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To be fair, if you don't live in the US, how would you know that a stick is a standardized measure? ...is it a standardized measure? (Out of curiosity, is it

To be fair, if you don't live in the US, how would you know that a stick is a standardized measure? ...is it a standardized measure? (Out of curiosity, is it a regulated measure? Would I be prosecuted for selling a stick of butter that doesn't weigh 1/4 of a pound?) In my country we wouldn't describe a solid in cups, just grams.

pueblito 5y ago
It’s not a regulated measure, just traditional that each stick is half a cup and the wrapper has 8 marks so you can slice off a tablespoon easily. Each stick is 113g
DiabloD3 5y ago
Sticks are marked with tablespoon markings on their wrappers.
thaumasiotes 5y ago
> if you don't live in the US, how would you know that a stick is a standardized measure? Because you ran into it in the first place. You think cookbooks are giving out subjective instructions? "You said stick, but I don't know what that means" is a pretty reasonable conclusion to draw when you encounter the usage. "You said stick; you must not believe that words have meanings" is something else again.
- EdwardDiego 5y ago
  As someone not from the US, a "stick" sounds as precise a quantity as a "handful", a "dollop", a "pinch", a "dash", a "splash", or a "spoonful". An obvious analogy for the lack of precision of "stick of butter" outside of US culture is my culture's "block of butter" - typically, a block of butter in my country is 500g. But not always. So how do you know how much butter I intended you to use if I say "add half a block of butter" in my biscuit recipe? How big is a block of butter where you live? Do they even sell it by the block? Or is it just sticks? Rough mental calculation, there's about 4 and nearly a half sticks to the block. I guess there's a reason humans developed and use units of measurement. Anecdote time! When I was young I tried to follow a recipe off the Internet that specified a stick of butter. So I diligently cut a long skinny bit of butter from my block of butter, a little confused as to what difference the shape made. The biscuits were rather awful.
  - wil421 5y ago
    A stick is a shape. There are various shapes of butter in the US. Almost all butter that is wrapped in soft paper and has a “stick” or rectangle shape is 8oz (227g) for 2 “sticks” or 1 stick (block) that’s basically 2 sticks put together (Kerrygold). The larger packages are a pound, 16oz (~253.6g) and usually contain 4 sticks. There are some exceptions like Amish butter that come in a 2 pound roll (round block). Kerrygold and Finlandia butter from Europe adapt to the 8oz and 16oz standards just like a US company would adapt to UK or likely EU standards.
  - themaninthedark 5y ago
    If you said block of butter to me, I would assume 4 sticks or 1 lbs as you can buy it as such unseperated for bulk baking. See: https://www.495expressfoods.com/products/butter-salted-1lb-block https://www.495expressfoods.com/products/butter-salted-1lb-b...
    - EdwardDiego 5y ago
      Ah yep, so similar, but smaller than our typical block size of 500g. Although these days a lot of the fancier butter comes as 250g. This is probably one of my country's fanciest butter makers: https://lewisroadcreamery.co.nz/collections/butter https://lewisroadcreamery.co.nz/collections/butter
  - acheron 5y ago
    A dash is 1/8 teaspoon and a pinch is 1/16 teaspoon, if that comes up.
- jriot 5y ago
  Sticks are used in Cajun (Southern) cooking quite often. http://www.mrbsbistro.com/recipes_shrimp.php http://www.mrbsbistro.com/recipes_shrimp.php
- OJFord 5y ago
  First time I read it I assumed it was a PC-gone-mad 'knob' of butter.
  - EdwardDiego 5y ago
    Oh yeah, I forgot about a "knob" of butter.
Broken_Hippo 5y ago
To be fair, if you don't live in the US, how would you know that a stick is a standardized measure? I'm American. I lived in the US until around 8.5 years ago and I moved to Norway. I've had to look up conversions many times so that I could cook comfort food. Other folks have answered the regulated measure stuff, but FWIW: Every butter maker sold sticks where I was from (Indiana) and all the sticks were the same size. Margarine brands did the same so long as they weren't sold in tubs.
shaftway 5y ago
> To be fair, if you don't live in the US, how would you know that a stick is a standardized measure? Cue the funny anecdote. We've been using au pairs to help with the kids. It took about 6 months for one of us to notice that when a recipe called for "1 cup" of something, one au pair would go into the cabinet and grab a random glass and use that to measure. Our glasses range from 4 oz. to 18oz, so there were tons of size disparities. We didn't notice for so long because she was usually making rice, and the ratio was the most important part, and the ratios was cups to cups. To be clear, that disparity had just never occurred to us, and in no way did we blame her. All of us (including her) had a good laugh over it and we showed her where the measuring cups were kept.

