You might have to look twice when examining the animal-shaped piece of butter at Western New York grocers the next few weeks.
No, that’s not a butter lamb, the beloved Easter dinner tradition embraced locally for six decades that will again have its time in the spotlight in the spring. This one has a wattle.
Camellia Meats has introduced a Malczewski butter turkey for the Thanksgiving season. Adam Cichocki, general manager for family-run Camellia Meats, said Tuesday that customers have inquired for years about butter creatures to represent other holidays.
“Butter is a lot more involved in Thanksgiving than Easter,” Cichocki said. “It can definitely be put to use, for sure.”
A butter turkey is 4 ounces, the same weight as the traditional butter lamb, and retails for $3.99 at Wegmans, Tops, Dash’s, Camellia Meats at the Broadway Market and on Genesee Street, Market in the Square, Federal Meats, Bippert’s Farm and Sloan Market. Cichocki said Camellia has produced about 20,000 butter turkeys, a much smaller figure than the annual lamb production, so – like turkeys themselves – they might be a little elusive.
“This year, I probably wouldn’t wait,” the general manager said. “There’s not going to be as much inventory for sure.” If its trial run is successful, Cichocki said he would expand production next year.
Dorothy Malczewski began selling butter lambs at the Broadway Market in 1963, but retired in 2012 and sold the business to Camellia Meats, another Market vendor with an additional standalone shop on Genesee. Cichocki’s family continues to churn out butter lambs under the Malczewski name.
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