Bed and butter

SIR – One way to avoid butter that is either rock-hard or near-runny (Letters, July 17) is to set a “butter alarm” between one and one-and-ahalf hours before you normally rise.

Remove the butter from the fridge, then crawl back under the covers (or not, in this weather). By the time you need it, the butter will have become far more pliable.

Peter Cain Wembley, Middlesex

SIR – There is no substitute for a marble slab in a traditional pantry.

Daveeda Morrell Willerby, East Yorkshire