pueblito 5y ago

It’s not a regulated measure, just traditional that each stick is half a cup and the wrapper has 8 marks so you can slice off a tablespoon easily. Each stick is 113g

DiabloD3 5y ago

Sticks are marked with tablespoon markings on their wrappers.

thaumasiotes 5y ago

> if you don't live in the US, how would you know that a stick is a standardized measure? Because you ran into it in the first place. You think cookbooks are giving out subjective instructions? "You said stick, but I don't know what that means" is a pretty reasonable conclusion to draw when you encounter the usage. "You said stick; you must not believe that words have meanings" is something else again.

EdwardDiego 5y ago
As someone not from the US, a "stick" sounds as precise a quantity as a "handful", a "dollop", a "pinch", a "dash", a "splash", or a "spoonful". An obvious analogy for the lack of precision of "stick of butter" outside of US culture is my culture's "block of butter" - typically, a block of butter in my country is 500g. But not always. So how do you know how much butter I intended you to use if I say "add half a block of butter" in my biscuit recipe? How big is a block of butter where you live? Do they even sell it by the block? Or is it just sticks? Rough mental calculation, there's about 4 and nearly a half sticks to the block. I guess there's a reason humans developed and use units of measurement. Anecdote time! When I was young I tried to follow a recipe off the Internet that specified a stick of butter. So I diligently cut a long skinny bit of butter from my block of butter, a little confused as to what difference the shape made. The biscuits were rather awful.
- wil421 5y ago
  A stick is a shape. There are various shapes of butter in the US. Almost all butter that is wrapped in soft paper and has a “stick” or rectangle shape is 8oz (227g) for 2 “sticks” or 1 stick (block) that’s basically 2 sticks put together (Kerrygold). The larger packages are a pound, 16oz (~253.6g) and usually contain 4 sticks. There are some exceptions like Amish butter that come in a 2 pound roll (round block). Kerrygold and Finlandia butter from Europe adapt to the 8oz and 16oz standards just like a US company would adapt to UK or likely EU standards.
- themaninthedark 5y ago
  If you said block of butter to me, I would assume 4 sticks or 1 lbs as you can buy it as such unseperated for bulk baking. See: https://www.495expressfoods.com/products/butter-salted-1lb-block https://www.495expressfoods.com/products/butter-salted-1lb-b...
  - EdwardDiego 5y ago
    Ah yep, so similar, but smaller than our typical block size of 500g. Although these days a lot of the fancier butter comes as 250g. This is probably one of my country's fanciest butter makers: https://lewisroadcreamery.co.nz/collections/butter https://lewisroadcreamery.co.nz/collections/butter
- acheron 5y ago
  A dash is 1/8 teaspoon and a pinch is 1/16 teaspoon, if that comes up.
jriot 5y ago
Sticks are used in Cajun (Southern) cooking quite often. http://www.mrbsbistro.com/recipes_shrimp.php http://www.mrbsbistro.com/recipes_shrimp.php
OJFord 5y ago
First time I read it I assumed it was a PC-gone-mad 'knob' of butter.
- EdwardDiego 5y ago
  Oh yeah, I forgot about a "knob" of butter.

Broken_Hippo 5y ago

To be fair, if you don't live in the US, how would you know that a stick is a standardized measure? I'm American. I lived in the US until around 8.5 years ago and I moved to Norway. I've had to look up conversions many times so that I could cook comfort food. Other folks have answered the regulated measure stuff, but FWIW: Every butter maker sold sticks where I was from (Indiana) and all the sticks were the same size. Margarine brands did the same so long as they weren't sold in tubs.

shaftway 5y ago

> To be fair, if you don't live in the US, how would you know that a stick is a standardized measure? Cue the funny anecdote. We've been using au pairs to help with the kids. It took about 6 months for one of us to notice that when a recipe called for "1 cup" of something, one au pair would go into the cabinet and grab a random glass and use that to measure. Our glasses range from 4 oz. to 18oz, so there were tons of size disparities. We didn't notice for so long because she was usually making rice, and the ratio was the most important part, and the ratios was cups to cups. To be clear, that disparity had just never occurred to us, and in no way did we blame her. All of us (including her) had a good laugh over it and we showed her where the measuring cups were kept.