Butter or Margarine.

[Denninmi]

No one knows how much margarine now disgusts me.

Don't get me wrong, this cheap (relatively) synthetic monstrosity has its place -- I still use it to pan fry fish, blended half and half with oil, or in certain baked goods where the minimal flavor difference between butter and margarine in the finished product doesn't justify the cost difference.

But, to put it on toast, or cooked vegetables, no thank you.

Three years ago, roughly, margarine was all I practically had ever had. When I was a child, our elderly, kindly family physician told my mother that "butter was the food of the Devil." An exact quote there -- not that he speaking theologically, mind you. But he firmly believed, I guess based upon the science of the day, that butter was really unhealthy, and all of those wonderful, miracle-of-modern-science, better-living-through-chemistry hydrogenated palm, soy, and coconut oil based spreads were the healthy alternative. Mind you, people once thought that vegetables were unhealthy, too, so obviously, attitudes change and science marches on.

So, roughly in 2008, I rebelled against this long-held family myth, and started buying, gasp, real live, honest to goodness, it came out of a cow, butter. Toast now gets real butter. Corn on the cob travels to the Land O'Lakes on its culinary journey. That little pat on top of the mashed potatoes is most certainly NOT Blue Bonnet. Margarine lives its life in my house now relegated to the realm of ingredients --I would no more put margarine on my toast than I would sit down to a bowl of raw flour for my breakfast -- well, voluntarily, that is.

Sorry, Madison Avenue, you can have Megan Mullaly and Kim Cattral cavort all you want with French men and giant plastic tubs, but trust me, I CAN believe it's not butter -- I am amazed at just how "fake" margarine now tastes to me. How do I know this? -- I ran out of my little dairy friend tonight and, gasp, in desperation, put a little Imperial on my toasted whole wheat English muffin. To quote Julia Roberts' Vivian in the infamous stick it to the mean Rodeo Drive shop girls who work on commission speech in 'Pretty Woman' - "big mistake, big, huge." And, to complete Vivian's thought, "I have to go shopping now."

[grasswire]

1. I haven't used margarine in decades

I used to use it for some baking, like you. Not for a long, long time.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. Margarine hasn't been in our refrigerator in ages

In fact, it may never have been in there.

[kestrel91316]

3. I quit putting trans fats in recipes over 20 years ago, IIRC. I continued to use it

to grease baking pans (for some unfathomable reason, lol) until 12 years ago.

Trans fats (shortening and margarine) are NOT FOOD, they are chemicals that serve only to clog arteries.

Butter, lard, olive oil, and canola are all I use. I gotta buy some grapeseed oil, too.

[Warpy]

4. I bought my first single stick of butter when I left home at 18

and never looked back, since I realized putting a tiny dab of butter on toast or veg would give me ten times the flavor of a thick slather of margarine. I also reasoned correctly that the less fat in my diet, the better, and the less processed the food I ate, the better.

Cream sauces made with butter were a true revelation. Yes, you can make them with oil or margarine, but with butter, even the plain ones are food of the gods. You don't need to load them down with cheese. Just some salt & pepper, thanks.

Imagine how happy I was many decades later when the bad news about trans fat came out and how butter was much more healthful than the synthetic crap, although none of it is particularly good for you in large amounts.

The only thing I've used margarine for since I switched to butter were cookies for people who requested they be made with "healthy" margarine.

[Lugnut]

5. I use butter.

There is no way I'd ever use the manufactured stuff.

[Lucinda]

6. No margarine. Butter, olive oil or coconut oil only, for me. Bill

will also use pork fat. And I use whole chicken for stock.

I don't use margarine or artificial sprays. I do still use some crisco in pie crusts...which i don't make often. I plan on trying coconut oil in them soon.

[grasswire]

10. crisco says NO trans fats any more

Many people were unhappy about the crisco reformulation in the last century. Cake decorators, for sure.

[Lucinda]

12. Yawp. I've read about making flour additions to the old recipes to make up for the change

I've never made a shortening buttercream...so the flour is added to help recreate the correct texture I guess?

I've only used crisco to fry chicken, and in pie crusts, of course.

[grasswire]

13. no clue about the flour in frosting

I hate those shortening frostings that some bakeries use.

