“Better Butter Better” Leads to Butter Bust Winner
01 December 2012
Saying that five times fast led to a college student’s likeness in Darigold butter.
It took 110 pounds of butter, two days of carving and a 14-second, tongue-twisting video to make it happen. One lucky Seattle resident, Haley Alaji, was announced the grand-prize winner in Darigold’s “Better Butter” online contest, and as her prize, Darigold created an oversized butter bust carving of Alaji that will feature prominently on billboards throughout Puget Sound through December.
“It’s amazing to see myself in butter—the carving is so precise, and it actually looks just like me!” says Alaji, a theater student at the Cornish College of the Arts who lives in downtown Seattle and moved to the Northwest four months ago from Detroit. “I happened to come across Darigold’s contest asking people to submit videos of themselves saying ‘better butter better’ five times fast, and decided to go for it. I found a street performer playing the violin, set up my camera and shot a little spontaneous dance video, and the judges picked me!”
The winner’s butter bust was created by renowned artist Linda Christensen, who is known for her annual butter carvings of the Minnesota State Fair dairy princesses (which she has done for the last 40 years) and, most recently, for creating Darigold’s playful take on Seattle’s impending new sports arena, dubbed “The Butter Dome.” Alaji's once-in-a-lifetime replica was carved by Christensen on-site at Darigold over two days in a temperature-controlled cooler; the artist worked from several images of the enthusiastic 18-year-old to create the final sculpture that stands more than 2 feet tall.
Why the buzz around butter? Darigold butter is one of the only North American producers to employ the use of a sophisticated European vacuum-style churn to create a truly dense butter, which is not only ideal for carving, but for cooking and baking, too.
“Darigold’s vacuum-churning approach makes our butter devoid of excess air—our butter contains less than 1% air in comparison to the 4-6% found in most other butters,” says Seth Godwin, senior product manager for Darigold. “The result is a rich, dense, decadent butter with excellent distribution characteristics that make for perfectly shaped baked goods. In addition, the dense butter also boasts a higher melting point, which gives cooks a longer and more stable window where melted butter retains that golden, sauce-like consistency.”
All Darigold butter is churned in Issaquah, Wash., on the largest European vacuum-style churn ever imported to America. The churn was created in Cherbourg, France, by the famed Simon Frères Company—which has made churns for nearly 150 years—and can produce up to 50,000 pounds of butter an hour. All milk used for the butter comes from Darigold’s farmer-owned and operated dairy farms throughout the Western states, and all butter products are rBST-free and subject to strict quality controls.
For additional information on Darigold's “better butter,” baking ideas and more, visit Darigold.com.