HOUSEHOLD ITEM

Margarine: Due to a scarcity of animal fat in France in the 1860s, the French government offered a prize for the creation of a “cheap butter.” In 1869, French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès patented his invention consisting of liquid beef tallow, milk, water and chopped cow’s udder, churned into solid form. He called his pearly product oleomargarine ( oleo, the French word for beef fat; margaritari, the Greek word for pearl).