Butter or Margarine

[LT72884]

What's margarine???

Seriously, the only thing I'll use margarine for is greasing the bottom of a cake pan. Other than that one use, all I have in this house and at work is butter.

i still use butter for greasing a cake pan. gives the cake a nice flava

 

[LT72884]

this is how i get my butter. i take a baby food jar that is empty and clean and then i put heavy cream in it and let the lil kids in my class shake it up for a while untill it turns to butter and then i add a lil salt to it. tastes pretty good to.

 

[jennyema]

I literally rolled an ear of corn in a plate of greasy melted butter, and even though my corn was dripping with the fatty substance, it still had very little butter flavor. On the next ear, just a small pat of Country Crock and there was an explosion of buttery flavor with almost none of the greasy mess that butter created. Further, the mashed potatoes had far less flavor and a looser texture when made with real butter as opposed to Country Crock.

With all due respect, this means that you don't know what butter tastes like. How can real butter have less butter flavor than some "spread?"

Also, it is unlikely that butter made your potatoes "looser." Butter has very little water and CC has a lot (on a relative basis).

It's fine, obviously, that you like Country Crock, but it is not more buttery, flavor wise, than real butter.

Buy some Plugra butter at TJ's and try that.

 

[jennyema]

Vegetable Mono And Diglycerides are a fat that aid in emulsifying. Margarine!

They are technically fatty acids. They aid in the emulsification of the water onto the butter. They are not oils emulsified into the butter as you stated.

This is not margerine.

 

[Barbara L]

Husband sent me an email a year or two ago that revealed how margarine is a very close cousin to plastic. Wish I had it here, I'd post the link

If you search "margarine" at Urban Legends Reference Pages you will find the article. As they show there, the story going around the internet really isn't true.

As far as which we all prefer, I think most of the time we prefer what we grew up with. I grew up with real butter and prefer it. Some grew up with margarine and other spreads and that is what they prefer. Not exactly rocket science (and of course it doesn't always hold true). I know that to me, regular Country Crock tastes like salty grease. When I go to a restaurant and order rolls, they usually serve them with honey whipped margarine, and it is okay. As nasty as it sounds, I can even stomach an occasional spritz of "I can't believe it's not butter" spray on veggies. But I will always prefer butter.

Also someone mentioned leaving butter out. We always left the butter in a covered dish on the table and never had it go bad. It didn't really have time, as we probably went through a stick or two each week. I don't usually leave it out too long here (South Carolina) as it sometimes gets too soft in the summer.

Barbara

 

[keltin]

With all due respect, this means that you don't know what butter tastes like. How can real butter have less butter flavor than some "spread?"

Also, it is unlikely that butter made your potatoes "looser." Butter has very little water and CC has a lot (on a relative basis).

It's fine, obviously, that you like Country Crock, but it is not more buttery, flavor wise, than real butter.

Buy some Plugra butter at TJ's and try that.

With the same due respect, I tasted butter last night and it tasted like butter flavored grease. The greasy texture was far more “in your face” than the desired butter flavor.

Butter, per Tbsp has 11 grams of fat, 7 of those grams is saturated fat, and it has 100 calories (all from fat).....not to mention 30 mg of cholesterol. Country Crock per Tbsp has 8 grams of fat, only 1.5 grams of saturated fat, no trans fat, and 80 calories and no added cholesterol. Butter has 37% more fat per serving and 4.6 times as much saturated fat. Per Tbsp, it is painfully obvious butter is a greasy artery clogging dollop.

And I must say your Tarot cards aren’t working well today, because the mashed potatoes WERE “looser”, and it should be painfully obvious why. Simple math shows that if I put in 4 Tbsp of butter as opposed to Country Crock, I have added 12 additional grams of greasy, oily fat to the potatoes. I’ve got some left over if you want me to mail them to you.

IMHO, yes, Country Crock has a stronger buttery flavor than butter simply because, per Tbsp, there is less greasy mess to interfere with what your tasting.

As for Plugra Butter:

Regular butter contains 80% butterfat. The remaining 20% consists of water and milk solids. Plugrá European Style Butter contains 2.5% more butterfat and is slow-churned in a way that creates a lower-moisture, creamier texture than other butters.

