sf wrote:

> On Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:16:43 -0800, Blinky the Shark
> > wrote:
>>
>>Hey, back in the day didn't butter come in sticks longer than today's
>>little 3.25" stubbies? Seems like maybe they were half-pound sticks --
>>same cross section but twice as long. I used marge for many years; when I
>>came back to butter it seems like this change had happened. Or am I
>>misremembering? Or is this a regional thing? In the middle there, I did
>>move to the other end of the country.
>
> Butter used to come in two half pound "slabs". Think the shape of two
> undivided quarter pound sticks in today's shape. I still have a
> butter dish for them (intact).

I was right, according to wiki (which I quote below).

It's regional.

I spent about the first half of my life in Michigan:

"The dominant shape east of the Rocky Mountains is the Elgin, or
Eastern-pack shape. This shape was originally developed by the Elgin
Butter Tub Company, founded in 1882 in Elgin, Illinois and Rock Falls,
Illinois. The sticks are 4.75" long and 1.25" wide, and are usually sold
in somewhat cubical boxes stacked 2x2."

Then I moved to California;

"West of the Rocky Mountains, butter printers standardized on a different
shape that is now referred to as the Western-Pack shape. These butter
sticks are 3.125" long and 1.5" wide and are typically sold packed
side-by-side in a rectangular container."

So I grew up with thinner, longer ones (by 1 5/8 inches), albeit they
weren't as long as I thought I remembered them.


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