Butter, Margarine or Oil?

[pacanis]

I can't say for bakechef, but I keep my butter (and spreadable butter) in the fridge because I like cold butter. I like the nice contrast between cold butter before it melts and warm toast. And cold butter on a heel of Italian bread... mmmm. It's easier to stick a cold pat of butter on the end of a fork for spreading on corn on the cob, too. The only downside is I need to remember to take it out to warm up some when I'm baking, which isn't often. I prefer cold butter.

[Claire]

Oh, good heavens! It cracks me up. No one my age should have lived over 40 by some health standards. I'm not saying to go out of your way to do things that are unhealthy, but I never ate butter as a child, and my parents (77 and 81) rarely do. Margarine is what we could afford, and that is what we had. I also, as every person I know over the age of 40, lived in homes with asbestos in floors and ceilings and lead in walls and cupboards. Yet we're living longer than our "all natural" grandparents did, and it seems that children now, who live with newer safety measures, have more medical problems that children did when I was young. Yes, some of that is simply that we didn't know about a kid across the country or world who died of these problems.

Yes, do your best by your family by whatever means. Every body is individual. What will kill one person won't hurt another, with obvious exceptions (don't think anyone ever benefited from a heroin or tobacco addiction) you can only do the best you can.

[bakechef]

Originally Posted by Sir_Loin_of_Beef

You keep your butter in the refrigerator? Why? Butter doesn't see refrigeration anywhere between the manufacturer and the retailer, and even the retailers have been known to leave it sitting on a pallet in the storage area for hours, sometimes days. I buy my butter in a 3 pound package, and I keep one stick in a butter keeper in my pantry, the remaining sticks from one pound in the door of the fridge, and the extra pounds in the freezer.

Having worked for different grocery retailers over the last 20 years, I can guarantee you that butter is kept refrigerated. We receive our meat, deli, dairy etc.. on separate refrigerated trucks from our general grocery and supplies. I can also tell you that I have never worked for a place that would tolerate pallets being left out for hours or days. The pallets are rolled from the refrigerated trucks into large walk in coolers, each department has coolers large enough for pallets.

Any place that would leave refrigerated product out for hours or days wouldn't be a place that I would want to work. We are not allowed to pull out more stock from the cooler than we can stock in 30 minutes.

Since I buy butter 4 lbs. at a time from the club store, yes I keep it cold. Since I don't use spreadable butter/margarine often, I am not comfortable leaving out a stick of butter for a week or more.

[Fabiabi]

Unhealthy foods are always much cheaper, it's sad that some people have no choice but to buy bad foods that are bulked out with chemicals. The supermarkets have it all worked out nicely for them.