The photo is of a package of butter from my refrigerator. I use butter when cooking some fish dishes plus it’s always great in cookies and cakes. I just started watching the 2011 movie “Butter” which I recorded when HBO had a free week. It’s about a butter sculpture competition at the Iowa State Fair starring Jennifer Garner, Ty Burrell and Hugh Jackman. I have seen a few butter sculptures at the Texas State Fair. The most famous one was a replica of the photo of Marilyn Monroe standing over a grate in New York City with air from below blowing up her skirt. When the theme was “Ordinary Texans That Become Extraordinary Heroes,” the sculpture was “Mount Muchmore,” featuring a frontiersman who started Texas, a construction or oilfield worker, a farmer who feeds America and an astronaut who blasted into space from Houston. Then there was a replica of the 6-foot head of Big Tex, the 55-foot-tall cowboy who is the official greeter and icon of the State Fair of Texas. Butter is extremely versatile since it can be used in cooking and baking — plus sculpting! Let’s learn more about it.
History
According to Wikipedia, the earliest butter would have been from sheep or goat's milk; cattle are not thought to have been domesticated for another thousand years.
In the Mediterranean climate, unclarified butter spoils quickly — unlike cheese — so it is not a practical method of preserving the nutrients of milk. The ancient Greeks and Romans seemed to have considered butter a food fit more for the northern barbarians. A play by the Greek comic poet Anaxandrides refers to Thracians as boutyrophagoi or "butter-eaters." In his “Natural History,” Pliny the Elder calls butter "the most delicate of food among barbarous nations" and goes on to describe its medicinal properties. Later, the physician Galen also described butter as a medicinal agent only.
In the cooler climates of northern Europe, people could store butter longer before it spoiled. Scandinavia has the oldest tradition in Europe of butter export trade, dating at least to the 12th century. After the fall of Rome and through much of the Middle Ages, butter was a common food across most of Europe — but had a low reputation, and so was consumed principally by peasants. Butter slowly became more accepted by the upper class, notably when the early 16th century Roman Catholic Church allowed its consumption during Lent. Bread and butter became common fare among the middle class and the English, in particular, gained a reputation for their liberal use of melted butter as a sauce with meat and vegetables.
In antiquity, butter was used for fuel in lamps, as a substitute for oil. The Butter Tower of Rouen Cathedral was erected in the early 16th century when Archbishop Georges d'Amboise authorized the burning of butter during Lent, instead of oil, which was scarce at the time.
Across northern Europe, butter was sometimes treated in a manner unheard of today: It was packed into barrels or firkins and buried in peat bogs, perhaps for years. Such "bog butter" would develop a strong flavor as it aged, but remain edible, in large part because of the unique cool, airless, antiseptic and acidic environment of a peat bog. Firkins of such buried butter are a common archaeological find in Ireland; the National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology has some containing "a grayish cheese-like substance, partially hardened, not much like butter and quite free from putrefaction." The practice was most common in Ireland in the 11th–14th centuries; it ended entirely before the 19th century.
Industrialization
Like Ireland, France became well known for its butter, particularly in Normandy and Brittany. Butter consumption in London in the mid-1840s was estimated at 15,357 tons annually.
Until the 19th century, the vast majority of butter was made by hand on farms. The first butter factories appeared in the United States in the early 1860s, after the successful introduction of cheese factories a decade earlier. In the late 1870s, the centrifugal cream separator was introduced, marketed most successfully by Swedish engineer Carl Gustaf Patrik de Laval.
In 1920, Otto Hunziker authored “The Butter Industry, Prepared for Factory, School and Laboratory,” a well-known text in the industry that enjoyed at least three editions (1920, 1927, 1940). As part of the efforts of the American Dairy Science Association, Professor Hunziker and others published articles regarding: causes of tallowiness (an odor defect, distinct from rancidity, a taste defect), mottles (an aesthetic issue related to uneven color), introduced salts, impact of creamery metals and liquids and acidity measurement. These and other ADSA publications helped standardize practices internationally.
Butter also provided extra income to farm families. They used wood presses with carved decoration to press butter into pucks or small bricks to sell at nearby markets or general stores. The decoration identified the farm that produced the butter. This practice continued until production was mechanized and butter was produced in less decorative stick form.
Butter consumption declined in most western nations during the 20th century, mainly because of the rising popularity of margarine, which is less expensive and, until recent years, was perceived as being healthier. In the United States, margarine consumption overtook butter during the 1950s, and it is still the case today that more margarine than butter is eaten in the U.S. and the EU.
