Butter Confusion

A reader has asked: How much butter is in a cup? Do recipes really expect you to force sticks of butter into measuring cups?

A: One cup of butter is 8 ounces or two 4-ounce sticks. Each stick is 1/2 cup. I agree about the terminology—I prefer to state quantities of butter in terms of tablespoons, especially since the wrapper for each stick is usually divided into tablespoons.