Editing Butter (section)

==History==
[[File:ButterMakingPalestine1914.jpg|thumb|upright|''Traditional butter-making in Palestine''. Ancient techniques were still practiced in the early 20th century. Source: ''[[National Geographic]]'', March 1914.]]

Elaine Khosrova traces the invention of butter back to the Neolithic era;.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tastingtable.com/948507/the-first-butter-was-invented-by-accident-and-it-didnt-come-from-a-cow/|title=The First Butter Was Invented By Accident And It Didn't Come From A Cow|first=Lauren|last=Rothman|date=6 August 2022|website=Tasting Table|access-date=19 January 2023|archive-date=19 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119191538/https://www.tastingtable.com/948507/the-first-butter-was-invented-by-accident-and-it-didnt-come-from-a-cow/|url-status=live}}</ref> it is known to have existed in the Near East following the development of herding.<ref>{{cite book |title=Butter: A Rich History |last=Khosrova |first=Elaine|year=2017|isbn=978-1-61620-739-7|page=26}}6</ref> A later [[Sumer]]ian tablet, dating to approximately 2,500 B.C., describes the butter making process, from the milking of cattle,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McCormick |first=Finbar |date=1 December 2012 |title=Cows, milk and religion: the use of dairy produce in early societies |url=https://bioone.org/journals/anthropozoologica/volume-47/issue-2/az2012n2a7/Cows-milk-and-religion--the-use-of-dairy-produce/10.5252/az2012n2a7.full |journal=Anthropozoologica |volume=47 |issue=2 |pages=101–113 |doi=10.5252/az2012n2a7 |s2cid=55564559 |issn=0761-3032|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Churncraft |title=A Brief History of Butter |url=http://buttertales.churncraft.com/a-brief-history-of-butter/ |access-date=2022-09-11 |website=Churncraft |language=en }}{{Dead link|date=May 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> while contemporary Sumerian tablets identify butter as a ritual offering.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Unknown |url=https://viewer.cbl.ie/viewer/image/CT_008/1/LOG_0000/ |title=Cuneiform tablet: offering of butter for the god Suen |access-date=11 September 2022 |archive-date=11 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220911024609/https://viewer.cbl.ie/viewer/image/CT_008/1/LOG_0000/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Limet |first=Henri |date=September 1987 |title=The Cuisine of Ancient Sumer |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.2307/3210058 |journal=The Biblical Archaeologist |language=en |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=132–147 |doi=10.2307/3210058 |jstor=3210058 |s2cid=164157044 |issn=0006-0895|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

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 use the butter only as unguent and medicine and considered it as a food of the [[barbarian]]s.<ref name="A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), Butyrum"/> 
A play by the Greek comic poet [[Anaxandrides]] refers to [[Thracians]] as ''boutyrophagoi'', "butter-eaters".<ref name=Dalby_65>Dalby p. 65.</ref> In his ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'', [[Pliny the Elder]] calls butter "the most delicate of food among barbarous nations" and goes on to describe its medicinal properties.<ref>Bostock and Riley translation. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137;query=chapter%3D%232043;layout=;loc=28.36|Book Book 28, chapter 35] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081027200352/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137;query=chapter%3D%232043;layout=;loc=28.36%7CBook |date=27 October 2008 }}.</ref> Later, the physician [[Galen]] also described butter as a medicinal agent only.<ref>Galen. ''de aliment. facult.''</ref>

===Middle Ages===
[[File:MakingButter1499.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Woman churning butter; ''Compost et Kalendrier des Bergères'', Paris 1499]]
In the cooler climates of northern Europe, butter could be stored longer before it spoiled. [[Scandinavia]] has the oldest tradition in Europe of butter export, dating at least to the 12th century.<ref name=WE>Web Exhibits: Butter. [http://webexhibits.org/butter/history-firkins.html Ancient Firkins] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051021003815/http://webexhibits.org/butter/history-firkins.html# |date=21 October 2005 }}.</ref> 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 [[peasant]]s. Butter slowly became more accepted by the upper class, notably when the [[Roman Catholic Church]] allowed its consumption during [[Lent]] from the early 16th century. 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.<ref name="McGee"/>{{rp|page=33}}

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.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Pantropheon or a History of Food and its Preparation in Ancient Times |last=Soyer |first=Alexis|year=1977|orig-year=1853|publisher=Paddington Press |location=Wisbech, Cambs. |isbn=978-0-448-22976-8|page=172}}</ref>

Across northern Europe, butter was sometimes packed into barrels ([[wikt:firkin|firkins]]) and buried in [[peat bog]]s, perhaps for years. Such "[[bog butter]]" would develop a strong flavor as it aged, but remain edible, in large part because of the cool, airless, [[antiseptic]] and [[acid]]ic 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 to 14th centuries; it had ended entirely before the 19th century.<ref name=WE/>

===Industrialization===
Until the 19th century, the vast majority of butter was made by hand, on farms, for farm family use or to sell. They used wood presses with carved decoration identifying the producer to press butter into pucks or small bricks to sell at nearby markets or general stores.  This practice continued until production was mechanized and butter was produced in less decorative stick form.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hale|first=Sarah Josepha Buell|title=Mrs. Hale's new cook book|url=https://archive.org/details/b28075195|year=1857}}</ref>

