CHICAGO — Thousands of butter turkeys will rest on Chicago dinner tables for Thanksgiving.
The turkey-shaped portions of whipped butter are produced at South Chicago-based Danish Maid Butter Co., which is well known for its individual butter-filled cups and the butter lambs made around Easter.
About 150 cases filled with 5,688 total butter turkeys are being made, according to Susan Wagner, who runs Danish Maid, 8512 S. Commercial Ave., with her brother Matt.
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"People have different ways of eating the butter," Susan Wagner said. "They either cut the head off or the tail off."
Wagner said the butter turkeys, which cost between $1.75-$3, are available at all Treasure Island and Pete's Fresh Market grocery stores. That includes spots in Little Village, Near West Side, Gage Park, Brighton Park, Archer Heights, Lakeview, Gold Coast, Hyde Park, Lincoln Park and Downtown.
Each butter turkey weighs about three ounces — a standard stick of butter is about four ounces, Wagner said. The molds come from Woodstock, Illinois-based Dordan Manufacturing, Wagner said.
The turkeys are in far less supply than the standard butter cups; the company makes about 603,000 of those cups each week. Danish Maid, which acquires butter from several farms across the Midwest, also produces more than 150,000 of the butter lambs.
The Wagners have owned the company since 1986. Butter turkeys had been part of the company, which dates to the 1930s, in the past, and the Wagners reintroduced them in 2008.
Danish Maid Butter Co. is in a nondescript brown brick building in South Chicago, surrounded by vacant lots and abandoned buildings. The awning outside reads only "Danish Maid," and Susan Wagner said many people come to the factory to see if there are "maid" jobs available.
"They come in to ask if we're hiring," she said.
She said the family and small group of employees — there are eight total who produce and distribute the butter — takes pride running operations from the South Side.
"A lot of people don't know we're Chicago based," Wagner said.
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