I suspect that the use of butter in quantities akin to the size of an egg relates to the previous practice of storing butter in crocks rather than in sticks. The butter was probably removed with a spoon or a scoop, the way ice cream is currently, and so "the size of an egg" indicates how generous a scoop to take. Just a hunch.

I used to work in a restaurant where the chef, upon my asking how much of this or that went into a dish, would invariably answer "just enough but not too much."

Last edited by Alex Williams; 03/22/06 02:17 PM.