all these buttery post remind me of an experience in my youth-- we were poor-- i never much realized it. (but when i was i in HS, i found out i qualified for free lunch-- not just subsidized.. so we were pretty close to the US povery line) but we always had food in the house..

my mother was parsimonious with the butter though-- she always wanted us to use margarine (and leave all the butter for her!) and was always upset if we used up the 1 pound block before the week was up.. (we were a family of 7!)

then one day, she was talking about the hardships of WWll, when food was rationed (even in ireland, which was neutral during the war). she let it slip that their ration was 1 pound per person per week!

since my mother's family was also 7--this was a ration of 7 pounds of butter a week! and here we were, with a single pound to last a week! but my mother buttered everything... including hamburger rolls, and sometimes, stale pound cake! (needless to say, with 5 hungry kids to feed, it was a rare day that pound cake hung around long enough to get stale!)

I am not sure the english (or the irish, for that matter) can eat anything with out butter!