Butter is an ensemble comedy film.

Plot[link]

A young orphan (Shahidi) discovers her uncanny talent for butter sculpture in an Iowa town where her adoptive family lives. The talent pits her against the ambitious wife (Garner) of the reigning champion (Burrell) in the annual butter sculpture competition.^[1]

Cast[link]

• Yara Shahidi as Destiny
• Jennifer Garner as Laura Pickler
• Ty Burrell as Bob Pickler
• Ashley Greene as Kaitlin Pickler
• Olivia Wilde as Brooke
• Alicia Silverstone as Jill Emmet
• Rob Corddry
• Hugh Jackman as Boyd Bolton
• Kristen Schaal
• Corena Chase as Mrs. Schram
• Brett Hill as Hayden

Production[link]

The screen play is the debut of Jason Micallef and in 2008 landed on a film black-list. Jennifer Garner commented in February 2010, saying, "We are just about to get greenlit, so I will be diving into butter and learning how to fake it. I am sure we will have to hire professionals to make the final products but I’m looking forward to picking up some new skills. Maybe they will come in handy during a family holiday" at the 2010 premiere of Valentine's Day.^[1]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Butter at the Internet Movie Database

This film article about a comedy is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Butter at the Borough Market, London

Fresh butter for sale at a farmer's market in the Czech Republic

Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying. Butter consists of butterfat, milk proteins and water.

Most frequently made from cows' milk, butter can also be manufactured from the milk of other mammals, including sheep, goats, buffalo, and yaks. Salt, flavorings and preservatives are sometimes added to butter. Rendering butter produces clarified butter or ghee, which is almost entirely butterfat.

Butter is a water-in-oil emulsion resulting from an inversion of the cream, an oil-in-water emulsion; the milk proteins are the emulsifiers. Butter remains a solid when refrigerated, but softens to a spreadable consistency at room temperature, and melts to a thin liquid consistency at 32–35 °C (90–95 °F). The density of butter is 911 g/L (56.9 lb/ft³).^[1]

It generally has a pale yellow color, but varies from deep yellow to nearly white. Its unmodified color is dependent on the animals' feed and is commonly manipulated with food colorings in the commercial manufacturing process, most commonly annatto or carotene.

Etymology[link]

Butter is often served for spreading on bread with a butter knife.

The word butter derives (via Germanic languages) from the Latin butyrum,^[2] which is the latinisation of the Greek βούτυρον (bouturon).^[3][4] This may have been a construction meaning "cow-cheese", from βοῦς (bous), "ox, cow"^[5] + τυρός (turos), "cheese",^[6] but perhaps this is a false etymology of a Scythian word.^[7] Nevertheless, the earliest attested form of the second stem, turos ("cheese"), is the Mycenaean Greek tu-ro, written in Linear B syllabic script.^[8] The root word persists in the name butyric acid, a compound found in rancid butter and dairy products such as Parmesan cheese.

In general use, the term "butter" refers to the spread dairy product when unqualified by other descriptors. The word commonly is used to describe puréed vegetable or nut products such as peanut butter and almond butter. It is often applied to spread fruit products such as apple butter. Fats such as cocoa butter and shea butter that remain solid at room temperature are also known as "butters". In addition to the act of applying butter being called "to butter", non-dairy items that have a dairy butter consistency may use "butter' to call that consistency to mind, including food items such as maple butter and witch's butter and nonfood items such as baby bottom butter, hyena butter, and rock butter.

Production[link]

Churning cream into butter using a hand held mixer

Unhomogenized milk and cream contain butterfat in microscopic globules. These globules are surrounded by membranes made of phospholipids (fatty acid emulsifiers) and proteins, which prevent the fat in milk from pooling together into a single mass. Butter is produced by agitating cream, which damages these membranes and allows the milk fats to conjoin, separating from the other parts of the cream. Variations in the production method will create butters with different consistencies, mostly due to the butterfat composition in the finished product. Butter contains fat in three separate forms: free butterfat, butterfat crystals, and undamaged fat globules. In the finished product, different proportions of these forms result in different consistencies within the butter; butters with many crystals are harder than butters dominated by free fats.

Churning produces small butter grains floating in the water-based portion of the cream. This watery liquid is called buttermilk—although the buttermilk most common today is instead a directly fermented skimmed milk. The buttermilk is drained off; sometimes more buttermilk is removed by rinsing the grains with water. Then the grains are "worked": pressed and kneaded together. When prepared manually, this is done using wooden boards called scotch hands. This consolidates the butter into a solid mass and breaks up embedded pockets of buttermilk or water into tiny droplets.

Butter is mainly a triglyceride (fat) derived from fatty acids such as myristic, palmitic, and oleic acids

Commercial butter is about 80% butterfat and 15% water; traditionally made butter may have as little as 65% fat and 30% water. Butterfat is a mixture of triglyceride, a triester derived from glycerol and three of any of several fatty acid groups.^[9] Butter becomes rancid when these chains break down into smaller components, like butyric acid and diacetyl. The density of butter is 0.911 g/cm³ (0.527 oz/in³), about the same as ice.

Types[link]

Hand-made butter

Chart of milk products and production relationships, including milk

Before modern factory butter making, cream was usually collected from several milkings and was therefore several days old and somewhat fermented by the time it was made into butter. Butter made from a fermented cream is known as cultured butter. During fermentation, the cream naturally sours as bacteria convert milk sugars into lactic acid. The fermentation process produces additional aroma compounds, including diacetyl, which makes for a fuller-flavored and more "buttery" tasting product.^[10] Today, cultured butter is usually made from pasteurized cream whose fermentation is produced by the introduction of Lactococcus and Leuconostoc bacteria.

