This has perplexed me for 10 years, but obviously never enough to really look into the matter… until now. So for what seems to be a relatively unknown reason – in Oregon, Washington, California and Arizona – sticks of butter are shaped oddly. I’ve been here long enough that I forget about it now, until we’re watching some cooking show where she says – use half a stick of butter – and we see her cut from the long skinny stick.

I noticed almost immediately when I moved here that the butter was shaped strangely. These short sticks (called a Western Stubby) are half the length of a normal stick, but what I didn’t realize, is that they’re also fatter. So my assumption was that they were half the size of a normal stick. And when I would read recipes, especially those from my mom or friends back in the Midwest, I would think I needed to double the butter – if it said use a half-stick, I’d need to use a whole stick since mine were now half the size – no wonder some of that stuff didn’t come out quite right! Today I actually looked it up – and they are the same weight, just a different shape.

And since 46 of the 50 states use the long-skinny kind, that’s what other ‘butter related’ items are made for. Like why boxes of butter don’t fit very well in the refrigerator butter door, or why there’s so much wasted space in the butter dish (or in some cases, that the lid actually hits the butter.) ‘Cause the sticks are oddly shaped!

I guess it’s one more thing keeping Portland (and the rest of the west coast) weird! I’m just glad I now know that it’s not my cooking that made my mom’s fabulous apple crisp taste weird – it was too much butter!