The internet is a wonderful place, offering immediate access to tips and tricks to do almost anything. Social media makes it easy for truly ingenious life, kitchen, and cooking hacks to go viral, spreading life-changing knowledge with the tap of a few buttons.
While some viral internet hacks are so brilliant that you wonder how you lived without them, others … Well, not so much. Recently, a viral tip for pre-portioning butter has been making the rounds, and the commenters can’t decide if it’s the best thing ever or just extra work — people are divided, to say the least.
In the March 2025 video, Instagram user @ann_aknows demonstrates the hack that uses small pieces of wax paper folded around a knife to effortlessly cut and divide a stick of butter into perfect tablespoon-sized portions. Then, she takes the stick of butter with its little wax paper dividers and places it into a glass food storage container and seals the lid on. Seems simple, right?
This isn’t the first time this butter hack has graced the internet — some videos go back to 2023 — but as it bubbled back up on timelines as a great hack for portioning butter for parties or easy access, debate ensued.
For people who use a lot of butter and need to grab perfectly measured portions quickly, the hack might be incredibly helpful. It’s also been hailed as a great dinner party hack. But some people wondered if it really is a hack at all. People wasted no time sounding off in the comments. One commenter said: “So what’s the tip exactly? You achieve the same result with just cutting butter with the knife when you need to use it.” Another perplexed commenter wrote “…it has portion sizes on the packaging.”
Of course, the hack does require some extra work up front to make it easier to grab pre-portioned butter, but some people are up for it — though they were fewer and farther between. “Wait wow that’s super genius, the wax paper acts as a divider for easy access to a slab of butter,” one commenter wrote. “This is brilliant!” shared another.
If you prefer your butter in an adorable butter crock or don’t have the time to pre-portion, then you might pass on this one. But if pre-cutting your butter makes your life easier, then this is most definitely the kitchen hack for you.
