Butter
How Butter Built a Cathedral—& Other Interesting Butter Facts
Butter has led a life of international mystery.
Butter has been around for over 10,000 years, and in those centuries it has been used in countless recipes, allegedly cured illnesses, and even built a cathedral. Before it was relegated to your kitchen counter (or refrigerator), butter led a life of international mystery. To celebrate the beauty that is butter, we’ve compiled six of the greatest butter facts we could find, including a few myth-busting anecdotes for good measure.
1. The Butter Tax
Butter was once so ingrained in Scandinavian culture, that the 11th-century Norwegian king Svein Knutsson demanded each of his subjects provide him a bucket of butter as tax annually. While this tax was questionable at best, it begs the much more serious culinary question: If you were King Svein, what would you make with the people’s hard-churned taxpayer butter?
2. Butter As A Cure
In ancient Rome, butter was swallowed to soothe sore throats. More than a dairy-forward cough drop, ancient Romans also rubbed butter on their aching joints—think Icy Hot, with great flavor and no tingling sensation.
3. The Great Race For A French Butter Substitute
In the mid-19th century, Emperor Napoleon III offered a prize to anyone that could develop a cheap butter alternative for French workers and his armies in the Franco-Prussian war. Napoleon’s challenge led to French chemist Hippolyte Mege-Mouries patenting margarine in 1869.
4. Building With Butter
Back in the 15th century, the Catholic church banned its followers from eating butter during the 40 days of Lent. However, Catholics could pay a fee to the church if they wanted to free themselves from the butter-ban entirely. So many French Catholics opted to give money rather than forgo butter that the revenue generated from Lent butter fees became a substantial funding source for France’s Rouen Cathedral. Today, the Rouen Cathedral is colloquially known as the Butter Tower.
5. I Can’t Believe There’s No Butter
There is no actual butter in the motor-oil-like substance cosplaying as “movie theater butter.” Like the food itself, this realization is tough to stomach.
6. Butter Is Booming (Kind Of)
The butter market is growing. According to Grand View Research, the global market for butter was valued at $51.61 billion in 2021 and is projected to grow at 2.6 percent from 2022 to 2028. You could even say that butter—just like many of us—has its best days still ahead.
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Written by: Paul Hagopian
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