[Lucinda]

14. I don't like the shortening ones or the badly made fondant frostings.

Surely there is a way to make a gorgeous decorator style cake and still have it taste great...

[housewolf]

18. "No trans fats" and donuts

One of the sad things I've discovered in recent years is that there are no good donuts anymore. I used to love donuts. Raised glazed, chocolate donuts, cake donuts, powdered sugar donuts, bismarks, apple fritters - I could go on and on but you get the idea.

Everywhere that I've lived in the past, say, decade (that includes Los Angeles, Phoenix and Portland, as well as places visited in between)I haven't been able to find a single donut that to me was "good". I tried dozens of places. Not even VooDoo Donuts (Portland's famous). They just taste bad to me anymore.

I have a theory that it's because of the no trans-fats rules.

At least, that's what I blame it on.

About 15 years ago I lived outside of a tiny town in Colorado and worked in the little breakfast shop. We made our own donuts and I was the was the donut fryer (among other duties). I worked alone, at night, making yeasted donuts among other things. Once in a while I'd have a little extra dough that I'd form into donut holes, fry them up, glaze them and dip them in melted butter. YUM! YUM! So maybe my standard for donuts is skewed a tad high.

But still, I haven't found an edible donut in years :cry:

And I think it's the trans-free fats that are to blame.

[Tesha]

7. Unsalted butter...

is always there for us - it just tastes better on some things.
and in some things, and melts into puddles of warm heaven...


But years ago I had a huge problem with lactose so I found
Olivio - no trans fats, made with olive oil, spreads easily...

I find I like the texture and mouth-feel - or maybe I'm used to it... who can really tell which

[Warpy]

16. If you clarified the butter, you could probably use it

because all those nasty little milk solids can be strained out.

I'm lactose intolerant but I don't react to butter, as is. I know I wouldn't react to clarified butter.

While I'll sop Italian bread into warm olive oil with the best of them, sometimes I want BUTTER.

[Aerows]

29. Good advice

And also a fantastic use of olive oil. I use two things to cook/season with - butter, since I am a Mississippi/Cajun cook, and olive oil.

[The empressof all]

8. I use Earth Balance when I need a butter alternative

Mostly though I cook with olive oil. For flavor Butter always tastes better IMO but alas it's just not better for me so I forgo it. The funny thing about margarine though is that in some recipes it does make the result better. For years I wondered why my nieces Spritz cookies tasted better than mine. We used the same family recipe. Turns out she subbed out half the butter for Imperial Margarine. (The only one to use according to her) Her cookies have much better consistency and flavor. Go figure.

[Phentex]

9. Even the raccons will not eat margarine!...

We had Parkay margarine growing up and always in stick form.

I buy butter - both the unsalted and the salted. I LOVE KerryGold butter but it's more expensive than regular butter. I have noticed a difference in taste between some store brands so I don't buy off brand too often.

[grasswire]

11. supposedly, the best-tasting commercial butter is Challenge

It is supposed to be a superior butter in the supermarket category. I stock up when it is on sale, although I will also buy Tillamook on sale (it's local). Example: last week Challenge was on sale for $2/pound, this week it is $4.38!!

[Phentex]

26. I haven't seen that here...

I try to stock up, too, since prices are out of control these days.

[GoCubsGo]

15. The only margarine I will use is Smart Balance.

I like their 50/50 butter blends (the stick form) for some baking and pan-frying, and their "light" spreadable is okay. For toast and corn on the cob, I tend to buy whipped butter, which runs around the same price as the Smart Balance. A lot of the time, it just depends on what is on sale and what coupons I have. And, for most baking, I prefer real butter.

Brumell & Brown margarine, made with yogurt, is also okay--better than Imperial, Blue Bonnet, etc.

[Sentath]

17. I don't cook or serve plastic

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margarine#Manufacture

[housewolf]

19. My grandfather was a dairy man

But growing up, my mom cooked with margarine and we used butter as a spread, I suspect because margarine was less expensive and doesn't burn as quickly. Once on my own I ditched the margarine habit and haven't bought any for decades. I'm a butter, butter, butter girl!

When I was a kid growing up in Columbus, Ohio, we went to the Ohio State Fair every August and always toured the cow barn. One of the highlights was a full-sized cow carved out of BUTTER.

