NPR’s Don Gonyea talks with Matt Wagner, co-owner of Danish Maid Butter in Chicago, about the little Easter lambs made of butter that sell around the country this time of year.
DON GONYEA, HOST:
Palm Sunday today marks the beginning of Easter week celebrations around the world. Time to order that ham. And in many Polish American households, Easter dinner would not be complete without the butter lamb. Butter lambs are tiny works of art sculpted out of butter. We have with us Matt Wagner in Chicago. His company, Danish Maid Butter, makes butter lambs for thousands of families every Easter. Matt, thanks for joining us.
MATT WAGNER: You’re welcome. Thanks for having me.
GONYEA: So I should say right here, I am no stranger to the butter lamb positioned front and center on the table for Easter dinner. The lamb, of course, is a reference to Jesus, right? – the lamb of God.
WAGNER: Correct. Yeah, the lamb symbolizes Jesus Christ as the lamb of God, representing his sacrifice, innocence and resurrection.
GONYEA: So for those unfamiliar with the butter lamb, let’s describe what they look like, if you would. And I’ve got one right in front of me, but tell us what makes a butter lamb in terms of its look.
WAGNER: To me, it always looked like a lamb that might be laying down in the field. That’s kind of the best way to describe it. There’s no legs on the butter lamb that we make. It just kind of looks like it’s sitting on a bed of grass.
GONYEA: And how do you see families present, display, place the lamb at their tables?
WAGNER: I’ve heard over the years some people will actually take their lamb to church before Easter to have it blessed along with other items that they might have in their Easter basket. And then as far as on the table, at least in our house, we get out our nicest butter dish and display it on there.
GONYEA: So it occupies a place of honor.
WAGNER: Yes, right in the center of the table.
GONYEA: So how many do you sell each year?
WAGNER: This year, we made approximately 105,000 individual butter lambs.
GONYEA: It’s not a year-round thing, is it? Are you selling regular sticks of butter the rest of the year?
WAGNER: Our other business is we make individual butter cups that you will see at restaurants. The original owner, he invented the whipped buttercup.
GONYEA: And not to make this sound too clinical, but when do you start gearing up for butter lamb production?
WAGNER: This year, we started right in – about mid-January. It all goes around when Easter is. So Easter was two weeks earlier this year, so we had to gear up a little bit quicker than last year.
GONYEA: OK. So I’ve got the lamb in front of me here. And while I don’t have a nice loaf of warm bread or a ham nearby, I’m still going to just kind of, for the sake of this, slice into it. And I have to confess that when I’ve done this in the past, my inclination is to start by removing the head.
WAGNER: And that is the most common response that we get from people. They say, It’s always who’s going to do it at the table and who’s going to, you know, chop the head off first.
GONYEA: OK, here we go. I don’t know if we can hear this, but…
(SOUNDBITE OF SILVERWARE CLINKING)
GONYEA: I have just chopped the head off, and it was pretty clean. And now, sad to say, the head is looking up at me from the bottom of the dish. But I’m certain you will have the lamb – a butter lamb at your table.
WAGNER: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.
GONYEA: Well, as the peppercorn-eyed lamb looks up at me, I’m going to say, Matt Wagner is co-owner of Danish Maid Butter in Chicago. He’s making 105,000 butter lambs this Easter season. They have been shipped around the country already. Matt, thank you very much.
WAGNER: You’re welcome.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
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