Another method for producing cultured butter, developed in the early 1970s, is to produce butter from fresh cream and then incorporate bacterial cultures and lactic acid. Using this method, the cultured butter flavor grows as the butter is aged in cold storage. For manufacturers, this method is more efficient, since aging the cream used to make butter takes significantly more space than simply storing the finished butter product. A method to make an artificial simulation of cultured butter is to add lactic acid and flavor compounds directly to the fresh-cream butter; while this more efficient process is claimed to simulate the taste of cultured butter, the product produced is not cultured but is instead flavored.

When heated, butter quickly melts into a thin liquid.

Dairy products are often pasteurized during production to kill pathogenic bacteria and other microbes. Butter made from pasteurized fresh cream is called sweet cream butter. Production of sweet cream butter first became common in the 19th century, with the development of refrigeration and the mechanical cream separator.^[11] Butter made from fresh or cultured unpasteurized cream is called raw cream butter. While butter made from pasteurized cream may keep for several months, raw cream butter has a shelf life of roughly ten days.

Throughout continental Europe, cultured butter is preferred, while sweet cream butter dominates in the United States and the United Kingdom. Therefore, cultured butter is sometimes labeled "European-style" butter in the United States. Commercial raw cream butter is virtually unheard-of in the United States. Raw cream butter is generally only found made at home by consumers who have purchased raw whole milk directly from dairy farmers, skimmed the cream themselves, and made butter with it. It is rare in Europe as well.^[12]

Several "spreadable" butters have been developed; these remain softer at colder temperatures and are therefore easier to use directly out of refrigeration. Some modify the makeup of the butter's fat through chemical manipulation of the finished product, some through manipulation of the cattle's feed, and some by incorporating vegetable oils into the butter. "Whipped" butter, another product designed to be more spreadable, is aerated via the incorporation of nitrogen gas—normal air is not used, because doing so would encourage oxidation and rancidity.

All categories of butter are sold in both salted and unsalted forms. Either granular salt or a strong brine are added to salted butter during processing. In addition to enhanced flavor, the addition of salt acts as a preservative.

The amount of butterfat in the finished product is a vital aspect of production. In the United States, products sold as "butter" are required to contain a minimum of 80% butterfat; in practice, most American butters contain only slightly more than that, averaging around 81% butterfat. European butters generally have a higher ratio, which may extend up to 85%.

Clarified butter

Clarified butter is butter with almost all of its water and milk solids removed, leaving almost-pure butterfat. Clarified butter is made by heating butter to its melting point and then allowing it to cool; after settling, the remaining components separate by density. At the top, whey proteins form a skin which is removed, and the resulting butterfat is then poured off from the mixture of water and casein proteins that settle to the bottom.^[13]

Ghee is clarified butter which is brought to higher temperatures of around 120 °C (250 °F) once the water has cooked off, allowing the milk solids to brown. This process flavors the ghee, and also produces antioxidants which help protect it longer from rancidity. Because of this, ghee can keep for six to eight months under normal conditions.^[13]

Cream may be skimmed from whey instead of milk, as a byproduct of cheese-making. Whey butter may be made from whey cream. Whey cream and butter have a lower fat content and taste more salty, tangy and "cheesy".^[14] They are also cheaper than "sweet" cream and butter.

European butters[link]

There are several butters produced in Europe with Protected geographical indications; these include:

• Beurre d'Ardenne, from Belgium
• Beurre d'Isigny, from France
• Beurre Charentes-Poitou (Which also includes: Beurre des Charentes and Beurre des Deux-Sèvres under the same classification), from France
• Beurre Rose, from Luxembourg
• Mantequilla de Soria, from Spain
• Mantega de l'Alt Urgell i la Cerdanya, from Spain

History[link]

Traditional butter-making in Palestine. Ancient techniques were still practiced in the early 20th century. National Geographic, March 1914.

The earliest butter would have been from sheep or goat's milk; cattle are not thought to have been domesticated for another thousand years.^[15] An ancient method of butter making, still used today in parts of Africa and the Near East, involves a goat skin half filled with milk, and inflated with air before being sealed. The skin is then hung with ropes on a tripod of sticks, and rocked until the movement leads to the formation of butter.

In the Mediterranean climate, unclarified butter spoils quickly— unlike cheese, it is not a practical method of preserving the nutrients of milk. The ancient Greeks and Romans seemed to have considered butter a food fit more for the northern barbarians. A play by the Greek comic poet Anaxandrides refers to Thracians as boutyrophagoi, "butter-eaters".^[16] In Natural History, Pliny the Elder calls butter "the most delicate of food among barbarous nations", and goes on to describe its medicinal properties.^[17] Later, the physician Galen also described butter as a medicinal agent only.^[18]

Historian and linguist Andrew Dalby says most references to butter in ancient Near Eastern texts should more correctly be translated as ghee. Ghee is mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as a typical trade article around the first century CE Arabian Sea, and Roman geographer Strabo describes it as a commodity of Arabia and Sudan.^[16] In India, ghee has been a symbol of purity and an offering to the gods—especially Agni, the Hindu god of fire—for more than 3000 years; references to ghee's sacred nature appear numerous times in the Rigveda, circa 1500–1200 BCE. The tale of the child Krishna stealing butter remains a popular children's story in India today. Since India's prehistory, ghee has been both a staple food and used for ceremonial purposes, such as fueling holy lamps and funeral pyres.

