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Butter is the crème de la crème, the quintessence of the risen richness of milk itself, and as such has traditionally belonged to the exclusive category of "best" things: "top," "opulent," "pure" things. Even for cultures that almost never eat it, butter often achieves an aura of medicinal and cosmetic power. Among the butter-eaters, that minority of people who originate in the steppes and the cold north, it has always had regal status as a substance both unique and splendidly filling.