I did have to chuckle when I found this butter quote! Leave it to Julia Child! When I was growing up, we never had real butter in our house. It was the era of margarine back then. Every summer, we would go to Yakima, WA to visit our grandparents. My grandpa Smith fixed breakfast for my grandmother every morning and he ALWAYS made her toast with butter. He would make me some before he went off to work. Oh, I can still remember the taste of that REAL butter. I wanted more. When I got married, Jim brought butter to the marriage...no more margarine!
Jim found this lovely early butter stamp at an Estate sale. This is an earlier example and I believe it to be hand carved. I just love it. Most of these were made of maple wood.
On Sunday afternoon, Jim went back to an estate sale and came home with an entire collection of butter molds. He got a wonderful assortment of wooden butter molds.
I had to look up some information on these molds. Butter molds and stamps were used to mold butter after it was churned and salted. Butter was put into round shapes and stamped for storing and for selling. People liked their butter to be imprinted. The early molds were hand carved and later they were made on a lathe. The molds were made in 1/2 lb, 1lb, 2 lb and the little butter pat size. The handles on the larger molds do screw off for cleaning. The wooden molds had to be soaked before they were used. Eventually, glass and metal molds became popular as they were easier to clean.
The small butter pat molds are probably my favorite. Don't you love this owl carving? I find these charming.
I know we have to be careful with butter in our world, but I will always love the taste and think of my grandpa Smith.
I'm linking up with Sandi today...No Place Like Home