Middle Ages[link]

Woman churning butter; Compost et Kalendrier des Bergères, Paris, 1499

The cooler climates of northern Europe allowed butter to be stored for a longer period before it spoiled. Scandinavia has the oldest tradition in Europe of butter export trade, dating at least to the 12th century.^[19] After the fall of Rome and through much of the Middle Ages, butter was a common food across most of Europe, but one with a low reputation, and was consumed principally by peasants. Butter slowly became more accepted by the upper class, notably when the early 16th century Roman Catholic Church allowed its consumption during Lent. Bread and butter became common fare among the middle class, and the English, in particular, gained a reputation for their liberal use of melted butter as a sauce with meat and vegetables.^[20]

In antiquity, butter was used for fuel in lamps as a substitute for oil. The Butter Tower of Rouen Cathedral was erected in the early 16th century when Archbishop Georges d'Amboise authorized the burning of butter instead of oil, which was scarce at the time, during Lent.^[21]

Across northern Europe, butter was sometimes treated in a manner unheard-of today: it was packed into barrels (firkins) and buried in peat bogs, perhaps for years. Such "bog butter" would develop a strong flavor as it aged, but remain edible, in large part because of the unique cool, airless, antiseptic and acidic environment of a peat bog. Firkins of such buried butter are a common archaeological find in Ireland; the Irish National Museum has some containing "a grayish cheese-like substance, partially hardened, not much like butter, and quite free from putrefaction." The practice was most common in Ireland in the 11th–14th centuries; it ended entirely before the 19th century.^[19]

Industrialization[link]

Like Ireland, France became well known for its butter, particularly in Normandy and Brittany. By the 1860s, butter had become so in demand in France that Emperor Napoleon III offered prize money for an inexpensive substitute to supplement France's inadequate butter supplies. A French chemist claimed the prize with the invention of margarine in 1869. The first margarine was beef tallow flavored with milk and worked like butter; vegetable margarine followed after the development of hydrogenated oils around 1900.

Gustaf de Laval's centrifugal cream separator sped the butter-making process.

Until the 19th century, the vast majority of butter was made by hand, on farms. The first butter factories appeared in the United States in the early 1860s, after the successful introduction of cheese factories a decade earlier. In the late 1870s, the centrifugal cream separator was introduced, marketed most successfully by Swedish engineer Carl Gustaf Patrik de Laval.^[22] This dramatically sped up the butter-making process by eliminating the slow step of letting cream naturally rise to the top of milk. Initially, whole milk was shipped to the butter factories, and the cream separation took place there. Soon, though, cream-separation technology became small and inexpensive enough to introduce an additional efficiency: the separation was accomplished on the farm, and the cream alone shipped to the factory. By 1900, more than half the butter produced in the United States was factory made; Europe followed suit shortly after.

butter press and small churn

In 1920, Otto Hunziker authored The Butter Industry, Prepared for Factory, School and Laboratory,^[23] a well-known text in the industry that enjoyed at least three editions (1920, 1927, 1940). As part of the efforts of the American Dairy Science Association, Professor Hunziker and others published articles regarding: causes of tallowiness^[24] (an odor defect, distinct from rancidity, a taste defect); mottles^[25] (an aesthetic issue related to uneven color); introduced salts;^[26] the impact of creamery metals^[27] and liquids;^[28] and acidity measurement.^[29] These and other ADSA publications helped standardize practices internationally.

Butter also served as a source of extra income for farm families. Wood presses featuring intricate decoration were used to press the butter into pucks or small bricks to be sold at a nearby market or general store with the decoration identifying the farm which produced the butter. This continued until production was mechanized and butter was produced in less decorative stick form.^[30] Today butter presses continue to be used for decorative purposes.

Per capita butter consumption declined in most western nations during the 20th century, in large part because of the rising popularity of margarine, which is less expensive and, until recent years, was perceived as being healthier. In the United States, margarine consumption overtook butter during the 1950s,^[31] and it is still the case today that more margarine than butter is eaten in the U.S. and the EU.^[32]

Size and shape of butter packaging[link]

The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (September 2010)

Western-pack shape butter

In the United States, butter is usually produced in 4-ounce sticks, wrapped in waxed or foiled paper and sold four to a one-pound carton. This practice is believed to have originated in 1907, when Swift and Company began packaging butter in this manner for mass distribution.^[33]

Due to historical differences in butter printers (the machines which cut and package butter),^[34] these sticks are commonly produced in two different shapes:

• The dominant shape east of the Rocky Mountains is the Elgin, or Eastern-pack shape, named for a dairy in Elgin, Illinois. The sticks are 121 millimetres (4.8 in) long and 32 millimetres (1.3 in) wide and are typically sold stacked two by two in elongated cube-shaped boxes.^[34]

• West of the Rocky Mountains, butter printers standardized on a different shape that is now referred to as the Western-pack shape. These butter sticks are 80 millimetres (3.1 in) long and 38 millimetres (1.5 in) wide and are usually sold with four sticks packed side-by-side in a flat, rectangular box.^[34]

Both sticks contain the same amount of butter, although most butter dishes are designed for Elgin-style butter sticks.^[34]

The stick's wrapper is usually marked off as eight tablespoons (120 ml/4.2 imp fl oz; 4.1 US fl oz); the actual volume of one stick is approximately nine tablespoons (130 ml/4.6 imp fl oz; 4.4 US fl oz).

