The History of Butter

Podcast Transcript

Ever since humans domesticated animals and realized they could extract milk from them, they have been making and consuming butter.

While we might not think much of butter today, at one point, it was so prized that it was given as an offering to the gods.

While some cultures prized it, others looked down upon it, and some elevated its production and use as an art form.

Learn more about butter, what it is, how it is made and how it has been used throughout history on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

While most of you are familiar with butter in one way or another, I should probably start off this episode with a formal definition of what butter is.

Butter is a dairy product made by churning cream to separate the milk fat from the liquid buttermilk. This process creates a solid emulsion with about 80% fat, along with small amounts of water and milk solids. Butter is typically pale yellow in color, though it can vary from white to deeper yellow depending on the animal’s diet.

To put it in simpler terms, butter is the solid fat that comes from milk.

Making butter is actually incredibly simple, and you can actually make it at home if you want.

It all starts with cream.

Cream is something we aren’t as familiar with today as people would have been in the past. It used to be that when you purchased milk, there would be a layer of cream on the top.

Cream is about 18 to about 40 percent butterfat. Cream is a stable emulsion where fat globules, aka tiny spheres of fat, are suspended in water along with proteins, lactose, and other molecules.

The term, ”the cream always rises to the top” comes from the fact that cream does, in fact, rise to the top of milk.

The reason why you don’t see cream in milk anymore is because it is homogenized. Homogenization is a mechanical process used to break down and evenly distribute fat globules in milk, preventing them from separating and rising to the top as cream. The goal of homogenization is to create a smooth, uniform mixture that maintains consistency throughout the milk.

Butter is, in many respects, the opposite of homogenization.

When cream is churned, the mechanical action disrupts the stable emulsion of the cream. Churning breaks the protective layers of proteins and phospholipids around the fat globules.

As the protective membrane around the fat globules breaks, fat particles begin to clump together. This disruption is a mechanical effect rather than a chemical reaction; however, it has significant consequences for the structure of the mixture.

As churning continues, the fat globules are free to collide and coalesce. This leads to a process called phase inversion, where the fat-in-water emulsion or cream changes to a water-in-fat emulsion of butter. Essentially, the water is now dispersed as small droplets within a continuous fat matrix.

As the fat globules continue to coalesce, they form a solid mass. This mass of butter is denser than the liquid buttermilk, allowing the buttermilk to be easily poured off.

During this phase, additional water and some milk proteins are squeezed out. Washing the butter further removes any remaining buttermilk and lactose, which would otherwise encourage bacterial growth and spoilage.

This is why making butter is so easy. You just take cream and agitate it, and the end product will be butter.

We don’t know exactly where butter was first created, but it must have been soon after the domestication of milk-producing animals. The first animals which milk was taken from was most probably sheep or goats, not cattle.

Author Elaine Khosrova contends that butter was first made in Africa about 10,000 years ago. Others place it around the same time period in Mesopotamia or possibly India.

The truth is, we don’t know, and given how easy it is to make butter, it was probably independently discovered in different places.

Anthropologists speculate that butter was probably discovered accidentally. When milk was transported in animal skin bags on long journeys, the natural motion would have agitated the milk, forming butter.

About 5000 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia, butter was often used more as medicine or in religious ceremonies than as food. Clay tablets from Sumer mention butter as an offering to the gods, symbolizing wealth and purity.

The Sumerians revered dairy products, and butter, as a concentrated source of fat and nutrients, was a prized commodity.

In Egypt, butter was not widely consumed as a food, likely due to the hot climate, which made it hard to store. Instead, it was primarily used in medicinal applications and as a base for cosmetics.

Like other ancient civilizations, Egyptians used butter in religious ceremonies, and some tomb paintings even depict butter-making.

India’s warm climate encouraged the use of ghee, a type of clarified butter that resists spoilage. Ghee, made by simmering butter to remove water and milk solids, became a staple ingredient.

In Vedic culture, ghee was considered sacred and used in religious rituals and ceremonies. Even today, ghee holds immense cultural and religious importance in Hinduism and is a symbol of purity and sustenance.

Unlike other regions, the ancient Greeks regarded butter as somewhat “barbaric,” considering olive oil as their primary fat source. They associated butter with the “barbarian” tribes of northern Europe who relied on dairy products.

Hippocrates, the famous Greek physician, mentioned butter in his writings and recommended it for medicinal purposes, including treating skin ailments and digestive issues.

Like the Greeks, the Romans preferred olive oil but used butter in limited quantities, mainly for medicinal purposes and as a skin treatment.

The Romans, just like the Greeks, noted that northern European tribes, such as the Celts and Germans, consumed butter as a staple food. They saw it as a symbol of these cultures’ reliance on dairy, contrasting with their own reliance on olives and grains.

Here, I should note that the division in Europe between countries that primarily use olive oil vs butter as the primary cooking fat still exists today. There is a line that goes across Europe where people north of the line primarily use butter, and those south of the line use olive oil.

