The Joy of Butter!

[Rouge]

Doesn't like butter? How does that work? Weeeeyord!

[smiles4u]

I have only until recently started buying a small block of butter each week to keep in the fridge to cook/bake with, and being more inclined now to buy with my DD's health in mind !!

As i have always had a concern of butter will just help me 'put on weight' How silly of me after all these years in thinking that when there is more than likely something else i buy that substitutes that concern (??)

Butter DOES taste better than marg ... and 'most' things i bake with marg don't always turn out that great !!!

I'm soooo interested in this thread to learn about the different brands of butter & why people are buying them

So far i'm just buying Coles or Aldi brand 'unsalted' butter ... why i don't know BUT thought it's a start

[sista]

The harmonie organic one is delicious, but the lurpak, both normal and slightly salted is just as tasty and is a permanent in our home. If I'm feeling particularly adventurous lol, its that with lemon butter on toast and black tea, yum!

[Astrid]

Always have a 500g block ready for baking. DH likes the spreadable one, which is getting expensive, so I would like to get him off it.

I like the Devondale block butter, but can only find it at Safeway and only in 250g blocks.

[fionas]

Mmmmmmmm butter. Love it. Especially on scones.

DD is also a butter freak. If it's still quite hard, she will pick it off a scone. Infact, the other day she just kept pointing at the tub of butter calling, "more, more" and I must admit I gave little pats of JUST butter to her. She's as skinny as a rake and seems to know what her body needs - like when she had a cold she had three mandarins in one sitting - must have known vitamin C would be good. So I didn't feel tooooo bad about The Butter Incident.

[Astrid]

DD2 loves butter as well and so does DD1 still. Don't know what it is, but they would eat it like a slice of cheese if they could.

[Nettie]

Looorrrvvveee butter!

Fiona - LOL at the capitals for The Butter Incident!

I just use the western star stuff, but if everyone reckons it's worth the extra $$, I'll try the premium stuff as I believe you should enjoy what you eat.

I only use butter, but DH has the cholesterol reducing marg stuff.

Did you all know that margarine is actually grey - they have to add huge amounts of bleaching & colouring agents to make it look palatable??

[MrsFabuloso]

I love butter too. We just get the home brand one, nothing special but much tastier than marg! I love it on everything! Buttered toast, fresh sandwiches, scones, veggies, crumpets....the list is endless! Especially love it on toast with vegemite or honey, mmmm, mmmm!!

Did you all know that margarine is actually grey - they have to add huge amounts of bleaching & colouring agents to make it look palatable??

That's so disgusting!

[Rouge]

I hate margarine but its not black or grey first its white, and they make it yellow yes. But there are sooooo many myths about margarine that are untrue (like the one about it being one molecule away from plastic... erm no.) So whilst I hate margarine here are some facts (from snopes):

It was formulated in 1869 by Hippolyte Mege Mouries of France in response to Napoleon III's offering of a prize to whoever could succeed at producing a viable low-cost substitute for butter. Mege Mouries' concoction, which he dubbed oleomargarine, was achieved by adding salty water, milk, and margaric acid to softened beef fat. By the turn of the century, the beef fat in the original recipe had been replaced by vegetable oils.

In 1886, New York and New Jersey prohibited the manufacture and sale of yellow-colored margarine, and by 1902, 32 U.S.states had enacted such prohibitions against the coloration of the spread. (Folks got around this by mixing yellow food coloring into the white margarine.) In 1950 President Truman repealed the requirement that margarine be offered for sale only in uncolored state, which led to the widespread production of the yellow margarine that has come to be the norm.

But regardless Butter rocks way harder

[AngelPunks]

I love butter. I can't have margarine or "spreadable" butter as they usually use canola oil in it and I can't have canola oil.

The ultimate for me, freshly baked bread thickly sliced, smeared with butter and then grated processed cheddar cheese and made into a sandwich!!!!!!

[Oorki Galoorki]

i love butter and i love making it

it doent take that long to make.. i recommend every one look on you tube there is a video on how to make it .... give it a go ( it can be a little messy though or maybe thats just be)

[Bathsheba]

I'll check that YouTube video out... Ta DouDou

With vegemite and butter on toast I find that if you let the toast cool down a bit the butter doesn't soak in as much... or melt in I guess I should say... so when you spread the butter on it stays visible and you can enjoy the flavour of it much more (and I find I use a bit less too if it doesn't melt in)... I discovered that as a child and always let my toast cool a bit before I started spreading. I only do this for vegemite... jam or peanut butter I ate hotter. I also only use a small quantity of vegemite, maybe because I find it too salty... maybe the butter (unmelted) helps to counter the saltiness a bit too. Anyhow... almost cold toast for vegemite wins here!

[christy]

I miss butter..... we don't have it in our house due to dairy allergies....

I use Nuttlex now though or olive oil spread

[Nelle]

Aww Christy. Can YOU eat butter?

Lol at 'like a knife through hot butter' - you would think we'd have put two and two together hey, like it's not just a stupid meaningless saying.

I only buy cheap butter, is there really that big a difference?
As for quantities, we buy the 250g blocks and just cut off what we need for our 'dish' (tupperware sandwich keeper until I find a crockery dish that I like), and keep the rest in the fridge. Only annoying when it's been used up and someone forgets to replace it.

Another vote for butter and vegemite on fresh bread. Actually even just butter on freshly baked warm bread....mmmm....so much carbs and fat and so little caring about it.

[Ginger]

i llooooovve butter, i eat way too much of it
i buy the blocks too and just put it in a little bowl and leave it out on the bench

[Bathsheba]

The difference between block pure butter: (except for the cost... which can really vary quite significantly!)

To me it seems as if European butters are paler... some almost a cream colour...Lurpak is especially pale... still have a great flavour though. Antipodean (Oz/NZ) butters are yellower. Does anyone know why this is?

I can taste the difference when a butter is "cultured"... much nicer flavour for when I make shortbread. I can kind of tell what Bron means by Harmonie butter having a fresher flavour than most butters... but otherwise the differences aren't huge I guess Nelle.

I'd like to set up a blindfolded butter tasting. Maybe serve the same plain water crackers with several different butters and vote which one is the best. Could be interesting. Some I definitely find too salty... you'd have to compare them only if they all had salt added, reduced salt or no salt. Oh and you'd have to clean the palate between... not sure what with... I'm taking this a tad too seriously now aren't I???

[Phteven]

I think that hot tea would clean the palate well for butter tasting - mabe a sweet hot tea because the astringency and heat would clear the butter out and the swet would set the palate up again to taste the saltiness.

[Nelle]

I personally think they'd be better tested on freshly baked bread...with hot tea...anyone up for a testing day?