Elsewhere (outside the United States), butter is packaged and sold by weight only, not by volume (fluid measure) nor by unit (stick), but the package shape remains approximately the same. The wrapper is usually a foil and waxed-paper laminate (the waxed paper is now a siliconised substitute, but is still referred to in some places as parchment, from the wrapping used in past centuries; and the term 'parchment-wrapped' is still employed where the paper alone is used, without the foil laminate).

In the UK and Ireland, and in some other regions historically accustomed to using British measures, this was traditionally ½lb and 1 lb packs; since metrication, the pack sizes have remained the same because of consumer resistance, but they are labelled as 227g and 454g because EU food labelling law requires the use of metric units. In cooking (recipes), butter is specified and measured by weight only (grams or ounces); although melted butter could be measured by fluid measure (centiliters or fluid ounces), this is rare.

In the remainder of the metricated world, butter is packed and sold in 250g and 500g packs (roughly equivalent to the ½lb and 1 lb measures) and measured for cooking in grams or kilograms.

Butter for commercial and industrial use is packaged in plastic buckets, tubs, or drums, in quantities and units suited to the local market.

In regions where the ambient temperature precludes the unrefrigerated used of butter, it may be available preserved in tins.

Worldwide[link]

In 1997, India produced 1,470,000 metric tons (1,620,000 short tons) of butter, most of which was consumed domestically.^[35] Second in production was the United States (522,000 t/575,000 short tons), followed by France (466,000 t/514,000 short tons), Germany (442,000 t/487,000 short tons), and New Zealand (307,000 t/338,000 short tons). France ranks first in per capita butter consumption with 8 kg per capita per year.^[36] In terms of absolute consumption, Germany was second after India, using 578,000 metric tons (637,000 short tons) of butter in 1997, followed by France (528,000 t/582,000 short tons), Russia (514,000 t/567,000 short tons), and the United States (505,000 t/557,000 short tons). New Zealand, Australia, and the Ukraine are among the few nations that export a significant percentage of the butter they produce.^[37]

Different varieties are found around the world. Smen is a spiced Moroccan clarified butter, buried in the ground and aged for months or years. Yak butter is a speciality in Tibet; tsampa, barley flour mixed with yak butter, is a staple food. Butter tea is consumed in the Himalayan regions of Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal and India. It consists of tea served with intensely flavored—or "rancid"—yak butter and salt. In African and Asian developing nations, butter is traditionally made from sour milk rather than cream. It can take several hours of churning to produce workable butter grains from fermented milk.^[38]

Storage and cooking[link]

Butter curls created with a butter curler

Normal butter softens to a spreadable consistency around 15 °C (60 °F), well above refrigerator temperatures. The "butter compartment" found in many refrigerators may be one of the warmer sections inside, but it still leaves butter quite hard. Until recently, many refrigerators sold in New Zealand featured a "butter conditioner", a compartment kept warmer than the rest of the refrigerator—but still cooler than room temperature—with a small heater.^[39] Keeping butter tightly wrapped delays rancidity, which is hastened by exposure to light or air, and also helps prevent it from picking up other odors. Wrapped butter has a shelf life of several months at refrigerator temperatures.^{[citation needed]}

"French butter dishes" or "Acadian butter dishes" involve a lid with a long interior lip, which sits in a container holding a small amount of water. Usually the dish holds just enough water to submerge the interior lip when the dish is closed. Butter is packed into the lid. The water acts as a seal to keep the butter fresh, and also keeps the butter from overheating in hot temperatures. This allows butter to be safely stored on the countertop for several days without spoilage.

Once butter is softened, spices, herbs, or other flavoring agents can be mixed into it, producing what is called a compound butter or composite butter (sometimes also called composed butter). Compound butters can be used as spreads, or cooled, sliced, and placed onto hot food to melt into a sauce. Sweetened compound butters can be served with desserts; such hard sauces are often flavored with spirits.

Hollandaise sauce served over white asparagus and potatoes.

Melted butter plays an important role in the preparation of sauces, most obviously in French cuisine. Beurre noisette (hazelnut butter) and Beurre noir (black butter) are sauces of melted butter cooked until the milk solids and sugars have turned golden or dark brown; they are often finished with an addition of vinegar or lemon juice. Hollandaise and béarnaise sauces are emulsions of egg yolk and melted butter; they are in essence mayonnaises made with butter instead of oil. Hollandaise and béarnaise sauces are stabilized with the powerful emulsifiers in the egg yolks, but butter itself contains enough emulsifiers—mostly remnants of the fat globule membranes—to form a stable emulsion on its own. Beurre blanc (white butter) is made by whisking butter into reduced vinegar or wine, forming an emulsion with the texture of thick cream. Beurre monté (prepared butter) is melted but still emulsified butter; it lends its name to the practice of "mounting" a sauce with butter: whisking cold butter into any water-based sauce at the end of cooking, giving the sauce a thicker body and a glossy shine—as well as a buttery taste.^[40]

Mixing melted butter with chocolate to make a brownie

In Poland, the butter lamb (Baranek wielkanocny) is a traditional addition to the Easter Meal for many Polish Catholics. Butter is shaped into a lamb either by hand or in a lamb-shaped mould. Butter is also used to make edible decorations to garnish other dishes

Butter is used for sautéing and frying, although its milk solids brown and burn above 150 °C (250 °F)—a rather low temperature for most applications. The smoke point of butterfat is around 200 °C (400 °F), so clarified butter or ghee is better suited to frying.^[13] Ghee has always been a common frying medium in India, where many avoid other animal fats for cultural or religious reasons.

