of a butter-conditioning compartment in the older refrigerators. Having been raised with good eastern-European roots (butter is good! lard is better!) I thought it was the ultimate convenience to have spreadable butter ready, right from the refrigerator, at any time. When my parents got their 1974 Baycrest fridge it had the butter conditioner and that was it for me - I wanted one on every fridge I had from then on. I had to rely on the vintage models though, as this feature seemed to be dropped (no doubt to save on manufacturing costs).
Well, I was thrilled when I found that the GE Wall Refrigerator now installed in Ogden had this feature. This past weekend was horribly cold down in the Townships (we had snow on Saturday morning - doing the local estate sales in running shoes was not pleasant). When I got back and was planning dessert, I thought I'd put that butter conditioner to a different use....

 

[turquoisedude]

And what was in those two foil packs? Cream cheese!

A couple of hours in the conditioner made them nice and soft - just right for my blender cheesecake!

 

[turquoisedude]

The result was just fine!

Now, I am probably not the first person who ever tried this, but what a neat way to soften cream cheese when you can otherwise see your breath in the kitchen...

 

[rp2813]

I love butter conditioners!  What a stupid move on the part of manufacturers to stop offering them.  Instead they build in capability for the fridge to go on twitter and tell the world you're out of milk.

 

BTW there's likely some steamy Signature lust happening in Tucson for that blender.

 

 

 

[gansky1]

Looks delicious - post the recipe, please? That was a good idea, makes the cheesecake craving agony so much shorter!

I wonder what wattage the warmer for the butter conditioning drew?

 

[danemodsandy]

Boy, Oh Boy....

....Does the sight of that egg keeper tray bring back memories! We had a '58 Combination that used the same tray.

The GEs of that period still feel to me like they were particularly well-made and well-thought-out refrigerators. Everything I've had since comes up short in some way when compared to our Combination.

 

[petek]

The only fridge we had with one was our GE 3 door we bought back in the 80's. After owning it for a few weeks I noticed that the butter wasn't really getting soft except on the backside and barely and that's the only part that felt warm to the touch so I called for a repair.. Turns out the heat tape stuff they used was mounted to the backwall so he repositioned it to the bottom and it worked fine after that.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

The demise of your refrigerator's Butter Compartment!

You used to get two compartments in the door, one for butter, one for cheese! (The 'Butter' one even had its own little tray!)

Do refrigerators even still come w/ molded egg trays? Few even give you a bucket to keep 'em all dumped in!

Before you know it, if your fridge doesn't have an automatic ice maker, you'll probably have to buy your own ice trays...!

-- Dave

 

[rp2813]

These days, you get a "portable" egg tray to place wherever you want it in the fridge.  We also got a clumsy cradle for suspending a bottle of wine or soda, which is a major waste of space and an obstacle.  Both items are shoved away on a basement shelf somewhere.  We'll never use either of them.   Way back in the 50's the GE Combinations had bottle holders that folded up and out of the way.  How far backward we've come!

 

Forget the crap accessories and bring back the butter conditioner you dumbass manufacturers!

 

[danemodsandy]

Ralph, Ralph, Ralph....

"Forget the crap accessories and bring back the butter conditioner you dumbass manufacturers!"

You're not actually asking for usefulness and lasting value, now are you, Ralph?

Why, Corporate America would collapse if it did that!

 

[norgeway]

And while they are at it!

Put a real porcelain liner back in the fridge instead of plastic, and how about stainless steel shelves like the early 50s GEs, oh yeah, at least give us a choice whether we want self defrosting or not....I do NOT like my ice cream soft one day and firm the next!!!

 

[rp2813]

soft one day and firm the next

An OK circumstance for some things, but ice cream isn't one of them.

 

[danemodsandy]

Hans....

....Lasting features like porcelain liners and stainless shelving would be nice, except that today's electronic controls guarantee that reefers don't last long enough for them to be worthwhile. If appliance electronics ever become truly reliable, I'll happily change my tune, but for the time being, there seems to be little point in making the trim last longer if the works are going to crap out in three years.

P.S.: It can be done. Anyone who lived through the advent of automotive electronic engine controls in the '70s will recall that era with a shudder. Cadillac owners with the 4-6-8 engine were particularly cursed. Automakers watched their reputations head for the crapper, and got busy demanding more - much more - from their electronics suppliers, with the result that today's cars can go 300K miles and never have a computer problem. It hardly needs to be pointed out that an automotive environment is many, many times more challenging for electronics than a kitchen is.

 

[turquoisedude]

Blender Cheesecake Recipe

Greg, here's my shortcut version of cheesecake - it's only about half as big as the regular recipe, therefore each slice has half the calories... ROFLMAO

Bonus - you need not wash the blender jar after making the crust!

Blender Cheesecake

Crust:
16 to 18 Graham Crackers
1/4 cup soft butter or margarine
1/4 cup sugar

- Crumb the graham crackers a few at a time in the blender. Empty onto a sheet of waxed paper
- You should have 1 1/3 cups of crumbs in total. Put half the crumbs back into the blender jar and add the sugar and butter. Blend until well-combined.
- Scrape down the jar, add the remaining crumbs and blend again until the crumbs have been mixed in (you may need to scrape the jar a couple of times).
- Pour out the crumbs into a 9-inch cake pan (I like to put a parchment liner in the bottom). Press the crumbs with the back of a spoon to evenly cover the bottom and sides of the pan.
- Bake at 375 degrees for 7 or 8 minutes to set the crust.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool while making the cheesecake filling.

Cheesecake Filling

2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, softened (at room temp or in a vintage refrigerator butter conditioner...)
2 eggs
1/3 cup cream (I use the heavy 35% kind...oink...)
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar (to taste)
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- Put the eggs in the blender jar; cover and blend on low speed for about 30 seconds.
- Cut the softenened cream cheese into 2-inch cubes. Add 2 or 3 cubes to the eggs in the jar; cover and blend at medium speed until smooth. With the blender still running, add about half of the cream cheese cubes to the jar. Blend smooth then stop the blender.
- Scrape the jar then add the cream, sugar and flavourings. Cover the blender and blend at medium speed. With the blender still running, add the remaining cream cheese, one cube at a time until all is used up. You may need to stop the blender and scrape the jar a couple of times. Blend until the filling is completely smooth.
- Pour the filling into the crust and bake at 325 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes (until the filling is set).
- Cool, then refrigerate the cheesecake.
- Serve with fresh sliced fruits or a fruit purée. Strawberries and chocolate sauce served on this cheesecake is the only reason I have two GE Filter-Flo washers... LOL