Bog Butter Survived Centuries Underground

In Ireland and Scotland, people buried butter in peat bogs by the first century AD, creating what archaeologists call bog butter. They sealed butter or other animal fats inside wooden containers and buried them in cold, acidic, oxygen-poor bogs, conditions that could hinder spoilage. In 2011, a discovery in Tullamore, County Offaly, yielded about 50 kilograms of bog butter that still carried a faint dairy smell.

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