Looking For A Cheaper Alternative To Butter?

angelatgraceland

My ds doesnt like butter as he says it tastes too rich. I prefer butter for all of the mentioned reasons. I think I will try Aussies method-it should solve the problem. I will keep one of my "buttery" tubs, to put it in.

student100

Magentasue wrote:

Well maybe, but I'm pretty sure many of the oils in margarine are obtained by chemical extraction. Then they have to be bleached, deoderised and refined (again by chemicals) before the manufacturing process even begins. Something drastic must happen to the oils and water to make a stable spread.

Pumping something with water doesn't make it healthy, does it?

I'm fairly sure they're obtained in exactly the same way as the sunflower oil (or olive oil or whatever) you would buy in the supermarket. I don't know if this involves bleaching, deodorising or whatever... Whatever method that may be used, if you're happy to use cooking oil in cooking then I don't see why you wouldn't be happy to have it in margarine.

The "something drastic" that happens to the oils and water to make a stable spread is only the same principle as what makes the oil (milk fat, about 80%) and water (the remaining 20%) in butter stay together. Only butter used to be made by churning cream and nobody asked why the watery bit of the cream stayed mixed with the fatty bit...

As far as modern industrial butter production goes, I'm sure the milk/cream comes into contact with a whole load of chemicals you'd love to hear about

I'm not trying to convince anyone that butter is better than alternatives or vice versa, just trying to present a few facts I could find on the web. People have listened to a lot of hype which encourages them to think "margarine is made in factories, therefore it must be bad; butter on the other hand is just made from milk so it must be good for you", but without looking at facts you can't make an informed decision.
Personally I like the taste of real butter (especially on jacket potatoes...) but I usually use sunflower spread because it's cheaper, I think it's slightly healthier, and it's easier to spread on sandwiches...

Magentasue

I take your point about manufacturing processes but ever since I had to make decisions about what food to put in my babies' mouths, I have only bought butter and extra virgin olive oil for everday use.

Penny-Pincher!!

Thanks for the replies!

I have my shopping coming tuesday and still havent decided what to buy. Its coming from Asda and like I said normally purchase the 1kg buttery tasting marg for £1.35.

However, I have bought some extra virgin oil-looks very pretty on the side in my kitchen..lol. Thinking about it though, I usually only use oil (veg normally) for fried eggs (rarely), yorkshire pudding tin, roast tattie tin and in the chip fryer. Is olive oil OK for yorkies and will it still make the roasties crunchie and brown? Will a fried egg taste ok? When I have used olive oil before, it has usually been on salads. I havent used it in mash either.

Going back to the butter thingy-I think I will get a pack of the smart price butter and a smaller tub of the buttery marg-what do you think? Rome wasnt built in a day and all that..lol?

Thanks

PP
xx

Update:have just ordered 2 packets of SP butter and they have Utterly butterly on BOGOFF, so have bought both :eek: but will use in baking if needed etc.

Magentasue

I use olive oil for yorkshires, roast potatoes and fried eggs but I've done so for years so have got used to it. Don't think there's a difference in the crispiness of potatoes but you might taste the difference, especially for the fried egg. You might get used to it though!

I use sunflower or corn oil very occasionally when we have chips, sunflower for pancakes once a year.

For mash, it has to be butter but I normally use grated cheese instead, top with more grated cheese and put under the grill before serving so we can all squabble over the top bit!

Curry_Queen

Extra-virgin olive oil isn't meant to be used for cooking with - it's used in salad dressings or drizzled over pasta etc. For cooking with you just want the bog standard olive oil if that's the one you want to use.

I use olive oil for most things (peanut/groundnut oil in chinese cooking) but always use beef dripping/lard (or duck/goose fat if I have any) for roast spuds and yorkies

On the rare occasions I deep-fry anything then I use sunflower/veg oil

Magentasue

Ah but ... you can only get Extra Virgin olive oil in our Aldi and at £1.50 for 750ml (from memory,could be wrong) I use it for everything.

I suppose if you shop at Asda etc, ordinary olive oilwould be better for your fried eggs.

Curry_Queen

Blimey, that is cheap!!! :eek:

The reason it's not recommended for cooking with usually is a) the cost, as it's usually much more expensive! ... and b) it's the least processed of the olive oils and has only had one pressing so is more likely to contain a sediment from bits of olives and these will burn and smoke when heated. It also has much more flavour than the others which is why it's great for dressings and marinades etc

competitionscafe

For fried eggs I would use sunflower oil or peanut/groundnut - I just don't really like the slight taste you get from olive oil with a fried egg. I use olive for most other things although for something that needs to be cooked a high temperature I use sunflower or groundnut as these have a higher burn point (they can get to a hotter temperature before they burn, with groundnut being the highest I think)

Sometimes oil with a bit of butter is nice too - gives a buttery flavour but the oil stops the butter from burning.

Anything spicy - chinese, thai, indian I would use nut oil or sunflower not olive.

Penny-Pincher!!

Hey

Received my smart price butter from Asda today and had it in mash for lunch....and was scrummy. A much nicer taste Found an old chrome butter dish (BN still in box from 60's :eek: ) that me Ma had given me and have cut the block in half (one out and one in fridge).

PP
xx