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How To Make a Butter Lamb for Easter

2009_04_06-Lamb.jpgTake a look at this butter lamb, sent to us by reader Ron. A butter lamb on the Easter table is an old Polish Catholic tradition. Usually people make a butter lamb using a mold, but Ron says that this is the older, more traditional way to do it — no mold required.

 
 

Ron says he wants to keep the old traditions alive, and to inspire people to start a new (to them) tradition of trying a butter lamb for Easter. He also has an entire spread of traditional Polish Easter recipes!

Get the directions: How To Make an Easter Butter Lamb

Check out the kielbasa and bread goodness of his Easter feast, too!

Polish Easter Brunch

Have you ever made a butter lamb? Here are a couple others from around the blogosphere:

Butter Lamb - Easter table at knitwithasilentk's Flickr stream
Butter Lamb for Easter at Andrea's Recipes

Related: A Butter Lamb for Easter

(Image: Cap'N Ron)

Tags

Holidays - Easter, Tips & Techniques, butter, lamb, Easter decoration

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Comments (27)

No.

posted by protogarrett on April 7th 2009 at 11:36am
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Nie.

posted by heather77 on April 7th 2009 at 12:17pm
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Thankfully my Polish inlaws don't subscribe to this tradition.

posted by cweingarten on April 7th 2009 at 12:20pm
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Wow, I'm of entirely Polish descent (even having a grandparent from Warsaw), and I've never heard of this one. My Mom does always make an Easter lamb cake, though.

Are you sure this isn't from (shudder) Paula Deen?

posted by Peggasus on April 7th 2009 at 12:23pm
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That's disgusting. Butter barf.

posted by SoSpunky5 on April 7th 2009 at 12:40pm
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Aw come on, it's adorable. (Although at first glance I thought it was egg salad...)

posted by Brooklynnina on April 7th 2009 at 12:45pm
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it looks like a butter rodent !

posted by caterpillargirl on April 7th 2009 at 12:53pm
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Damn, that's a lot of butter.

posted by EasilyAmused on April 7th 2009 at 1:12pm
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We have one of these every year! There is some kind of flag that gets stuck in him too (the flag of Christ? I'm not sure). We buy ours at the store though - where the lambs are rather petite. It's a lot of butter - but it will (eventually) get used up.

Also - first year in memory that we're not having a lamb cake too.

posted by meggo on April 7th 2009 at 1:33pm
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aw, i kinda like the lamb! go, ron!

posted by gretchenalexis on April 7th 2009 at 1:35pm
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this is butter abuse and should be reported

posted by designerny on April 7th 2009 at 1:53pm
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That looks awwwwful.

posted by jamiealyse on April 7th 2009 at 1:59pm
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We used to make one of these every year - my grandma had a metal mold that fit together in two halves. Fill each side with a stick of butter that had been left overnight then smash together and chill in fridge/freezer. Before dinner you would run it under cold water to release it and then the kids would all argue over who got to cut off the head to eat on their rolls and who ended up with the other end.

posted by travers on April 7th 2009 at 2:05pm
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OK, I've seen the little butter lambs for sale at Jewel and Italian delis at Easter time, but this one is PLATTER SIZED. With butter...fur? Wool? What do we call this? And I do believe those are cloves as the eyes and nose. This thing has to be at least three pounds of butter.

posted by Peggasus on April 7th 2009 at 2:34pm
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Hmmm---apparently some of you have never been around the lambs at shearing time. This looks very much like a curly pile of lamb's wool, and is almost the same color.

I read the instructions: it uses one pound of butter and the platter is a small sandwich platter like you'd see in a diner.

posted by SunnyBlue on April 7th 2009 at 3:20pm
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ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

posted by CarrieCooks on April 7th 2009 at 4:37pm
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gross!!!!!!!!!!

posted by delagirl924 on April 7th 2009 at 5:48pm
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This is ridiculous. I am Polish and have never heard of this. Like ever. Kielbasa, yes. Ham, yes, Eggs, yes. Mound of butter, no. Perhaps this is the punch line of yet another Polish joke?

posted by aftermath on April 7th 2009 at 5:48pm
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A fast google search would have showed people the tradition of the Catholic Polish butter lamb. http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=239

I have to agree, looks like a butter rat, but its still cute. They actually sell the lambs here at our local Price Chopper and the other stores. Oswego has a huge Polish decedents in our community and the tradition has spread through the entire area among the Catholics.

posted by Jaie on April 7th 2009 at 7:11pm
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Butter Lamb is my favorite! But we always bought ours in a mold from the store. And you don't eat it straight. You use it like regular butter. So, not gross.

posted by gopherface on April 7th 2009 at 8:21pm
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I live in a very polish community, so I have to say heck yes, we have butter lambs at Easter. We usually make our own (granted, not as large as this one...usually only out of one standard stick).


now for those non-believers who think this is weird, you should come out on Dyngus day!

posted by electropositive on April 7th 2009 at 8:27pm
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for a more appealing lamb use a pastry bag to make the wool on the body form, and come on people yes he used a pound of butter for what looked like a crowd but use what works for your gathering

posted by zumbooruk on April 7th 2009 at 11:14pm
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Zumbooruk! Using a pastry bag is a great idea, and easier than pressing the butter through a tea strainer. I think the little guy is charming. I'm not Polish, but I love family and holiday traditions, no matter where they come from.

And FWIW---my Grandmother thought setting a stick of butter on the table was gauche. She wanted butterballs, especially on holidays.

posted by SunnyBlue on April 8th 2009 at 11:24am
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this is BAAAAHd. Get it? BAAAHd?

posted by sosinchi on April 9th 2009 at 11:44am
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Those in a hurry might want to consider making a butter Cross to honor the holiday. Directions: Use two sticks of salted butter, cut one stick in half. Place halves beside whole stick. Voila.

posted by sosinchi on April 9th 2009 at 11:51am
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Speaking of lamb cakes, does anyone know the reasoning behind the smoking lamb cake?

It was featured on Cake Wrecks this morning, and it's been boggling my mind all day.

posted by RegkinsOrDie on April 9th 2009 at 1:14pm
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posted by tiffany77 on October 9th 2009 at 3:47am
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