Butter fills several roles in baking, where it is used in a similar manner as other solid fats like lard, suet, or shortening, but has a flavor that may better complement sweet baked goods. Many cookie doughs and some cake batters are leavened, at least in part, by creaming butter and sugar together, which introduces air bubbles into the butter. The tiny bubbles locked within the butter expand in the heat of baking and aerate the cookie or cake. Some cookies like shortbread may have no other source of moisture but the water in the butter. Pastries like pie dough incorporate pieces of solid fat into the dough, which become flat layers of fat when the dough is rolled out. During baking, the fat melts away, leaving a flaky texture. Butter, because of its flavor, is a common choice for the fat in such a dough, but it can be more difficult to work with than shortening because of its low melting point. Pastry makers often chill all their ingredients and utensils while working with a butter dough.

Butter also has many non-culinary, traditional uses which are specific to certain cultures. For instance, in North America, applying butter to the handle of a door is a common prank on April Fools' Day.

Health and nutrition[link]

At the Minnesota State Fair for about 40 years to promote butter over margarine, Linda Christensen has sculpted each Princess Kay of the Milky Way in butter.^[41]

According to USDA figures, one tablespoon of butter (14 grams / 0.5 ounces) contains 420 kilojoules (100 kcal), all from fat, 11 grams (0.4 oz) of fat, of which 7 grams (0.25 oz) are saturated fat, and 30 milligrams (0.46 gr) of cholesterol.^[42]

Commercial butter-making is a carefully controlled operation.

Butter is considered unhealthy^{[by whom?]} unless consumed in moderation, due to consisting of 63% saturated fat and containing high levels of cholesterol, which increases the risk of heart disease. Margarine has been recommended as a substitute^{[by whom?]}, since it is higher in unsaturated fat and contains little or no cholesterol, though it may have higher trans fats instead.^[43]

Proponents of the consumption of butter, such as the nutritionist Mary Enig, state that butter is nutritious, "rich in short and medium chain fatty acids" and can have a positive effect on health and prevent disease.^[44] It is a good source of Vitamin A.

As butter is essentially just the milk fat, it contains only traces of lactose, so moderate consumption of butter is not a problem for the lactose intolerant.^[45] People with milk allergies still need to avoid butter, which contains enough of the allergy-causing proteins to cause reactions.^[46]

Butter may play a useful role in dieting by providing satiety. A small amount added to low fat foods such as vegetables may ward off feelings of hunger.^[44]

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Butter

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on Butter

Look up butter in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Manufacture of butter, The University of Guelph
• "Butter", Food Resource, College of Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University, February 20, 2007. – FAQ, links, and extensive bibliography of food science articles on butter.
• Cork Butter Museum: the story of Ireland’s most important food export and the world’s largest butter market
• Virtual Museum Exhibit on Milk, Cream & Butter

v t e Butter Beurre blanc Beurre noir Beurre noisette Beurre à la bourguignonne Bog butter Butter (2011 film) Butter churn Butter knife Butter lamb Butter lamp Butter rebellion Butter sculpture Butter tea The ButterCream Gang Buttered cat paradox Butterfat Chicago Butter and Egg Board Churning Clarified butter Compound butter Egg butter French butter dish Ghee Lurpak Manteiga-da-terra Niter kibbeh Paula Deen Scotch hands

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 2011

2011 (MMXI) was a common year that started on a Saturday in the Gregorian calendar. It was the 2011th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations; the 11th year of the 3rd millennium and of the 21st century; and the 2nd of the 2010s.

The United Nations designated 2011 as the International Year of Forests and the International Year of Chemistry.^[1] It was marked by a wave of revolutions in the Arab World known as the Arab Spring, including the beginnings of several unresolved protest movements and armed conflicts.

Events[link]

January[link]

• January 1 – Estonia officially adopts the euro currency and becomes the seventeenth eurozone country.^[2]
• January 4 – Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi dies after setting himself on fire a month earlier, sparking anti-government protests in Tunisia and later other Arab nations. These protests become known collectively as the Arab Spring.^[3][4]
• January 9–15 – Southern Sudan holds a referendum on independence. The Sudanese electorate votes in favour of independence, paving the way for the creation of the new state in July.^[5][6]
• January 11 – Flooding and mudslides in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro kills 903.^[7]
• January 14 – Arab Spring: The Tunisian government falls after a month of increasingly violent protests; President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali flees to Saudi Arabia after 23 years in power.^[8][9]
• January 24 – 37 people are killed and more than 180 others wounded in a bombing at Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia.^[10][11][12]

February[link]

• February 11 – Arab Spring: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigns after widespread protests calling for his departure, leaving control of Egypt in the hands of the military until a general election can be held.^[13]
• February 22 - March 14 – Uncertainty over Libyan oil output causes crude oil prices to rise 20% over a two-week period following the Arab Spring,^[14] causing the 2011 energy crisis.

