• Butter is made from the milk of cows, sheep, goats, donkeys, horses, water buffaloes, and yaks. Camel’s milk has very small fat globules and is difficult to churn into butter.
• The word butter comes from the Latin “butyrum” which may be a compound of “bous” meaning ox or cow plus “turos” meaning cheese.
• The foods with the highest calorie content are (in order): animal fat (lard), vegetable oil, margarine, butter, and alcohol. Margarine and butter essentially have the same number of calories pound for pound.
• In 1957 margarine consumption overtook butter consumption for the first time in the U.S. Per capita consumption of butter was 8.3 pounds and margarine was 8.6 pounds. By the year 2011, butter was outselling margarine. Today, Americans consume an average of 5.6 pounds of butter a year, as opposed to only 3.5 pounds of margarine.
• California is the nation’s leading dairy state and produces more butter than any other state.
• 1 gallon of milk will usually yield 1 to 1.5 pints of cream. The cream will churn to approximately one-third to one-half a pound of butter.
• In all, about a third of the world’s milk production is devoted to making butter.
• In the United States, grass-fed dairy products comprise a tiny portion of the dairy sector. Most dairy cows are fed with commercial grain-based feeds. Real butter is higher in vitamin A when the cows have been out to pasture rather than being fed dry feed. The color of the butter depends on the diet of the cow the milk came from. The more carotene a cow gets from eating hay, the more yellow the butter.
• A single pat of butter has enough energy in it to melt 2 pounds of ice and bring it to a boil.
• You can store butter in the refrigerator for months without it becoming rancid.
• Commercial butter is about 80% butterfat and 15% water.
• Butter is low in lactose, so it should be safe for most people with lactose intolerance. Clarified butter called ghee has even less lactose.
• Butter has a melting temperature of 98.6°F, exactly the same temperature as the inside of the mouth. This is what gives butter its rich, creamy feel in the mouth.
• Is moldy cheese a common occurrence in your refrigerator? Give semi-hard cheese a light coat of butter to keep it fresh and mold-free. Each time you use the cheese, coat the cut edge with butter before you wrap it, and you’ll stave off that mold for weeks.
• Whipped butter is made by whipping nitrogen gas into the butter. The oxygen in normal air would promote oxidation and rancidity, but nitrogen gas is non-reactive.
• Butter inside a vacuum will not melt when exposed to red-hot iron because air is required to transmit heat.
• Powdered butter was developed in Australia in 1962.
• In 1972 in the London Times, readers of the classifieds were amazed to find a strange page in the back of the section. All of the column headings were in place—cars for sale, houses for rent—but all the ads were missing. The only thing normal about the page was the usual crossword down at the bottom corner, where it always was. Those who completed the crossword discovered amusing messages on the value of butter. The entire page was an attention-grabbing ad for butter.