Butter was so vital in 11th-century Norway that every home had it, and families paid the king a bucket of butter each year as tax!
Butter simply is just the best, elevating even the simplest of dishes to the highest degrees of deliciousness.
However, as much as we get to enjoy butter today, we didn’t discover it; our ancestors did. And they’ve enjoyed it over thousands of years, perhaps even more than we do.
Whether you’re into history, culture, food, or religion, we’ve got a butter fact to suit your tastes, no matter how heavy you like to slather it on!
Stick around as we dish out the butteriest facts you’ll ever see in one place!
No one can say when butter was first made, but it’s believed to have been around for over 9,000 years.
The first batch of butter was probably made by accident. Nomads would often travel with bags of milk tied to their horses, so all that bouncing movement churned the milk into butter.
Most of the butter you’ll find in stores nowadays is made from cow’s milk. However, back then, people used milk from whatever animals they had around, including goats, sheep, and yaks.
Butter was so popular and important to Norwegians that every household had it. During the 11th century, they even had to pay the King of Norway a bucket of butter per year as tax!
Surprisingly, butter wasn’t always a popular food choice. In the Middle Ages, it was considered a food for the poor. By the 17th century, even the wealthy couldn’t resist its creamy goodness!
For the ancient Romans, butter was far inferior to olive oil and was seen as a food for northern barbarians. Instead, the Romans rubbed it on their bodies to cure coughs and aching joints!
Butter was once a seasonal food, only available between March and September when cows had fresh, lush vegetation to enjoy.
The color of butter depends heavily on the food the cow eats. Grass-fed cows, which get lots of beta carotene in their diet, produce butter with a deeper yellow color than grain-fed cows.
If you’ve ever wondered why European butter tastes creamier than American butter, it’s because both regions define butter differently. In the US, butter typically contains 80% fat; in Europe, the standard is closer to 82-90%.
Not all butters in the US are made equal. The letters on the packaging, AA, A, and B, grade butter based on its flavor and texture.
In the high mountains of Tibet, butter made from yak milk is used for cooking and as a natural moisturizer to protect against the icy cold. More famously, though, it’s added to tea!
The slippery art of butter sculpting began in the 16th century, with some of the earliest butter sculptures made by Bartolomeo Scappi, one of Pope Pius V’s chefs.
Sharon BuMann of Dallas, Texas, broke the record for the largest butter sculpture in the world with an absolutely bonkers 4,077-pound (1,850 kilogram) statue on September 28, 2013.
Facing food shortages, Emperor Napoleon III offered a prize for the invention of a cheaper alternative to butter. French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès succeeded in 1869 when he blended beef tallow and milk, calling it oleomargarine.
The Irish cleverly stored excess butter by burying it in bogs, where the low oxygen and acidity helped keep it from going bad. Over 3,000 years later, these wooden barrels of bog butter are still being unearthed by farmers!
Butter is so rich that the Catholic Church believes it can lead people to sin, so it was banned during Lent.
In the 15th century, a loophole allowed the consumption of butter during Lent if you paid the Catholic Church a fee. The church raised enough funds from butter to build the Tower of Butter, part of France’s Rouen Cathedral.
India is the world’s largest butter producer, churning out 7.6 million US tons (6.9 million metric tons) annually.
New Zealanders consume more butter per person than any other nationality, with the average Kiwi putting away at least 13.6 lbs (6 kg) of butter yearly.
Butter shortages can happen sometimes, so countries like Canada and Poland have national butter reserves to manage this. When supply is low and demand rises, the reserves release butter to help maintain stable prices.
Every year on November 17, we celebrate National Butter Day. It’s a day to show love to one of the most versatile dairy ingredients with a rich history.
According to ancient folklore, witches could disguise themselves as butterflies to steal butter and other dairy products from farmers
Butter might have come to us by accident, but it’s one mistake we’ll be ever grateful for.
First, it’s delicious and a key ingredient behind the flavor and texture of many sauces and baked goods.
But its impact goes far beyond the kitchen; From religion to folklore, butter is woven into the fabric of our history!
(#Factsite)