March[link]

• March 11 – A 9.1-magnitude^[15] earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the east of Japan, killing 15,840 and leaving another 3,926 missing. Tsunami warnings are issued in 50 countries and territories. Emergencies are declared at four nuclear power plants affected by the quake.^[16]
• March 15 – Arab Spring: Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain declares a three-month state of emergency as troops from the Gulf Co-operation Council are sent to quell the civil unrest.^[17][18]
• March 17 – Arab Spring and the 2011 Libyan civil war: The United Nations Security Council votes 10-0 to create a no-fly zone over Libya in response to allegations of government aggression against civilians.^[19]
• March 19 – Arab Spring and the Libyan civil war: In light of continuing attacks on Libyan rebels by forces in support of leader Muammar Gaddafi,^[20] military intervention authorized under UNSCR 1973 begins as French fighter jets make reconnaissance flights over Libya.^[21]

April[link]

• April 11 – Former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo is arrested in his home in Abidjan by supporters of elected President Alassane Ouattara with support from French forces thereby ending the 2010–2011 Ivorian crisis and civil war.^[22]
• April 29 – An estimated two billion people^[23] watch the wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey in London.

May[link]

• May 1 – U.S. President Barack Obama announces that Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of the militant group Al-Qaeda, has been killed during an American military operation in Pakistan.^[24]
• May 16 – The European Union agree to €78 billion rescue deal for Portugal. The bailout loan will be equally split between the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism, the European Financial Stability Facility, and the International Monetary Fund.^[25]
• May 26 – Former Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladić, wanted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, is arrested in Serbia.^[26][27]

June[link]

• June 4 – Chile's Puyehue volcano erupts, causing air traffic cancellations across South America, New Zealand, Australia and forcing over 3,000 people to evacuate.
• June 5 – Arab Spring: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh travels to Saudi Arabia for treatment of an injury sustained during an attack on the presidential palace. Protesters celebrate his transfer of power to his Vice-President Abd al-Rab Mansur al-Hadi.^[28]
• June 12 – Arab Spring: Thousands of Syrians flee to Turkey as Syrian troops lay siege to Jisr ash-Shugur.^[29]

July[link]

• July 7 – The world's first artificial organ transplant is achieved, using an artificial windpipe coated with stem cells.^[30]
• July 9 – South Sudan secedes from Sudan, per the result of the independence referendum held in January.^[31]
• July 20
  • Goran Hadžić is detained in Serbia, becoming the last of 161 people indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.^[32]
  • The United Nations declares a famine in southern Somalia, the first in over thirty years.^[33]
• July 21 – Space Shuttle Atlantis lands successfully at Kennedy Space Center after completing STS-135, concluding NASA's space shuttle program.^[34]
• July 22 – 77 people are killed in twin terrorist attacks in Norway after a bombing in the Regjeringskvartalet government center in Oslo and a shooting at a political youth camp on the island of Utøya.^{[35][36][37][38]}
• July 31
  • In Thailand over 12.8 million people are affected by severe flooding. The World Bank estimates damages at 1,440 billion baht (US$45 billion).^[39] Some areas are still six feet under water, and many factory areas remained closed at the end of the year. 815^[40] people are killed, with 58 of the country's 77 provinces affected.^[41]
  • Arab Spring: Because of the uncertaintities associated with a clamp-down of the free press, there are believed to be at least 121 people killed in a Syrian Army tank raid on the town of Hama and over 150 people are reportedly killed across the country.^[42][43][44] The total dead throughout Syria may never be known, but an estimate as of September 24 is 3,000.

August[link]

• August 5
  • NASA announces that its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured photographic evidence of possible liquid water on Mars during warm seasons.
  • Juno, the first solar-powered spacecraft on a mission to Jupiter, is launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.^[45]
• August 20–28 – Arab Spring and the Libyan civil war: In the Battle of Tripoli, Libyan rebels take control of the nation's capital, effectively overthrowing the government of Muammar Gaddafi.^[46][47][48]

September[link]

• September 5 – India and Bangladesh sign a pact to end their 40-year border demarcation dispute.^[49]
• September 10 – Zanzibar ferry sinking: The MV Spice Islander I, carrying at least 800 people, sinks off the coast of Zanzibar, killing 240 people.^[50]
• September 12 – Approximately 100 people die after a petrol pipeline explodes in Nairobi.^[51]
• September 17 – Occupy Wall Street protests begin in the United States. This develops into the Occupy movement which spreads to 82 countries by October.^{[52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]}
• September 19 – With 434 dead, the United Nations launches a $357 million appeal for victims of the 2011 Sindh floods in Pakistan.^[61]

October[link]

• October 4
  • 2011 Mogadishu bombing: 100^[62] people are killed in a car bombing in the Somali capital Mogadishu.^[63]
  • The death toll from the flooding of Cambodia's Mekong River and attendant flash floods reaches 207.^[64][65]
• October 18 – Israel and the Palestinian militant organization Hamas begin a major prisoner swap, in which the captured Israeli Army soldier Gilad Shalit is released by Hamas in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian and Israeli-Arab prisoners held in Israel, including 280 prisoners serving life sentences for planning and perpetrating terror attacks.^[66][67][68]
• October 20
  • Arab Spring and the Libyan civil war: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is killed in Sirte, with National Transitional Council forces taking control of the city, and ending the war.^{[69][70][71][72]}
  • Basque separatist militant organisation ETA declares an end to its 43-year campaign of political violence, which has killed over 800 people since 1968.^[73]
• October 23 – A magnitude 7.2 M_w earthquake jolted eastern Turkey near the city of Van, killing 604 people, and damaging about 2,200 buildings.^[74]
• October 27 – After an emergency meeting in Brussels, the European Union announced an agreement to tackle the European sovereign debt crisis which includes a writedown of 50% of Greek bonds, a recapitalisation of European banks and an increase of the bailout fund of the European Financial Stability Facility totaling to €1 trillion.^[75][76]
• October 31
  • Date selected by the UN as the symbolic date when global population reaches seven billion.^[77]
  • UNESCO admitted Palestine as a member, following a vote in which 107 member states supported and 14 opposed.^[78]

