Butter or Margarine?

3/9/2016

I'm just going to come out and say it - I loooooove butter.  I think there's nothing finer, except chocolate, ice cream, candy and donuts, than melted butter on bagels, toasts, waffles, baked potatoes and anything else that would be better served with butter.

When I was growing up, there was a product called Oleo, which today is called margarine.  And there was also a time when margarine started showing up in tubs, rather than in the stick form.  This was a huge improvement, because everybody knows that cold butter isn't really spreadable.  Oh you can try to be sure, but likely all you will end up with is a piece of holey bread!  I know this because I've tried to use cold butter.

My mother was a die hard Parkay customer.  Parkay margarine came out in 1937, and over the years had some clever commercials.  Initially, Parkay, like other margarines came only in stick form.  There was a loud hurrah in our house, when Parkay came out in tub form.  Boy, we were talking about progress.

For years, Jeff and I also opted to buy margarine, though I can't remember what brand(s).  At some point, we decided that we liked (who doesn't?) the taste of butter.  We made the switch to butter and it's been a love affair ever since.  The theory, which isn't working by the way, was that we would use less butter, because a little bit goes a long way.  That theory, in case you're wondering, flew out the window many years ago.

There are two butter conditions in our house.  In the summer, the butter melts and oozes in the butter dish.  In the winter, you need a hacksaw to cut through the very cold butter.  We're like Little Red Riding Hood: this one is too melty (I know that's not a word, but it should be), and the other one is too cold.  For a few months in spring, butter is the right consistency.

When I go to a restaurant and they bring the bread basket, they also include those little wrapped packages of butter.  These pats of butter are hard, so you don't get the satisfaction of having spreadable butter to go on tasty loaves of bread.  I know why they do this, and so do you.  If the pats of butter were more spreadable, then it seems likely that most people would use more butter.  The restaurants are fine serving you chilled butter pats. 

There are products out there that will keep your butter soft.  They're called butter keepers.  You put water in the bottom of the container and then put a container of soft butter on top.  Works perfectly, provided that you start with soft butter!  Hint: cold butter is difficult to put into a butter keeper.  We have a butter keeper, but for reasons unknown (probably because one of us (me) is too lazy to actually put butter in the crock, it sits in the cupboard collecting dust!

In 2014, it was reported that the average American consumed 23 sticks of butter a year.  But in the 20's, we consumed 72 sticks of butter!  See we're doing more now to stay healthy - sort of!

P