The line isn’t as firm as it used to be because both products are easily found in stores, but the division still exists.

During the Middle Ages, butter played a significant role in Lenten dietary restrictions enforced by the Catholic Church. Lent, the 40-day period of fasting and penance leading up to Easter, required the faithful to abstain from animal products, including meat, eggs, and dairy, which encompassed butter.

This prohibition was based on the church’s teachings that these foods were indulgent and associated with feasting rather than fasting. In colder, northern European regions where butter was a dietary staple, abstaining from it posed a unique hardship, particularly for those who relied heavily on dairy for sustenance due to limited access to other cooking fats like olive oil, which was more common in Mediterranean countries.

As a result, many people in these areas sought permission, known as a “butter license,” to consume butter during Lent. Wealthy individuals or monasteries could sometimes pay a fee for these dispensations, which contributed financially to the church. Over time, the demand for butter exemptions led to relaxed restrictions in certain regions, though butter consumption remained officially restricted for most of the medieval period.

During the Renaissance and Early Modern Period, as trade increased, butter became a more widespread luxury in southern Europe, where it was previously scarce. With the rise of dedicated dairy farms, butter gradually became more available and popular, even among the wealthy in regions like France and Italy.

In countries like France, dairy production flourished, leading to the creation of regions famed for high-quality butter, such as Normandy. Butter gained popularity in French cuisine, where it began to replace lard in sauces and pastries, especially among the upper classes.

In early United States history, butter played a central role in rural life, symbolizing both sustenance and economic independence. During the colonial period, butter-making was primarily a domestic task carried out by women on family farms.

Butter was not only a source of nutrition but also a valued commodity; families would churn their own butter for household use and trade or sell any surplus in local markets. This barter economy helped early American families, especially in agrarian communities, maintain some level of self-sufficiency.

Butter played a central role in the very first student protest at a university in the United States.

The “Butter Riot” at Harvard in 1766 was a student protest against the poor quality of food, particularly butter, served in the college dining hall. Students complained that the butter was rancid and of substandard quality. Frustrated by repeated issues with their meals and the college administration’s lack of response, they gathered in protest, demanding improvements.

Prior to the 19th century, almost all butter production was small-scale and conducted on local farms.

In the 19th century, butter production underwent significant industrialization, transforming it from a small-scale, home-based task into a large-scale, efficient industry.

This change was driven by several key technological innovations.

The first big innovation was Carl Gustaf Patrik de Laval’s invention of the centrifugal cream separator in the 1870s. This machine allowed cream to be quickly and efficiently separated from milk, vastly increasing the volume of cream available for butter production. This machine replaced the traditional gravity separation method, which was time-consuming and less effective.

Around the same time, the development of mechanized butter churns streamlined the churning process, reducing the manual labor traditionally required. Additionally, the introduction of refrigeration technology enabled better storage and transportation of dairy products, allowing butter to be shipped over long distances without spoiling.

These advancements helped consolidate butter production into larger creameries and dairy factories, centralizing production and ensuring more consistent quality. This industrialization made butter more affordable and widely accessible, establishing it as a staple in American and European diets and laying the groundwork for the modern dairy industry.

One of the biggest competitors to butter over the last century or so has been margarine. In the late 18th century, margarine was invented as a cheaper alternative to butter. Originally made from beef tallow, margarine gained popularity in Europe and North America, especially during times of economic hardship and war.

It was later made out of seed oil, which reduced the cost even further, resulting in a decrease in butter consumption throughout most of the 20th century.

I’ll be covering the topic of margarine more fully in a future episode.

If you go into a store today and buy butter, you will notice that you have two primary choices in butter: salted and unsalted.

The difference between the two is literally just the inclusion of salt.

Salted butter contains added salt, usually around 1-2% by weight.

The biggest reason for salted butter is that salt acts as a preservative, slowing the growth of bacteria and extending the butter’s shelf life. This made salted butter particularly useful in times before refrigeration.

Many people prefer the taste of salted butter on bread as this type of butter is more popular as a spread.

Unsalted butter allows bakers and chefs to control the amount of salt in a recipe precisely. This is crucial in baking, where salt levels can affect the chemistry and flavor of the final product.

Unsalted butter has a fresher, purer taste, which is important for dishes where butter’s flavor is a key ingredient.

In the 21st century, butter has experienced a resurgence in popularity after its 20th-century decline, with the rise of artisanal foods and traditional cooking methods. High-quality butter from specific regions, such as French Normandy butter and Irish Kerrygold, is prized for its flavor.

Today, butter is a huge business. The global butter market is believed to be 27.94 Billion dollars and is expected to reach 34 billion dollars by 2029.

Butter’s journey reflects changes in human society—from early agriculture to modern industrial production. It remains a cherished food in many cuisines, as well as a symbol of cultural identity…. and it is all due to ancient people who discovered it accidentally because milk was sloshed around in a bag.