butter and marg - thought this was interesting

[Inanna]

Where else on BB has it been discussed??? Can you link me up ???

[sunshine_sieben]

I just rsearched that book a little and i must say that I am really intrigued. it sits so right with me. This seems like the sort of diet I was raised with. My mum always used bones and meat to make the most wonderful meat broths. And especially in winter, this is one of DH's and my favourites. She would also add bones into the dish when making a roast to make a really lovely pan juice gravy. not the horrible powdered stuff.
She also used to collect/buy fresh fruit from home growers and make jam and compotes.
Growing up in Germany, we obviously ate Sauerkraut. But my mum never bought the canned variety but rather the home pickled ones.
Only recently have my parents started to drink unhomogenised organic milk on a daily basis and unpasteurised once a week (cause it doesn't keep long enough).
But we have always eaten sourdough breads.
Growing up, I thought this was completely normal. But I now know, that it is almost unheard of these days.
Sorry, I just can't stay on topic with this thread. Will order the book now. Thanks for the suggestion, Flowerchild.

Sasa

[sunshine_sieben]

Oh, I don't know exactly where. I jsut seem to have stumbled over it a few times over the last couple of weeks.
Sasa

ETA: I have just done a BB search on nourishing traditions and haven't found many references to "Nourishing Traditions". Maybe I got confused. i must have stumbled over references to this book while looking into raw milk...

[Bathsheba]

So true about cultured butters... I often buy the Danish (I think) Girgar butter to make shortbread. The French cultured butters are lovely too. Speaking of the French... they have a great attitude toward food and they are renown for using lots of butter yet are way below us on national obesity rates, in fact as a culture they are known to be very trim on average... interesting hey? Their philosophy seems to be to eat the real stuff but in smaller quantities. I am hugely inspired by the book French Women Don't Get Fat. Many of the ideas we have discussed in this thread are in that book. Best of all French women don't label treat foods like chocolate and cream as "naughty"... they would think it a bit embarrassing for you to say that you have to deny yourself these foods... they are very open about enjoying them but do so in moderation... plus they seem to walk more than the average Aussie/American (according to the book). Lots of good food for thought. And also apparently alot of French women consider leek broth a good cleansing food to have after you have over indulged with rich food.... they also think it rude/strange to eat standing up or while walking along the street... or "on the go" like we so often do. When they eat it is more ritualistic and therefore they enjoy the the whole process a lot more and actually notice how their bodies are responding to the food they eat ie they tend not to over eat as much as we do. All habits I think the obesely populated countries could learn from FAR more than simply believing that margarine is better than butter.

[Phteven]

There are also some lovely cultured butters out there. They have cream, salt and "culture" on the ingredient list. They have a slight tang to them. They are probably the closest in taste to traditional butter. In the past, cream was saved after milking the cows. After a few days, when enough cream had accumulated, this slightly fermented cream was used to make butter. These days, we use pasteurised cream to make butter. So this natural souring of the milk does not occur. So a culture can be either added to the cream or the finished butter to mimic this natural process in which the milk sugars turn into lactic acid.
Sasa

We used to make our own butter. Once it had separated (which took about an hour) we churned it- we never left it for days to go sour. We used to get a bucket of milk from one cow and enough cream in a bucket to make butter for our family for a week so we only made it once a week.
Maybe that is why I'm so super-sensitive to the rancid taste of supermarket butter. I used to get so frustrated that other people couldn't taste how off it was. As far as I know there are only 2 brands that don't taste off and that is harmony and mainland. The rest - bleeerk!!

[sunshine_sieben]

Brontide, just to clarify, I'm not talking about using off milk or cream like we know it these days. I'm talking fermented, as in some beneficial bacteria have grown in it (similar to making yoghurt or quark i guess).

Bath, that's so true about the French. or a lot of Europeans, in fact. The Greek for example eat very fatty foods. They love their red meat, but they also eat fish and veg and lots of dairy (from cows, sheep and goats). Yet, they are renowned for heaving pretty good heart health.

And I have to say, I was shocked to see so many people eating on the road when I first visited Australia. Yes, people do that sometimes in Germany, too. But not to the same extent. We usually sit down to eat. You have much better control over your portion sizes this way. But, those habits are being lost, too. It is getting way more common to see people eat kebabs and burgers while walking through the city. Same goes for France. We are trading flavour and nutrition for convenience. A sad state of affairs.
As I said, I do eat these things, too, occasionally, but most of the time I make an effort.

ETA: Flowerchild, I just ordered nourishing traditions. Am quite excited now to start reading it. Sounds like something my mum would be interested in, too. I wonder if there is a German translation?

Sasa