Post
by Elorrum » Sun Sep 29, 2013 7:45 pm
I love the internet sometimes. This does qualify as minutiae for me, I don't use butter much.
Wiki says:
"In the United States, butter sticks are usually produced and sold in 4-ounce sticks, wrapped in waxed paper and sold four to a carton. This practice is believed to have originated in 1907, when Swift and Company began packaging butter in this manner for mass distribution.[25]
Due to historical variances in butter printers, these sticks are commonly produced in two differing shapes:
The dominant shape east of the Rocky Mountains is the Elgin, or Eastern-pack shape. This shape was originally developed by the Elgin Butter Tub Company, founded in 1882 in Elgin, Illinois, and Rock Falls, Illinois. The sticks are 4¾ inches long and 1¼ inches (121 mm × 32 mm) wide, and are usually sold packed side-by-side in a rectangular container.[26] Among the early butter printers to use this shape was the Elgin Butter Cutter.
West of the Rocky Mountains, butter printers standardized on a different shape that is now referred to as the Western-pack shape.[26] These butter sticks are 3¼ inches long and 1½ inches wide (80 mm × 38 mm) and are typically sold in cube-shaped boxes stacked two by two.
Both sticks contain the same amount of butter, although most butter dishes are designed for Elgin-style butter sticks.
The stick's wrapper is usually marked off as eight tablespoons (120 ml/4.2 imp fl oz; 4.1 US fl oz); the actual volume of one stick is approximately nine tablespoons (130 ml/4.6 imp fl oz; 4.4 US fl oz)."
”On second thought, Let’s not go to Camelot. It’s a silly place.”
Roll on through, Tumbleweed.