Obviously, I’m not a big fan of the greasy fatty taste of butter, so I highly doubt adding even MORE fat to this mixture is going to help matters.

 

[keltin]

They are technically fatty acids. They aid in the emulsification of the water onto the butter. They are not oils emulsified into the butter as you stated.

This is not margerine.

And where do you think those fatty acids are coming from? The air? No, from vegetable oil (but they can also come from animal fat.....but this ingredient called out Vegetable). Specifically, oil is mixed with glycerin and heated so that that fat molecules will rearrange an align with the glycerin.

Margarine is the emulsification of fatty acids with water or skim milk. This Land-O-Lakes stuff is basically margarine, or as I said, a margarine blend.

 

[LT72884]

With the same due respect, I tasted butter last night and it tasted like butter flavored grease. The greasy texture was far more “in your face” than the desired butter flavor.

Butter, per Tbsp has 11 grams of fat, 7 of those grams is saturated fat, and it has 100 calories (all from fat).....not to mention 30 mg of cholesterol. Country Crock per Tbsp has 8 grams of fat, only 1.5 grams of saturated fat, no trans fat, and 80 calories and no added cholesterol. Butter has 37% more fat per serving and 4.6 times as much saturated fat. Per Tbsp, it is painfully obvious butter is a greasy artery clogging dollop.

And I must say your Tarot cards aren’t working well today, because the mashed potatoes WERE “looser”, and it should be painfully obvious why. Simple math shows that if I put in 4 Tbsp of butter as opposed to Country Crock, I have added 12 additional grams of greasy, oily fat to the potatoes. I’ve got some left over if you want me to mail them to you.

IMHO, yes, Country Crock has a stronger buttery flavor than butter simply because, per Tbsp, there is less greasy mess to interfere with what your tasting.

As for Plugra Butter:

Regular butter contains 80% butterfat. The remaining 20% consists of water and milk solids. Plugrá European Style Butter contains 2.5% more butterfat and is slow-churned in a way that creates a lower-moisture, creamier texture than other butters.

Obviously, I’m not a big fan of the greasy fatty taste of butter, so I highly doubt adding even MORE fat to this mixture is going to help matters.

Why is it so expensive in your area. Here its not to bad. $1.50 per pound for margarine and $2.00-$2.19 per pound for butta. If i were to buy butter at the costco or sams club its like $1.00 per pound

EDIT
i quoted the wrong message. dang it

 

[jennyema]

And where do you think those fatty acids are coming from? The air? No, from vegetable oil (but they can also come from animal fat.....but this ingredient called out Vegetable). Specifically, oil is mixed with glycerin and heated so that that fat molecules will rearrange an align with the glycerin.

Margarine is the emulsification of fatty acids with water or skim milk. This Land-O-Lakes stuff is basically margarine, or as I said, a margarine blend.

No it's not. It's butter with water added. Plain and simple.

Margarine is the emusification of vegetable oil, not fatty acids, with water. By law it must be made from canola, safflower, sunflower, corn, soybean, or peanut oil or a mixture of them.

Adding diglycerides to butter to enable it to mix with water does not make it margarine or a margarine blend.
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[LT72884]

OHHH shoot i feel a debate commin on.

 

[jennyema]

No I'm bored with margarine now. Plus it's gross.

 

[keltin]

Why is it so expensive in your area. Here its not to bad. $1.50 per pound for margarine and $2.00-$2.19 per pound for butta. If i were to buy butter at the costco or sams club its like $1.00 per pound

Link

If you've been shopping for cheese or milk lately, you may have had to dig a little deeper into your wallet. Dairy prices have been rising fast not just in the U.S., but around the world. Even for a product as local as fresh milk, the global market comes into play.

"Prices are shooting up for virtually every dairy product you care to name," says Chris Horseman of Agra Informa, a company that tracks food commodities.

 

[keltin]

Margarine is the emusification of vegetable oil, not fatty acids, with water. By law it must be made from canola, safflower, sunflower, corn, soybean, or peanut oil or a mixture of them.

When you see that an oil is comprised of saturated or unsaturated fat, what exactly do you think they’re talking about. It’s a fatty acid.

