A staple of Renaissance banquets where popes set tables with lavish butter sculptures, elaborate artwork made from the milk byproduct evolved into promotions for a dairy industry battling margarine. Celebrated attractions at world expos, the savory statues were perhaps nowhere more popular than at the Minnesota State Fair. Butter sculptures reached their apogee there in 1910, with a 6-foot-tall model of Teddy Roosevelt. Standing over a dead lion, the palatable former president represented a masculine and healthy vibe meant to counteract consumers' perception of butter as feminine and impure.