Use Measurement Instead of "Stick" For Butter

I've seen a few people over the past couple of years ask how many ounces or cups a stick of butter is. There are a couple of things we all need to start keeping in mind when giving advice about how much each stick actually is, because the wrong advice could possibly ruin a recipe.

Sticks of butter are no longer always 4 ounces each. The brand of butter I buy now (and I've seen a couple of other brands that are doing the same) come in 2 ounce sticks (8 sticks to a pound instead of 4 sticks to a pound), so if I used the old fashioned rule of thumb that a stick is 4 ounces when I actually have a 2 ounce stick, then my recipe is going to turn out very sadly indeed. We need to start using ounce, tablespoon or cup in measurements for our recipes because "sticks" for measurement are no longer the standard. We also need to do our best to convert our older recipes to that table before passing the recipe along.

I am sure there are brands of butter out there that do not have the ounce, tablespoon or cup amount stamped on each stick wrapper but I am fairly certain that at least 98% of the brands do. So, if you ever wonder how much a stick is, look at the wrapper and if your wrapper doesn't happen to have the markings, all you need to do is get out a ruler and measure the length and width of your whole stick of butter.

If it's 3 inches long and about 1 1/2 inche wide then it's a four ounce stick and anything smaller than that is a two ounce.My neighbor graciously just lent me a 4 ounce stick of her butter so I could take a comparison photo for you.

By Deeli from Richland, WA