Worldwide production
In 1997, India produced 1,620,000 tons of butter, most of which was consumed domestically. Second in production was the United States (575,000 tons), followed by France (514,000 tons), Germany (487,000 tons) and New Zealand (338,000 tons). France ranks first in per capita butter consumption with 8 kg per capita per year. In terms of absolute consumption, Germany was second after India, using 637,000 tons of butter in 1997, followed by France (582,000 tons), Russia (567,000 tons) and the United States (557,000 tons). New Zealand, Australia and Ukraine are among the few nations that export a significant percentage of the butter they produce.
Varieties
Different varieties are found around the world. Smen is a spiced Moroccan clarified butter, buried in the ground and aged for months or years. A similar product is maltash of the Hunza Valley, where cow and yak butter can be buried for decades and is used at events such as weddings. Yak butter is a specialty in Tibet; tsampa, barley flour mixed with yak butter, is a staple food. Butter tea is consumed in the Himalayan regions of Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal and India. It consists of tea served with intensely flavored or "rancid" yak butter and salt. In African and Asian developing nations, butter is traditionally made from sour milk rather than cream. It can take several hours of churning to produce workable butter grains from fermented milk.
In cooking and gastronomy
Butter has been considered indispensable in French cuisine since the 17th century. Chefs and cooks have extolled its importance: Fernand Point said "Donnez-moi du beurre, encore du beurre, toujours du beurre!" ('Give me butter, more butter, still more butter!'); Julia Child said "With enough butter, anything is good."
Melted butter plays an important role in the preparation of sauces, notably in French cuisine. Beurre noisette or hazelnut butter and beurre noir or black butter are sauces of melted butter cooked until the milk solids and sugars have turned golden or dark brown; they are often finished with an addition of vinegar or lemon juice. Hollandaise and béarnaise sauces are emulsions of egg yolk and melted butter; they are in essence mayonnaises made with butter instead of oil. Hollandaise and béarnaise sauces are stabilized with the powerful emulsifiers in the egg yolks, but butter itself contains enough emulsifiers — mostly remnants of the fat globule membranes — to form a stable emulsion on its own.
Beurre blanc or white butter is made by whisking butter into reduced vinegar or wine, forming an emulsion with the texture of thick cream. Beurre monté or prepared butter is melted but still emulsified butter; it lends its name to the practice of "mounting" a sauce with butter: whisking cold butter into any water-based sauce at the end of cooking, giving the sauce a thicker body and a glossy shine — as well as a buttery taste.
Butter is used for sautéing and frying, although its milk solids brown and burn above 250°F — a rather low temperature for most applications. The smoke point of butterfat is around 400°F, so clarified butter or ghee is better suited to frying.
Butter fills several roles in baking, where it is used in a similar manner as other solid fats like lard, suet or shortening, but has a flavor that may better complement sweet baked goods.
Butter sculptures
Butter sculptures are sculptures carved in butter. The works often depict animals, people, buildings and other objects. They are best known as attractions at state fairs in the United States as life-size cows and people, but can also be found on banquet tables and even small decorative butter pats. Butter carving was an ancient craft in Tibet, Babylon, Roman Britain and elsewhere. The earliest documented butter sculptures date from Europe in 1536, where they were used on banquet tables. The earliest pieces in the modern sense as public art date from ca. 1870s America, created by Caroline Shawk Brooks, a farm woman from Helena, Arkansas. The photo of her work depicts Yolande, Duchess of Lorraine, the heroine of Henrik Hertz's play “King René's Daughter.” It was this 1876 masterpiece that ignited popular interest in butter sculpting as a public art form. The bowl was kept cool with ice underneath it. The heyday of butter sculpturing was about 1890-1930, but butter sculptures are still a popular attraction at agricultural fairs, banquet tables and as decorative butter patties.
History of butter sculpture
The history of carving food into sculptured objects is ancient. Archaeologists have found bread and pudding molds of animal and human shapes at sites from Babylon to Roman Britain.
In Europe, during the Renaissance and Baroque periods molding food was commonly done for wealthy banquets. It was during this period that the earliest known reference to a butter sculpture is found. In 1536 Bartolomeo Scappi — cook to Pope Pius V — organized a feast composed of nine scenes elaborately carved out of food, each carried in episodically as centerpieces for a banquet. Scappi mentioned several butter sculptures for the feast, including an elephant with a palanquin — litter or human-powered transport, a figure of Hercules struggling with a lion and a Moor on a camel. Another early reference is found in the biography of Antonio Canova (1757–1822), who said he first came to his patron’s attention when as a humble kitchen boy he sculpted an impressive butter lion for a banquet; the story is now thought apocryphal, though it reaffirms the existence of butter sculptures during that period. Butter sculpting continued into the 18th century when English dairy maids molded butter pats into decorative shapes.