I always wanted one of those....

[Denninmi]

20. How did they prevent a Butter Cow from melting in August?

Must have been a refrigerated cow barn, or a big display cooler.

[housewolf]

23. A big display cooler

It was a wonder to behold, happy memories of fair-days

[no_hypocrisy]

21. Different butter for different purposes.

"Regular" commercial butter for sautes, fries, rouxes.

"European" butter for spreading on breads.

I'm up for making my own butter soon as I have time for it, using hormone-free, antiobiotic-free whole cream.

[housewolf]

24. Where does one find "hormone-free, antiobiotic-free" whole cream?

Sounds wonderful!

I buy raw, unpasteurized, non-homogenized milk from a small local dairy & farm. The kind of milk you can see the cream risen to the top and you need to shake it up before using. Cows are pasture-fed, organic, and it's one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted. I'm waiting for they day when they have the capacity to produce enough milk that they can sell some quantities of whole cream. Can't wait!

In the meantime, what's your source?

Butter is easy to make, especially if you have a stand mixer (use your paddle, not your whip). I tried salted butter once though and had trouble with the salt - even the I used regular Morton's salt and even those tiny granules were too noticable in the butter and it was too salty.

[Denninmi]

22. Here's an irony for you.

Just got back from the grocery store. Picked up some butter. Yeah.

The cashier starts handing me bags. First one has a bag of red grapes and a large tub of "Brummel and Brown" margarine spread.

I didn't buy red grapes and Brummel and Brown spread.

Apparently, margarine wants to be in my life whether I want it or not -- it wasn't my bag, it belonged to the customer ahead who had already left.

I politely declined and said "I think this belongs to your previous customer." She sent a bag boy out to try to find the person, I hope he did and returned the margarine to its rightful owner.

[pengillian101]

25. Since I am 60, I have seen this trend come and go.

When I was small, growing up in the Dairy State of WI, margarine was illegal to buy. My Grandma bought it somewhere (?) in a pouch of white lard-type stuff and a dot of red dye. I got to squish it, until it was yellow. My Mom was a high-end restaurant waitress and she ALWAYS used real butter at home.

I went back and forth, as I grew up, due to health concerns in the news. I don't know what's best.

Clogged arteries supposedly caused my stroke a few years ago.

Research changes - education is key. Yet it always changes, eh?

[Phentex]

27. So true...

about the changes.

Interesting about the pouch stuff. I've never heard about anything like it! Did your Grandma think the margarine was somehow better? Or was it just that it was different?

[housewolf]

30. A little history of margarine-coloroing

I remember my mom taking about the margarine pouch with the dye

Up until around WWII, it was actually ILLEGAL for margarine producers to color their margarine. Margarine's natural color is white, like shortenings such as Crisco. That made it somewhat unpalatable as a spread. Margarine was developed in the latter-half of the 1800's. The powerful dairy industry didn't like it and didn't want the competition, so they got laws passed in all the states to disallow the margarine producers to color their margarine, fearing it would lead to confusion among consumers as to what they were eating. So the margarine producers got around the law be including a little bead of color in the margarine package so consumers could color their own.

Those anti-margarine dye laws began to become undone during WWII due to dairy shortages during that period. But in states such as Minnesota and Wisconsin, they stayed in place as late as the late 1960s.

[pengillian101]

32. I don't really know why,

but my grandparents were adept adults during the Depression, so she was thrifty, but then again she was into all natural foods and healthy eating, so who knows.

Too bad she's not around to ask. She died in her mid-90's and I am quite sure butter was their main choice as they farmed then, and my Dad always said how great they ate during the Depression. I imagine money was tight at retirement and therefore the margarine?

:hi:

[Aerows]

28. Butter.

Unsalted. Only thing I use for "butter purposes". For cooking purposes, since I don't fry, olive oil.

I can cook a batch of biscuits in a hurry. I wouldn't even imagine using anything but unsalted butter.

[hatrack]

31. Or, as Julia Child referred to it . . .

"The other spread".

[Brewman_Jax]

33. Butter

or clarified butter, aka ghee, found in oriental groceries or farmer's markets. For frying, ghee, or olive oil (NOT extra virgin), or coconut oil, or sunflower oil or peanut oil. Avoid margarine at all costs!