Why Sticks
Of Butter Are Longer On
The East Coast
NEWS
By TIM FORSTER
The butter sticks on the East Coast, often referred to as "Elgins," are longer and thinner, while out West, they're typically shorter and fatter and are called "Western Stubbies."
In terms of time zones, states in the Mountain and Pacific time zones use Western Stubbies, while those in the Central and Eastern time zones, except Texas, use the Elgins.
Before the start of the 20th century, American butter was sold in one-pound blocks. Then, a New Orleans chef requested that his butter company
provide it in quarter-pound sticks.
That idea caught on, and an Illinois company, the Elgin Butter Co., began selling butter molds that produced what is now the long and skinny East Coast butter stick called Elgins.
In the 1960s, when the West Coast started ramping up butter production, producers in California created their own machines
and molds that produced the
so-called Western Stubbies.
The reason behind the division still existing might be a historical hangover, with some popular grocery store butter brands actively maintaining this unique cultural difference.
East Coast butter sticks are about 4.8 inches long and 1.3 inches wide and tall, whereas West Coast ones are much stumpier, measuring 3.1 inches long and 1.5 inches wide and tall.
Both types weigh four ounces and contain eight tablespoons of butter, and most packaging has markers to denote what proportion equals a tablespoon, so the shape isn’t a factor.