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.<ref>''The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge, Vol.III'', London (1847) Charles Knight, p.975.</ref>

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 [[centrifuge|centrifugal]] [[cream separator]] was introduced, marketed most successfully by Swedish engineer [[Carl Gustaf Patrik de Laval]].<ref>Edwards, Everett E. "Europe's Contribution to the American Dairy Industry". ''The Journal of Economic History'', Volume 9, 1949. 72–84.</ref>

[[File:GustafDeLaval.jpg|thumb|upright|Gustaf de Laval's [[centrifuge|centrifugal]] cream separator sped up the butter-making process.]]
In 1920, [[Otto Frederick Hunziker|Otto Hunziker]] wrote ''The Butter Industry, Prepared for Factory, School and Laboratory'';<ref>{{cite book | last =Hunziker | first =O F | author-link=Otto Frederick Hunziker | year =1920 | title =The Butter Industry, Prepared for Factory, School and Laboratory | publisher =author | location =LaGrange, IL}}</ref> three editions were printed, in 1920, 1927, and 1940. As part of the efforts of the [[American Dairy Science Association]], Hunziker and others published articles regarding: causes of tallowiness<ref>{{cite journal | last = Hunziker | first = O F | author-link = Otto Frederick Hunziker | author2 = D. Fay Hosman | title = Tallowy Butter—its Causes and Prevention | journal = Journal of Dairy Science | volume = 1 | issue = 4 | pages = 320–346 | publisher = American Dairy Science Association | date = 1 November 1917 | url = https://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(17)94386-3/abstract | doi = 10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(17)94386-3 | doi-access=free | df = dmy-all }}</ref> (an odor defect, distinct from rancidity, a taste defect); mottles<ref>{{cite journal | last = Hunziker | first = O F | author-link = Otto Frederick Hunziker | author2 = D. Fay Hosman | title = Mottles in Butter—Their Causes and Prevention | journal = Journal of Dairy Science | volume = 3 | issue = 2 | pages = 77–106 | publisher = American Dairy Science Association | date = 1 March 1920 | url = https://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(20)94253-4/abstract | doi = 10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(20)94253-4 | doi-access  =free | df = dmy-all }}</ref> (an aesthetic issue related to uneven color); introduced salts;<ref>{{cite journal | last = Hunziker | first = O F | author-link = Otto Frederick Hunziker | author2 = W. A. Cordes | author3 = B. H. Nissen | title = Studies on Butter Salts | journal = Journal of Dairy Science | volume = 11 | issue = 5 | pages = 333–351 | publisher = American Dairy Science Association | date = 1 September 1929 | url = https://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(28)93647-4/abstract | doi = 10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(28)93647-4 | doi-access=free | df = dmy-all }}</ref> the impact of creamery metals<ref>{{cite journal | last = Hunziker | first = O F | author-link = Otto Frederick Hunziker | author2 = W. A. Cordes | author3 = B. H. Nissen | title = Metals in Dairy Equipment. Metallic Corrosion in Milk Products and its Effect on Flavor | journal = Journal of Dairy Science | volume = 12 | issue = 2 | pages = 140–181 | publisher = American Dairy Science Association | date = 1 March 1929 | url = https://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(29)93566-9/abstract | doi = 10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(29)93566-9 | doi-access = free | df = dmy-all }}</ref> and liquids;<ref>{{cite journal | last = Hunziker | first = O F | author-link = Otto Frederick Hunziker | author2 = W. A. Cordes | author3 = B. H. Nissen | title = Metals in Dairy Equipment: Corrosion Caused by Washing Powders, Chemical Sterilizers, and Refrigerating Brines | journal = Journal of Dairy Science | volume = 12 | issue = 3 | pages = 252–284 | publisher = American Dairy Science Association | date = 1 May 1929 | url = https://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(29)93575-X/abstract | doi = 10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(29)93575-X | doi-access = free | df = dmy-all }}</ref> and acidity measurement.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Hunziker | first = O F | author-link = Otto Frederick Hunziker | author2 = W. A. Cordes | author3 = B. H. Nissen | title = Method for Hydrogen Ion Determination of Butter | journal = Journal of Dairy Science | volume = 14 | issue = 4 | pages = 347–37 | publisher = American Dairy Science Association | date = 1 July 1931 | url = https://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(31)93478-4/abstract | doi = 10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(31)93478-4 | doi-access = free | df = dmy-all }}</ref> These and other ADSA publications helped standardize practices internationally.

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,<ref>Web Exhibits: Butter. [http://webexhibits.org/butter/consumption-butter-fat.html Eating less butter, and more fat] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051214035336/http://webexhibits.org/butter/consumption-butter-fat.html# |date=14 December 2005 }}.</ref> and it is still the case today that more margarine than butter is eaten in the U.S. and the EU.<ref>See for example [http://www.imace.org/graphique/prod-eu.htm this chart] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050908055231/http://www.imace.org/graphique/prod-eu.htm |date=8 September 2005 }} from International Margarine Association of the Countries of Europe [http://www.imace.org/margarine/stat.htm statistics] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050930172448/http://www.imace.org/margarine/stat.htm |date=30 September 2005 }}. Retrieved 4 December 2005.</ref>