How much is a "knob of butter?"   How much do you want it to be?

Certainly more than a dash, and well more than a pinch — neither of which seems the best way to measure butter, in any event.

More to the point, a knob of butter is a British term denoting some butter, and its use is sadly declining as zealous editors force more precision and science into our recipes and cookbooks. Even the loosest British cooks (and I mean that in the nicest way) might get away with telling you to add a knob of butter on a television program. But when their cookbooks are published in the States, you can bet someone will have translated all those knobs into precise measurements.

In my experience, a knob of butter is a couple tablespoons, more or less.

Hope this helps and welcome to the Forums

P.S. Jamie has been doing this for a quite a while and he is pretty good at it rest assured that if it was critical to the recipe he will give a precise amount. so just have fun with it and try not to worry too much about getting it just exacty right.

Last edited by farnation (Sat 15 Sep 07 4:49am)

A knob of butter is about a heaped tablespoon, or about the same size as you would pick up between three fingers and a thumb.

A knob of butter is defined as an isosceles right-angled tetrahedron whose adjacent is equal to half the height of the block of butter

GeoffP wrote:

A knob of butter is defined as an isosceles right-angled tetrahedron whose adjacent is equal to half the height of the block of butter

I always think of a knob of butter as being about the size of a smallish walnut.

This thread might be of help. The earlier postings were sensible.
(I am afraid that I am guilty of causing the chaos that it ended up in  )
http://www.jamieoliver.com/forum/viewto … 18&p=1

Hmm...I always used the 50g markings on the packet, which equates to about 1 and a bit tablespoons...then I'd cut that 'knob' into quarters and add each quarter as needed.

Last edited by stuvik (Sat 22 Sep 07 5:00pm)

US Sticks of butter are a bit easier to get your head around if you think of it as a one 1/2 pound of butter cut in half lenthwise more or less.

Last edited by farnation (Sun 23 Sep 07 1:32am)