Butter Measurements

[KYHeirloomer]

Yeah, me too G.

Keltin's usage might date back to the old days, when people mostly made their own butter. On fancy tables it was made in molds. But in most households it was just patted into a round shape.

On average, a churn yielded a pound of butter at a time. So a "pat" could have come into usage to describe the final product.

Outside of the U.S., butter is always packaged, sold, and used by weight. But that applies to a lot of things we do by volume.

[Keltin]

It’s definitely an old school term dating back to when people made their own butter. Here is a site that talks about making butter and uses the term.

Link is here.
What was left was made into nice round pats, crossed on top with the butter pat, and this was used for our table.

And here is another site talking about a butter mold, and they mention the “pat size” (the molds are at the bottom of the page).

Link is here.
The third, fourth and fifth molds are fancy carved butter molds. The first is a one pound, the second a half pound and the last one was a pat size

I had never heard this term before until I went into a local country store and they had a sign up selling “pats” of butter which were round, 1/2 pound blocks wrapped in paper. It seems to be a rather loose term as I can’t find many references to it.

[KYHeirloomer]

Hmmmm. Not a bad guess on my part. Reckon I need a pat on the back. (sorry about that).

Keltin, did you pick up on this in your first link:

>To wash it, it was worked with a wooden pat and clean water. Salt was added<

I'm reading that to mean they referred to the butter spade as a pat, cuz it was used to pat the butter into shape. Later on they talk about using it on the left-over to make pats of butter for their own table.

So maybe it had multiple meanings, and was applied both to the end product and the tools used to make it?

[Keltin]

Originally Posted by KYHeirloomer

Hmmmm. Not a bad guess on my part. Reckon I need a pat on the back. (sorry about that).

Keltin, did you pick up on this in your first link:

>To wash it, it was worked with a wooden pat and clean water. Salt was added<

I'm reading that to mean they referred to the butter spade as a pat, cuz it was used to pat the butter into shape. Later on they talk about using it on the left-over to make pats of butter for their own table.

So maybe it had multiple meanings, and was applied both to the end product and the tools used to make it?

I was guessing they called it a pat of butter because, as you mentioned previously, they used a butter pat (that wooden spoon) to mold it in round shapes or to press it into the mold? When I first bumped into a “pat of butter” for sale, I immediately thought of those little square packages you can get at a restaurant, and was surprised to see instead the 1/2lb round bundles.

After some research, I discovered there is a tool called a butter pat that they used back in the day. I’m still not sure why they called the round bundles of butter a pat of butter....but my best guess is like you said, they used a pat to mold it into shape? Or maybe that was the amount they could fit onto a butter pat before they molded it?

However, it could also have something to do with the dish that is known as a “butter pat”? It was a small dish that held a “pat of butter”......but that leads me to the “chicken or the egg” question of which one got the name first, the butter or the dish?

It’s not a very common term, and I’ve only found about 5 references to it on the net, and all of those are very old, and one was from colonial times.

They sell a machine that makes “pats of butter”, so somebody, somewhere is still using the term?

But yes, you do deserve a pat on the back for putting this together!