Do you know why the "petit beurre" biscuits by Lu
have 52 little scallops, or "teeth" around the edges?
In Nantes in 1886, when Louis LEFÈVRE-UTILE, son of
the founders of the company LU, first imagined the "petit beurre" biscuit, his
intention was to create a little cake that people would want to eat every
day. Thus his original idea was to represent time.
The 52 "teeth" around the sides represent the weeks
of the year. (I'm sure you had already figured that out.)
The four corners represent the
seasons.
The fact that the original biscuit was 7cm long was
related to the seven days of the week. (Now I wonder how many people will
get out their measuring tapes.)
There are 24 little pinpricks - one for each
hour of the day.
In addition, the height of a stack of 8 petits
beurre is equal to the width of one biscuit, and according to the internet, that
allowed for packaging 24 petits beurres, once again representing the 24 hours in
a day, in a square box, but no matter how I try, I cannot figure out that
"square."
The form and the lettering were inspired by one of
his grandmother's tablecloths.
The idea was obviously successful,
because more than 9,000 tons of "Véritables Petits Beurres LU" (about a
billion biscuits) are sold each year.
Of course, I am now imagining that readers of this
fascinating information will rush out and buy more packs of petits beurres just
to verify the number of teeth. At any rate, I for one will never bite into
one in the same way again. And I may need to buy a pack just to see if I
can make a square with 24 biscuits.
No comments:
Post a Comment