TIL: Americans call a knob of butter “a stick” of butter.
via reddit.com
Brits call a stick of butter “a penis” of butter
i googled “knob of butter” and no, we do not call that amount of butter a “stick.” what is referred to as a “knob” is what americans call a “pad” of butter. sticks of butter are literal sticks, because butter is sold here in packs of 4 sticks. 2 sticks equals a cup of butter. a pad of a butter is what you put on a piece of toast.
Yeah, an American “stick of butter” is ¼ of a pound of butter, which is substantially more butter than a knob of butter.
American butter is, by default, sold in one pound boxes of four sticks, although you will sometimes see half pound boxes of two sticks, and Land O’Lakes brand has started selling one pound boxes with 8 “half sticks” which may be more convenient for some home cooks, as many recipes call of half a stick.
The other standard American butter unit is the “hotel bar” (which is also the name of a brand of butter) which is a whole pound of butter in a single wrapping, and is commonly used in the food service industry, although I think that certain ethnic groups in the US are more used to that form of butter and prefer it, as I’ve seen it sold in some Indian grocery stores.
I’m not sure how butter is commonly sold in the US, but the brits I’ve interacted with in internet cooking forums seemed to not understand that “a stick of butter” is a very specific measurement in an American recipe, so I imagine their butter doesn’t come in the same packaging as American butter.
Most butter I’ve encountered in Ireland (which is not the UK, but has very similar food packaging) and elsewhere in Europe comes in a standard 250g size shaped like this, often with 50g increments marked laterally on the underside of the wrapper to aid measurement. But 250g of butter is more than you need in most recipes, and recipes give almost every ingredient measure in weight anyway, so I suppose the packaging style hasn’t become a proxy for a mass or volume measurement the way it has in the US.
Do people in Europe cook via hauling out a scale as the first step in any recipe?
No, we usually have a small electronic scale permanently on the counter
Some bars of butter also have a graduated wrapper.
