- Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk.
- The earliest butter would have been from sheep or goat's milk; cattle are not thought to have been domesticated for another thousand years.
- Until the 19th century, the vast majority of butter was made by hand, on farms.
- Butter has been appreciated for thousands of years for its great taste.
- Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods.
- In antiquity, butter was used for fuel in lamps as a substitute for oil.
- Most frequently made from cows' milk, butter can also be manufactured from the milk of other mammals, including sheep, goats, buffalo, and yaks.
- Butter went on the list of rationed products only four months after the start of World War II. Every Brit was allowed just 4 ounces of butter.
- The word butter derives (via Germanic languages) from the Latin "butyrum", which is the romanization of the Greek "βούτυρον" (bouturon).
- Butter has featured in the Bible, in Ancient Egyptian texts, in the arsenal of warring Imperial Roman legions and the surgeries of doctors in classical Athens.
- Smen is a spiced Moroccan clarified butter, buried in the ground and aged for months or years.
- Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53 percent over eating the same amount of butter.
- Butter contains only traces of lactose, so moderate consumption of butter is not a problem for the lactose intolerant.
Butter quick facts
