I use crockery butter dishes... it's tricky to get one that is high enough... I know it sounds over the top but I would measure the height of a block of butter before choosing a butter dish... one of mine won't close properly until I have used some of the butter off the top.
Kim: until the refridgerator was invented butter was kept in a cool pantry.... if it stays solid then it should be safe for a few days if left out. Being a family of 5 we go through a block in a few days anyhow.
Canola has an incredibly high insecticide content - and someone mentioned using it in small amounts... Of course everything in small amounts is usually harmless. Just that because canola is soooooo cheap - manufacturers use it in everything.
If you buy jars of pasta sauce - it's in that. Softened butter, some breakfast cereals, fish fingers, nuggets etc etc.
I personally dont purchase the above but if I did my family would ingest a significant amount in a week.
Just another thing to watch. As someone else said - when you buy as close to the source as possible it is usally better.
Canola was originally developed for industry - and has been modified for human consumption... I am highly suspicious...
Kim my butter keeper is white china and is a Maxwell and Williams cheapy number from Myer... I didn't need to measure or anything it fits perfectly a 250 gram block of butter.
I probably use 250g in a week for a large family and I have never had rancidity issues...
An aside - oils should not be kept in plastic... Plastic and oil react... Another reason to check at thesupermarket that your oil is in glass..
I will be upfront here - I don't eat dairy, and haven't for over a decade.
I agree that margarine is unhealthy, but I feel the same way about butter.
Should humans be eating either of them?
I don't believe that butter is 'natural'. It is made from the milk of another species.
Cows lactate to feed their calves (as we lactate to feed our babies). Sadly, calves are taken from their mothers at just hours or days old, so that humans can consume the milk and the products made from milk. I don't think there is anything natural about that.
Butter is not healthy. It contains no fiber or complex carbohydrates and is laden with saturated fat and cholesterol.
But the main reason I don't eat it is because of the cruelty. Quote:
'as part of the dairy industry?s ?normal operations?, cows give birth to a calf each year to maximise their milk production, and that as a result, every year almost 1 million baby calves are discarded and slaughtered before they are even one week old'.
But there are also compelling health reasons. Quote:
'According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, cow?s milk is the number one-cause of food allergies in children. According to the former director of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Frank Oski, there is evidence to indicate that up to half of U.S. children have some allergic reaction to milk. For these kids (and for adults who are allergic to dairy foods), milk is a mucus maker and can lead to persistent problems such as chronic coughs and sinus infections, asthma, and ear infections'.
I totally agree that canola isn't 100% ideal... but compared to margarine I believe that it's the safer option by far. And yes, it does seem to be in soooo many foods. With us I cook alot from scratch, don't eat many highly processed foods... have gone way off fish fingers and processed frozen crumbed fish now... so for us it's not as much as a concern. I guess I would be more likely to question the ingredients of what you are putting on your toast and sandwiches than the thinly spread butter or butter blends. There is probably canola in the peanut butter too for example... so I definitely see your point Deb
ETA: yes, I have also heard that about storing butter in plastic: best avoided.... that's why I use the crockery dish.
Yes Bath there is canola in peanut butter from the supermarket. I personally don't buy that either. If you go to a health food shop they will make peanut butter from scratch from peanuts. It's yummy and way more healthful... Canola is also in pestos, hummos etc. It is really prolific.
There are ways around the canola conundrum - however my beef is that it is not healthful and it is a cheap cheap oil that is being marketed as wonderful.
People - mostly Mamas are trying to do the best they can for their families and are being swindled into the marketing vortex (imo) and that - as a Mama worries me...
I was reading somewhere that heart disease in the US increased after the use of butter decreased.
Been going through so much butter here and suprisingly I am losing weight (well stalled for now). DH has been eating it as well and even though he is huge is cholesterol is only 1 point higher than what the doctor would like, but a lot less than what his doctor expected it to be.
We use real butter too - we don't use that much butter, so my plan is to just cut off a bit a day from a block - but it's hard to find a butter dish that is a flat dish with the deep lid, as opposed to the deep container with the flat lid...I'm being very particular about this and I think I need to let it go!
ETA: I looooove homemade nut butters, it's not hard to make at home if you have a food processor, cos the nuts have their own oil!
I'm so glad to see that there are so many people on here who are able to use their own common sense rather than blindly falling for advertising hype. And those of you who have been listeningg to the hype in the past are open minded enough to reconsider.
I don't think I have ever bought margarine. I have always been suspiscious of it. Same goes for a lot of those so-called healthier products. Like low-fat, egg (and flavour-) free mayo,...
I am forever shaking my head at my in-laws who tell me how unhealthy my diet is, because I use real butter, have real sugar in my tea, I eat my christmas turkey with the skin on, I drink full cream (organic, unhomogenised) milk.
They however, eat cholesterol lowering margarine, drink diet soft-drinks, throw out the skin on the turkey (sacrilege if you ask me), drink no-fat milk with a gazillion of so-called vitamins added...
The clencher is, they constantly tell me how fattening all that stuff is, yet, they are the ones who are obese. Might I suggest it's the biscuits, cheesecakes, icecreams, puddings, etc. that they have multiple times a week.
They criticise me for salting my food while they happily tuck into a bowl of Smiths Crisps. Hello, what do you think is on those???
I strongly believe in eating foods that have been processed as little as possible. Of course I have processed stuff in the fridge and pantry, too. But the bulk of our diet is fresh meat, poultry, fish, vegetables and fruit.
I rather chop up some banana to add to my oats when making porridge, than buying the flavoured sachets. Can you believe that my MIL had to ask me how to make porridge??? Shouldn't it be the other way around? She grew up at a time that didn't know microwave porridge sachets.
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