Can You Repurpose A Stick Of Butter For An Emergency Candle?

Power outages can be scary, especially when they happen at night and leave your household stuck in the dark. While flashlights are included in the list of emergency supplies every household should have stocked, sometimes outages can catch us by surprise, and you may be forced to improvise. If you do find yourself in this situation, don't panic, and keep in mind that there are several items around the home that you can repurpose into emergency lighting. One kitchen item that has been touted on the internet as a possible emergency candle is a stick of butter. While a stick of butter may not be the best choice for emergency candles, as it might be more valuable to you as a food source, it can still be used as a light source in a pinch, as long as you do it correctly.

The first step to creating your butter candle is placing it in a suitable container. Since you will be constructing a candle with an open flame, you want to be sure to do it safely. To keep it from turning into a fire hazard in your house, you should use a glass, ceramic, metal, or other fire-resistant material to place the butter in before you repurpose it into a candle. A stemless wine or water glass that will prevent the stick of butter from tipping over and potentially starting a fire is a good option.

Once you've found a suitable holder, cut the stick of butter in half. One tablespoon of butter will burn for approximately one hour, so if you cut a standard 8-tablespoon stick of butter in half, you'll have two candles that should burn for about four hours each. Next, you'll need to create a wick. First, stab a narrow hole into the stick. Then, gather materials for the wick. You can use a rolled-up piece of toilet paper, a small wooden skewer, toothpicks, yarn, twine, or even a mop strand as a wick. Work your wick material into the hole you've tunneled into the butter, light it, and you're free to use your butter candle.

Just because butter can be repurposed into an emergency candle doesn't mean it has to be your first choice for emergency lighting during an outage. For example, crayons can also be turned into emergency candles, and you won't even need a wick to light them. To make a DIY crayon candle, melt the bottom of the crayon slightly so you can stick it onto a base, like the inside of a glass. Then, light the top, and it will burn all on its own. To make the flame brighter, put a few crayons next to each other and light them together. Many household or kitchen items with oil or wax can also be turned into candles. A can of sardines, the wax cover from cheese, and even a bit of oil and aluminum foil can be used to make a candle in a pinch.