Fatty Acids: Classifications & Importance

Fats and oils are constructed of building blocks called triglycerides. Fatty acids are the primary components of triglycerides (the other component is glycerin), and subsequently of fats and oils. Fatty acids comprise 95 of every 100 grams of fat or oil.

Fatty acids are differentiated by their molecular composition. One differentiating characteristic is the degree of saturation: saturated, monounsaturated or polyunsaturated. Another is chain length, the number of carbon atoms in the fatty acid molecule.



As for margarine, it is an emulsification of fat and water.

Butter is churned milk, and is 80% fat.

That Land-O-Lakes product is Butter (a FAT) emulsified with water. By definition, that is margarine.

 

[jennyema]

That Land-O-Lakes product is Butter (a FAT) emulsified with water. By definition, that is margarine.

Of course I can't resist....


Margerine by government regulation (USDA), thus by definition, is made with vegetable oil and not animal fat. By law, if a "spread" is made with animal fat it is not and cannot be called margarine.

Butter is not vegetable oil. It's an animal fat. Butter emulsified with water is not margerine.

 

[keltin]

Of course I can't resist....


Margerine by government regulation (USDA), thus by definition, is made with vegetable oil and not animal fat. By law, if a "spread" is made with animal fat it is not and cannot be called margarine.

Butter is not vegetable oil. It's an animal fat. Butter emulsified with water is not margerine.

Semantics. It’s obvious the Land-O-Lakes product in question is not "butter".

So what would you like to call it? A spread? Ok, but most people call margarine a "table spread" or margarine spread.

 

[keltin]

Of course I can't resist....


Margerine by government regulation (USDA), thus by definition, is made with vegetable oil and not animal fat. By law, if a "spread" is made with animal fat it is not and cannot be called margarine.

Then again.....you're actually wrong about this.

According to the FDA standard "21 CFR 166.110", margarine can contain:

(1) Edible fats and/or oils, or mixtures
of these, whose origin is vegetable
or rendered animal carcass fats,
or any form of oil from a marine species
that has been affirmed as GRAS or
listed as a food additive for this use,
any or all of which may have been subjected
to an accepted process of
physico-chemical modification. They
may contain small amounts of other
lipids, such as phosphatides or unsaponifiable
constituents, and of free
fatty acids naturally present in the fat
or oil.


And of course, there is the USDA specifications which say that margarine shall adhere to the FDA specification Title 21, Part 166 as listed above. The USDA also says:

Margarine can contain dairy ingredients.

Dairy Ingredients.
Dry dairy products used as ingredients for which there are U.S. grades established (nonfat dry milk, dry whole milk, and dry whey) shall meet the criteria of U.S. Extra Grade.

And the USDA states that dry whole milk must contain at least 26% fat (that would be animal fat).


(1) Milk fat Not less than 26.0%

And even the margarine blends have to adhere to the FDA specification which allow animal fats.

Margarine/butter blend shall comply with all applicable Federal regulations including the pertinent sections contained in CFR Title 21 Part 166 for Margarine, and the Federal Definition of Butter, Public Law 519 of 67th Congress, March 4, 1923.

 

[keltin]

Whoops.....I believe I stand corrected by my own research.

According to CITE: 21CFR101.67 by the FDA concerning butter:

The product may contain water to replace milkfat although the amount of water in the product shall be less than the amount of cream, milk, or milk constituents;

So, according to that definition, the Land-O-Lakes stuff IS butter since the water content is less than the milk/cream/milkfat content.

Ok then....that stuff can be called butter.

 

[strawberry]

LOL.... cool.

I think I've learned more about margarine and butter than I thought possible. The "rendered animal carcass fats" is enough to keep me away from margarine if nothing else. Eugh.

And now I know I can keep calling it butter spread.

 

[jpmcgrew]

OHHH shoot i feel a debate commin on.

That was funny I never thought this would turn into such a hot topic.

 

[Andy M.]

I bought butter at Costco yesterday. $7.69 for a block of four one pound packages ($1.92/Lb). It's the same grade (AA) as the LoL at the supermarket.

The ingredients list consisted of cream and salt, both of which I cook with.

C'mon! Cream and salt or that long list of stuff they use to make something that tastes like cream and salt.

keltin, of course it has a greasy feeling on your tongue, it's 80% fat!