Pages

Monday, November 16, 2015

Butter


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

5 comments:

mamasmercantile said...

What a great find, those butter moulds are delightful. A beautiful example of wood carving, amazing!

Sandi@ Rose Chintz Cottage said...

What a fun post, Linda! Those molds are great! I was brought up on butter. There was no margarine in our house. My Granny churned her own butter so I daresay that is why. Both my parents grew up on it so we just carried it on. I remember visiting my aunt and they always used margarine. I remember I liked the pale yellow colour of it but it didn't taste as good as butter. Today I use butter and my hubby uses margarine. Somehow there is always controversy over the food we eat. Thanks for your post and joining me today. Have a lovely day.

Autumn blessings,
Sandi

Gina @ VictorianWannaBe said...

Hi Linda, What a great collection of butter molds! Nice memories for you too. I have always been fond of the butter pat sized molds, but they are all great.
Have a blessed week,
gina

Kim said...

There is nothing quite like the taste of butter. Not long ago it was a 'no eat' food but has all of a sudden deemed to be healthy again. Love all those butter molds, you have quite a collection there.

Beth in NEPA said...

I agree with you about the butter. I grew up in a household that used butter but when I got married I thought I should use margarine for my husband's sake. Now I know better. I am gradually going back to butter. Makes a MUCH better cookie! And tastes so much better!
I enjoyed seeing all of your butter molds! Thanks for sharing.