Editing Butter (section)

===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/>