Cream in Cultures
In the 11th century, farmers in this country regularly paid their taxes to the king in pounds of fresh-churned butter!
Norway!
Some of the earliest butter churn vessels belonged to the Beersheba culture in Palestine, dating to this century.
6.5 to 5.5 centuries B.C.
Cathedrals in Rouen & Borges, France, have this shared nickname thanks to the Catholic Church's butter ban during medieval Lent.
They both sport the title of "Tour de Beurre" or Butter Towers!
Instead of turning to cough syrup, this ancient Italian empire would use butter to cure things like sore throat and achy joints! Hold onto your togas!
Rome
The word Butter comes from the Latin, Butyrum. Butyrum is a latinization of the greek word Bouturon which a a compound of the words "bous" & "turos", with these meaning. A little on the nose.
Cow & Cheese
In 13th century Tibet, legend says the marriage of a Chinese princess to a Tibetan King brought the trade routes necessary to creating this staple drink! Step aside, Boba!
Butter Tea, pronounced "Bod Ja" in Tibetan.
The first electric butter churn was patented in this year, the same year Coca-Cola was sold for the first time in bottles.
1894
Bartolomeo Scappi, cook to this representative of Saint Peter back in 1536, is credited with creating the first butter sculpture, including an elephant out of butter! I wonder how that would taste on a communion wafer!
Pope Pius V
Traces of butter buried in bogs back in the 1st century are still being dug up today in this European country. The cool, sealed environment prevented air from entering the containers & spoiling the dairy. I wonder how long Lucky Charms would last if they were buried.
Ireland
The diet of dairy cows affects the way your butter turns out. Wether your cow was fed carotene-rich grass or grain has a direct impact on this eye-catching quality.
Colour! Carotene makes butter more yellow.
The average fat percentage of butter in the USA is 80%, which is more than 18% less than the clarified butter of this southeast Asian sub-continent.
India (99%)
This style of butter dish uses a bell shaped top, and a bottom dish filled with water (although it doesn't sport the country's emblematic berret).
This creates an air-tight seal around the butter, helping it stay fresher for longer. First produced in the 19th century, by the 1970s and 80s It had become well established in the USA.
French Style
In the Mahabharata, a Sanskrit epic from this southeast Asian religion, the Kaurava (descendants of the legendary king Kuru) were born from pots of ghee!
Hindu
India remains the leader producer of butter. Producing over this many metric tons a year. Holy cow!
6 million+ metric tons (about 6.9 total)
About this percentage of milk produced annually becomes butter. That's a whole lot of pats!
33% (a third)
Several kinds of butter have Protected-Origins, a recognition that promotes and protects the names of agricultural products and foodstuffs, wines and spirits. For example, Mantequilla de Soria, of this country. Ole!
Spain
AMS - the Automatic Milking System, lets cows chose their own milking intervals! The country with the most farms with AMS is above Germany. Hold onto your cheese danish!
Denmark
In 1490, nobles from this country appealed to Pope Innocent VIII to allow butter to be added to Stollen, a fruit bread, during Christmas. The motion passed, but the Catholic Church's banning of butter during lent would continuer into the Reformation.
Germany
This island nations consumes more butter per person than any other nationality, weighing in at about 6kg (13.6lbs) a year. That's twice the weight of the average Kiwi bird!
New Zealand
Between 1886 and 1917, it was illegal to manufacture this butter substitute in Canada. The ban was only briefly lifted during WW1.
Margarine
France's iconic pastry, the croissant, contains about this much butter per pastry - about the same as a AAA battery!
12 grams
After Napoleon III challenged his people with coming up with a butter substitute, chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul discovered the base ingredient for this butter substitute. I can't believe it's not butter!
Margarine
In Tibetan Budhism, butter sculptures are used as offerings during Losar, the Tibetan version of this January holiday. Now that's one way to kick off 2027!
Tibetan New Year
18 warehouses across Canada are part of this CDC (Canadian Dairy Commission) stockpile. Mainly used to keep prices stable during periods of high demand, the pallets are so heavy they have to be reinforced with steel. Ouch!
National Butter Reserve
One stick of butter weighs about this much, the same as a baseball! Butter up!
113 grams