The usual sticks of butter come in half-cup sticks, but I fin that most recipes call for amounts of butter that fall in 1/4 cup increments, thus leaving a half used stick of butter. The simple expediment of half-sized butter sticks individualy wrapped would solve this problem.

I have not yet come across a recipe calling for 3/8 cup of butter.
-- DesertFox, Jul 10 2005

Sticks of butter http://www.thatsbj....502FTMbutter_01.jpg
Not from a tree [DesertFox, Jul 10 2005]

Another butter stick. http://www.afunworl...res/picture-778.htm
Twice halfbaked. [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 10 2005]

more butter, can't have too much butter http://www.landolakes.com/products/
[dentworth, Jul 11 2005]

Knob or Stick http://www.googlefi...2stick+of+butter%22
According to this link, butter is 4 times more likely to described as being in the form of a stick than a knob. [hippo, Jul 12 2005]

Knob of butter http://www.ochef.com/300.htm
In our experience, a knob of butter is a couple tablespoons, more or less. [SledDog, May 05 2006]

Sticks of butter? Do you harvest your butter off trees?
-- wagster, Jul 10 2005


Does butter really get measured in cups? That's weird. Sticks isn't much better.

I think a much more universal method is called for. Hmmm.... now that's a posting guaranteed to bring down the fishbones. Excuse me for a sec!
-- moomintroll, Jul 10 2005


Sticks of butter are a half a cup. Lots of recipes call for something like 1/4 a cup or 3/4 a cup, which leaves half of a stick of butter unused.
-- DesertFox, Jul 10 2005


Make twice as much.
-- DrCurry, Jul 10 2005


recipes here use ounces or dollops.
-- po, Jul 10 2005


A well-built slice of toast can absorb four times its own weight in butter. That ought to handle the surplus.
-- Basepair, Jul 10 2005


Where did you get that nugget of wisdom from [basepair]?
-- wagster, Jul 10 2005


Unpublished results.
-- Basepair, Jul 10 2005


//Just what do you do in your spare time, anyway?// I'm a researcher for the Butter Research and Marketing Council. Actually no. I just like butter.
-- Basepair, Jul 11 2005


I think butter 'sticks' may be particularly American. Never seen them anywhere else.
-- waugsqueke, Jul 11 2005


// think butter 'sticks' may be particularly American// Realising that weighing ingredients is not an American thing, roughly how much does a butter stick weigh? (I'm guessing it is printed on the pack - seems unlikely that supermarket goods are measured in fractions of cups)
-- TolpuddleSartre, Jul 11 2005


[Tol.]quarter of a pound, four sticks to a box usually. see link

a full stick is a 1/2 cup, and the wrapper is marked off in tablespoons (one 'pat' being a tablespoon) so you can surely see how very difficult it would be for USers to convert at this stage in history.
-- dentworth, Jul 11 2005


[po] Don't you mean 'knobs'?
-- hippo, Jul 11 2005


In the UK, a butter comes in a pack, or a pat, each which I think is about the same size as 2 sticks.

I think it's funny that butter gets measured using a word that is about as unbuttery as you can get considering your average twig's brittle, woody, pointy, knobbly character - having a "stick" of butter is like having a "squidge" of Sherman Tank, or a "slosh" of uranium control scaffolding.
-- zen_tom, Jul 11 2005


Perhaps at some time in the past, butter was employed as a weapon of war and dropped from aircraft, and the collective noun stuck.
-- coprocephalous, Jul 12 2005


I always thought a pat of butter was about the amount that you could get on the end of your knife - or is that what [Pa've] calls a pad? I am simply amazed at the confusion caused by trying to measure butter.
-- wagster, Jul 12 2005


2 knobs to a dollop.
-- po, Jul 12 2005


knob = pat = dollop/2 ?
-- wagster, Jul 12 2005


You know what they say, "Heart of gold - knob of butter".
-- hippo, Jul 12 2005



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