The earliest butter sculpture in the modern sense — as public art and not a banquet centerpiece — can be traced to the 1876 Centennial Exhibition where Caroline Shawk Brooks, a farm woman from Helena, Arkansas, displayed her “Dreaming Iolanthe,” a basrelief bust of a woman modeled in butter. It was kept cold with a system of layered bowls and frequent ice changes. Brooks had no formal art training but as a farmer she spent years making butter and in 1867, to make the work more interesting, she began sculpting it, eventually using it as a selling point. As her skills progressed she began to see it as more than marketing butter, indeed as an art form unto itself. In 1873 she made her masterpiece “Dreaming Iolanthe,” which she would re-do over the years at regional exhibitions around the US. Thus she was invited to bring a replica to the Centennial Exhibition in 1876 where it drew so much attention and praise, she was invited to sculpt live for the crowds. Afterwards she studied in Paris and Florence and eventually became a professional sculptor who worked in marble, but occasionally continued to make butter art. She returned for the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition and made busts of Queen Isabella and Christopher Columbus. By then, however, there were other butter sculptors: the art form had come into its own.
The heyday of butter sculpting was from about 1890 to 1930. During this period refrigeration became widely available, and the American dairy industry began promoting butter sculpture as a way to compete against synthetic butter substitute like oleomargarine or margarine. Butter sculpting decreased during the Great Depression and WWII due to shortages, but picked up again after the war.
United States butter sculpture
The first Butter Cow sculpture to appear at a state fair was displayed at the Ohio State Fair in 1903, sculpted by A. T. Shelton & Co. New cow and calf sculptures are created each year, reflecting positive ideals and cultural trends in Ohio and have become a fair tradition.
The first butter cow in Iowa was made by sculptor John K. Daniels at the 1911 Iowa State Fair. The sculpture was sponsored by the Beatrice Creamery Co., now part of Con-Agra Foods. The exhibit — designed as a way to promote dairy products in the area — was a big hit with fairgoers. Because of its success, the butter sculpture was continued each year. Over the years, several different artists have sculpted the Butter Cow for the Iowa State Fair. Daniels created sculptures and was followed by J.E. Wallace of Florida, who held the position until 1956. Wallace started making an additional butter sculpture for the exhibit each year. This second sculpture typically depicted people in everyday activities such as churning butter or playing with a dog. This tradition has continued with each sculptor since. Earl Frank Dutt of Illinois became the third official sculptor. Dutt was trained at the Art Institute of Chicago and had experience sculpting many materials, from plaster and clay to lard. Over the next few years, he sculpted cows in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, spreading the love of the Butter Cow throughout the midwestern United States. His additions to each year's exhibit were far more cartoonish than those of J.E. Wallace, depicting such things as a fight between political party mascots or a parade of smiling pigs.
It was Dutt who trained Norma "Duffy" Lyon, now known widely as The Butter Cow Lady. She began her career as an assistant to Frank Dutt in 1959. The previous year she saw a photo of Dutt's creation and told the fair director she could do better. In 1960, she took over as the sculptor in residence — and first female to do so — and created a new piece for the fair each year until 2005. Some of her more notable sculptures include likenesses of Garth Brooks, John Wayne, Elvis Presley and her own full version of The Last Supper, all made of butter. Duffy — a nickname derived from her maiden name, Duffield — as she was lovingly known, also sculpted Butter Cows for other states such as Illinois and Utah over the years. In 2006, Duffy retired, due to health limitations, and was succeeded by her apprentice Sarah Pratt.
The process through which the artists work varies according to the sculptor, but often follows the same general steps. Most start with choosing one of the six dairy cattle breeds — Holstein, Guernsey, Jersey, Brown Swiss, Ayrshire and Milking Shorthorn — to recreate. Usually, they produce drawings of the cattle or take several photographs from which to work. As the sculpting actually begins, it is important for the butter to be of the right consistency, which has been described as feeling like cold cream. In total, about 500-600 pounds of butter is used. Over the years, sculptors moved from working in chilled rooms to large, refrigerated display cases with temperatures between 35 and 40 °F. The butter is placed on a wooden-and-wire armature, at first in large amounts to achieve the general shape of the cow, and later in smaller quantities to fine-tune the form. The butter is added layer upon layer until the cow is in its finished form, taking between two days and a week, depending on the artist. Though the sculptors claim it was never a secret that the Butter Cow is built on a wooden armature, many people assumed the sculpture was solid, and made entirely from butter, despite the logistical impossibilities.