November[link]

• November 26 – The Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity, the most elaborate Martian exploration vehicle to date, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center. It is slated to land on Mars on August 5, 2012.^[79][80][81]

December[link]

• December 15 – The United States formally declares an end to the Iraq War.^{[82][83][84][85][86]}
• December 16 – Tropical Storm Washi causes 1,268 flash flood fatalities in the Philippines with 85 people officially listed as missing.^[87]
• December 29 – Samoa and Tokelau move from east to west of the International Date Line, thereby skipping December 30, in order to align their time zones better with their main trading partners.^[87]

Deaths[link]

January[link]

Gerry Rafferty

• January 2
  • Anne Francis, American actress (b. 1930)
  • Pete Postlethwaite, British actor (b. 1946)
  • Richard Winters, American paratrooper (b. 1918)
• January 4
  • Prince Ali-Reza Pahlavi of Iran (b. 1966)
  • Gerry Rafferty, Scottish musician (b. 1947)
• January 15
  • Nat Lofthouse, English footballer (b. 1925)
  • Susannah York, British actress (b. 1939)
• January 18 – Sargent Shriver, American politician and diplomat (b. 1915)
• January 21 – Dennis Oppenheim, American artist (b. 1938)
• January 24 – Bernd Eichinger, German film producer and director (b. 1949)
• January 29 – Milton Babbitt, American composer (b. 1916)
• January 30 – John Barry, English composer (b. 1933)

February[link]

Jane Russell

• February 3 – Maria Schneider, French actress (b. 1952)
• February 5 – Brian Jacques, British author (b. 1939)
• February 6
  • Josefa Iloilo, 3rd President of Fiji (b. 1920)
  • Gary Moore, Irish musician (b. 1952)
• February 8 – Cesare Rubini, Italian basketball player and coach (b. 1923)
• February 14 – George Shearing, British-American jazz pianist (b. 1919)
• February 27 – Necmettin Erbakan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey (b. 1926)
• February 28 – Jane Russell, American actress (b. 1921)

March[link]

Alberto Granado

Elizabeth Taylor

• March 4
  • Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, 30th Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1924)
  • Simon van der Meer, Dutch Nobel physicist (b. 1925)
• March 5 – Alberto Granado, Cuban writer and scientist (b. 1922)
• March 6 – Ján Popluhár, Slovak footballer (b. 1935)
• March 15 – Nate Dogg, American rapper (b. 1969)
• March 17 – Michael Gough, British actor (b. 1916)
• March 18 – Warren Christopher, American diplomat (b. 1925)
• March 21 – Nikolai Andrianov, Soviet-Russian gymnast (b. 1952)
• March 23 – Elizabeth Taylor, British-American actress (b. 1932)
• March 26
  • Paul Baran, Polish-American computer engineer (b. 1926)
  • Geraldine Ferraro, American politician (b. 1935)
  • Diana Wynne Jones, British writer (b. 1934)
• March 27 – Farley Granger, American actor (b. 1925)
• March 29 – José Alencar, Brazilian politician (b. 1931)

April[link]

William Lipscomb

• April 5
  • Baruch Samuel Blumberg, American physician (b. 1925)
  • Ange-Félix Patassé, 5th President of the Central African Republic (b. 1937)
• April 9 – Sidney Lumet, American film director (b. 1924)
• April 14 – William Lipscomb, American chemist (b. 1919)
• April 19 – Grete Waitz, Norwegian athlete (b. 1953)
• April 24 – Sathya Sai Baba, Indian spiritual leader (b. 1926)
• April 30 – Ernesto Sabato, Argentine writer (b. 1911)

May[link]

Osama bin Laden

Rosalyn Yalow

• May 2 – Osama bin Laden, Saudi-born leader of Al-Qaeda (b. 1957)
• May 3 – Jackie Cooper, American actor (b. 1922)
• May 7
  • Seve Ballesteros, Spanish golfer (b. 1957)
  • Willard Boyle, Canadian Nobel physicist (b. 1924)
• May 9 – Lidia Gueiler Tejada, 67th President of Bolivia (b. 1921)
• May 16 – Samuel Wanjiru, Kenyan athlete (b. 1986)
• May 19 – Garret FitzGerald, 7th Taoiseach of Ireland (b. 1926)
• May 20 – Randy Savage, American professional wrestler (b. 1952)
• May 27
  • Jeff Conaway, American actor (b. 1950)
  • Gil Scott-Heron, American poet and musician (b. 1949)
• May 29
  • Sergei Bagapsh, Georgian-born politician (b. 1949)
  • Ferenc Mádl, 2nd President of Hungary (b. 1931)
• May 30 – Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, American physicist (b. 1921)
• May 31 – Pauline Betz, American tennis player (b. 1919)

June[link]

