Scottish Country Dance of the Day

oday, butter's popularity as a healthful food may wax and wane, but most people believe "butter makes everything better!" Hot buttered rum (traditionally made with rum, butter, hot water cider, sweetener, and spices) is a popular drink dating back to colonial days in the United States who considered this mix a medicinal strengthener. However, butter was not always so prized. With their easy access to olive oil, Mediterranean cultures had no need for this alternative fat source in their warmer climes, and considered many dairy food producing cultures as inferior. In fact, during a visit to conquered Britain, Julius Caesar was appalled by how much milk the peasant northerners consumed. Strabo, a philosopher, geographer, and historian of Ancient Rome, disparaged the Celts for effectively being "milk-swilling barbarians." The Romans often commented on the inferiority of other cultures, and they took excessive milk drinking and butter eating as evidence of barbarism! Butter was seen as mostly as useful ointment for burns, but not considered a suitable food. A play by the Greek comic poet Anaxandrides refers to Thracians as "butter-eaters," a common insult at this time. Even the English, whose model for imperialism was taken from that of the Romans, sneered at what they thought was the overuse of butter by the Irish. Fynes Moryson, secretary to the viceroy, who spent much time in Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth I, reported that the Irish “swallow whole lumps of filthy butter.” Pass the butter, I say! 🧈 🧈 🧈 🐄