The Minnesota State Fair has never had a Butter Cow but showcases butter sculpture in another way. The fair commissions carvings in butter of the twelve finalists of the Princess Kay of the Milky Way contest. These finalists are chosen from young Minnesotan women between the ages of 16 and 23 to be Dairy Princesses. Their likenesses are carved from 90-lb. blocks of butter. Each of the twelve days of the fair, one finalist will be carved — currently by Linda Christensen, a California sculptor originally from Minnesota. While a princess poses on a turning platform in a chilled display case, Christensen takes about six hours to carve her likeness, all in front of fairgoers, passing by the refrigerated display area. Once the carving is complete it is displayed for the remainder of the fair, and at its closing, each dairy princess may take hers home and use it as she wishes — sometimes used at graduation parties or wedding receptions.
Australian butter sculpture
Having seen the success of the Prince of Wales in butter in the Canadian Pavilion in the 1924 season of the British Empire Exhibition, in 1925 the Australians placed a larger butter sculpture in their pavilion at Wembley Park. It showed England cricketer Jack Hobbs being stumped at the Sydney Cricket Ground during the 1924-25 test series, which Australia had won
4-1.
Canadian butter sculpture
In 1924 and 1925 the Prince of Wales was featured in two butter sculptures in refrigerated cases in the Canadian Pavilion at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park, Wembley, northwest London. The sculptures were both displays of patriotism and an effective advertisement for the Canadian dairy industry. In 1924 the sculpture depicted the Prince standing beside his horse outside his ranch at Pekisko, Alberta. Three thousand pounds of butter were used to produce the sculpture. The 1925 sculpture showed the Prince seated in the dress of a First Nations chief and was based on Edward’s visit to Banff in 1919, where he had been made an honorary chief by the Assiniboine. It was sculpted by George Kent and Beauchamp Hawkins. The figures of First Nations women in the 1925 butter sculpture case were the only reference to Canada's First Nations in the Canada Pavilion.
It is on record that the Prince was pleased with both sculptures. When Queen Mary saw the butter sculpture of her son she laughed and said it was "quite a remarkable likeness." The British press was impressed too, declaring the 1925 sculpture one of the wonders of Wembley. Others were equally impressed. One schoolgirl said that the prince of Wales in butter "was the one feature that captured everybody's imagination," while a schoolboy said that his favorite exhibit at the Exhibition was the Prince of Wales in butter, and that "an ear’d keep us a week." Some in the Canadian press were however unhappy about the 1925 sculpture, with one paper writing "it is time that Canada should cease to be advertised by representations of Indians in war paint.”
Shortly after the end of World War II, the Ontario Cream Producers Marketing Board and the Dairy Producers of Canada began a campaign to promote their products. Butter sculpting was initiated as part of this campaign along with the slogan "It's better with butter." This campaign was intended to increase butter's market share in competition to the high-powered advertising for margarine in the late 1940s. Butter sculptures were displayed at both the Canadian National Exhibition and Royal Agricultural Winter Fairs in Toronto. Ross Butler was the first Canadian artist to sculpt in butter at these fairs. Ross' reputation as a farm animal artist was well known by dairy people. He created many different life-sized butter sculptures between 1947 and 1954. Some of the subjects included Bessie the Butter Cow with her calf Buttercup; Barbara the Milkmaid and her Butter Cow, Ideal Guernsey; Canadian Olympic Figure Skater Barbara Ann Scott; Laura Secord and her cow; Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman; and Queen Elizabeth II on her horse Winston. Each sculpture was life-sized. They were created in refrigerated, glass-cased enclosures and were displayed for the duration of each fair. At the end of the events, the butter was reclaimed and put back in the trade. The last butter sculptures that Ross created were Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at the Western Fair in London, Ontario in 1956. After that, he returned to working in clay with the familiar subjects of cattle and horses. In 1986, a fitting tribute to Ross Butler at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair included his likeness sculpted in butter by Windsor artist Christopher Rees.
Tibetan butter sculpture
Butter sculptures or torma are part of an ancient Tibetan Buddhist tradition; yak butter and dye are still used to create temporary symbols for the Tibetan New Year and other religious celebrations.
Butter sculpture gallery
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