Spread (food)

Butter is commonly sold in sticks (pictured) or small blocks, and often served using a butter knife.

A spread is a food that is spread with a knife onto bread, crackers, or other bread products. Spreads are added to bread products to provide flavor and texture, and are an integral part of the dish, i.e. they should be distinguished from condiments, which are optional additions. Spreads should also be distinguished from dips, which do not employ a knife in applying it to crackers or chips, such as salsa.

As such, "spread" has a functional definition, which means that the same food can be categorized as a spread, but also an "ingredient" under different circumstances. A good example of this would be butter, which could appear on buttered toast as a spread and in cookies as a baking ingrediant.

Common spreads include dairy spreads (e.g. cheeses, creams, and butters; though the term butter is broadly applied to many spreads), plant spreads (e.g. jams, jellies, peanut butter, vegemite, hummus and baba ghanoush), margarines, yeast spreads (e.g. Vegemite and Marmite) and meat spreads (e.g. pâté, fleischbutter, cretons).