Jack Kevorkian

• June 3 – Jack Kevorkian, American euthanasia advocate (b. 1928)
• June 4 – Lawrence Eagleburger, American diplomat (b. 1930)
• June 7 – Jorge Semprún, Spanish writer and politician (b. 1923)
• June 9 – M.F. Hussain, Indian painter (b. 1915)
• June 10 – Patrick Leigh Fermor, British travel writer, scholar and soldier (b. 1915)
• June 18
  • Frederick Chiluba, 2nd President of Zambia (b. 1943)
  • Clarence Clemons, American musician and actor (b. 1942)
• June 23 – Peter Falk, American actor (b. 1927)

July[link]

Itamar Franco

• July 2 – Itamar Franco, 37th President of Brazil (b. 1930)
• July 4 – Archduke Otto of Austria (b. 1912)
• July 5 – Cy Twombly, American painter (b. 1928)
• July 8 – Betty Ford, American feminist, activist, and philanthropist (b. 1918)
• July 10 – Roland Petit, French choreographer and dancer (b. 1924)
• July 12 – Tom Gehrels, American astronomer (b. 1925)
• July 17 – Juan Maria Bordaberry, 36th President of Uruguay (b. 1928)
• July 20 – Lucian Freud, German-born British painter (b. 1922)
• July 23
  • Robert Ettinger, American academic (b. 1918)
  • Nguyen Cao Ky, 8th Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam (b. 1930)
  • Amy Winehouse, British singer (b. 1983)
• July 25 – Mihalis Kakogiannis, Cypriot filmmaker (b. 1922)
• July 28 – Abdul Fatah Younis, Libyan army commander (b. 1944)
• July 30 – Mario Echandi Jiménez, 47th President of Costa Rica (b. 1915)

August[link]

Harri Holkeri

• August 2 – Baruj Benacerraf, Venezuelan-born American Nobel immunologist (b. 1920)
• August 3 – Bubba Smith, American football player and actor (b. 1945)
• August 7
  • Harri Holkeri, 57th Prime Minister of Finland (b. 1937)
  • Nancy Wake, New Zealand-born French Resistance fighter (b. 1912)
• August 14 – Shammi Kapoor, Indian film actor and director (b. 1931)
• August 16 – Andrej Bajuk, 3rd Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia (b. 1943)
• August 19 – Raúl Ruiz, Chilean film director (b. 1941)
• August 22 – Jack Layton, Canadian politician (b. 1950)
• August 31 – Valery Rozhdestvensky, Soviet-Russian cosmonaut (b. 1939)

September[link]

Wangari Maathai

• September 7
  • Pavol Demitra, Slovakian hockey player (b. 1974)
  • Stefan Liv, Polish-born Swedish hockey player (b. 1980)
  • Ruslan Salei, Belarusian hockey player (b. 1974)
  • Kārlis Skrastiņš, Latvian hockey player (b. 1974)
• September 10 – Cliff Robertson, American actor (b. 1923)
• September 11 – Andy Whitfield, Welsh actor and model (b. 1972)
• September 13 – Richard Hamilton, British painter and collage artist (b. 1922)
• September 14 – Rudolf Mössbauer, German Nobel physicist (b. 1929)
• September 19 – George Cadle Price, 1st Prime Minister of Belize (b. 1919)
• September 20 – Burhanuddin Rabbani, President of Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996 (b. 1940)
• September 22 – Aristides Pereira, 1st President of Cape Verde (b. 1923)
• September 25 – Wangari Maathai, Kenyan veterinary anatomist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate (b. 1940)
• September 27 – Imre Makovecz, Hungarian architect (b. 1935)
• September 30
  • Anwar al-Awlaki, American-born terrorist and Islamist militant (b. 1971)
  • Ralph M. Steinman, Canadian Nobel immunologist and cell biologist (b. 1943)

October[link]

Steve Jobs

Muammar Gaddafi

• October 1 – Sven Tumba, Swedish hockey player (b. 1931)
• October 5
  • Steve Jobs, American computer entrepreneur (b. 1955)
  • Charles Napier, American actor (b. 1936)
• October 6 – Diane Cilento, Australian actress (b. 1933)
• October 7 – Ramiz Alia, 1st President of Albania (b. 1925)
• October 12 – Dennis Ritchie, American computer scientist (b. 1941)
• October 16 – Dan Wheldon, English racing car driver (b. 1978)
• October 20 – Muammar Gaddafi, Libyan leader (b. 1942)
• October 22 – Sultan, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia (b. 1930)
• October 23
  • Herbert A. Hauptman, American mathematician and Nobel laureate in chemistry (b. 1917)
  • Marco Simoncelli, Italian motorcycle road racer (b. 1987)
• October 24 – John McCarthy, American computer scientist (b. 1927)
• October 31 – Flórián Albert, Hungarian footballer (b. 1941)

November[link]

Joe Frazier

• November 4 – Alfonso Cano, Colombian militant leader (b. 1948)
• November 5 – Norman Foster Ramsey, Jr., American Nobel physicist (b. 1915)
• November 7 – Joe Frazier, American boxer (b. 1944)
• November 9 – Har Gobind Khorana, Indian-born American Nobel biochemist (b. 1922)
• November 21 – Anne McCaffrey, American writer (b. 1926)
• November 22 – Paul Motian, American jazz drummer (b. 1931)
• November 25 – Vasily Alekseyev, Soviet-Russian weightlifter (b. 1942)
• November 27
  • Ken Russell, British film director (b. 1927)
  • Gary Speed, Welsh footballer and coach (b. 1969)
• November 28
  • Ante Marković, 9th Prime Minister of SFR Yugoslavia (b. 1924)
  • Charles Thomas Kowal, American astronomer (b. 1940)

December[link]

Harry Morgan