mould in the butter dish

 Imagine my surprise, nay disgust, when I spotted that there was a smidge of mould in the bottom left corner of the - usually spotless - white china butter dish.

A few days ago I spotted mould in my butter dish. It is a standard butter dish,  white porcelain with a lid, it can house a 250 gr block of butter with room to spare above - fits nicely from side to side, though.

Yes, I was alarmed and - naturally - started to blame myself.   Had I used a dirty knife to cut into the butter?   I do have 'butter knives' but they are made for the small, silver individual portion butter dishes - of which I have one.   And, of course, I do not distinguish between the butter that is on the breakfast table and the butter I use for cooking...though the utensils to cut the butter obviously differ....And yes, I use the knife with butter on it to spread the butter on my piece of bread - and re-use it if I have not taken enough butter first go... We shall quickly pass over the use of the 'butter' knife to get jam onto the bread...

(Please bear in mind that, as a single person, I no longer use a dishwasher but wash dishes and utensils as meals go by...so the water used for washing is obviously at hand-sympathetic temperatures.) 

You would think there should be mould in the jam-jars given the amount of sugar in them, the little use they get and the fact that their lids no longer fit tightly once opened...but so far, so good.   I put it down to the preservative qualities of cooked sugar.