Baking question: margarine or butter?

MandM90

Since going vegan we've used Vitalite (£1 for 500g) or Pure (£1 for 500g at Sainsbobs right now and IMO the more superior of the two) with no discernable difference - then again, we most often bake 'flavoured' cakes with plenty of spice, cocoa or fruit so I think real butter would be overpowered anyway.

DW baked some lovely muffins recently using just veg oil (think it was rapeseed) and they were fab.

lostinrates

PipneyJane wrote: »

I use butter. I'd rather eat something that didn't get its colour, texture and flavour from a load of e-numbers. If I'm baking cakes, then I sometimes replace the required volume of butter with 3/4 the amount of rapeseed oil to lower the saturated fat. This is easiest to do with American recipes because they usually give their measurements by volume. (You need less oil that solid butter.)

On a related subject: I was recently wondering what lard tastes like. Can anyone tell me? Is it a neutral, non-taste? Or does it taste pork-like? I am loath to buy some just to taste it. (I'm Jewish so don't usually cook pork.) Also, how hard is it when it comes out of the fridge compared to butter?

What sparked that thought is that I do use rendered chicken/duck/goose fat in my cooking and I was wondering about making pastry with it. However, it tastes distinctly chicken-y. Also, it is still a bit soft when it comes out of the fridge. I know you can make pastry with lard and I was wondering what the comparison is like. Any suggestions/thoughts?

Pipney, re lard, i have just put a huge wadge out for the birds haveing soaked it to remove the salt, as it had been in our fridge for just too long.

It has a whisper or pork, but like salted butter, it can work with sweet dishes. It makes things good and 'short' but personally, i prefer trex where i might use lard, like for yorksire puddings, which is odd because otherwise i will only use butter never margerine (which in real life i will not even use the word, we call it the 'm word').

Lard is better, imo, used as lard. The lard from prosciutto can be bashed in to a more pulpy mess, and served as 'battuto' ! Probably adding some rosemary and salt. Or sliced of a dense block of lard Where you just get the very whisper of pork. I never thought before living in italy i would eat lard, but the lard with salt and rosemary i had near bologna like a butter spread was revelationary. Once every couplle of years its worth trying if you do not adhere to kosher laws.

Hermia

I have a problem with dairy so I use vegan marg. I have made so many cakes and biscuits where the recipe stated that you must only use butter as nothing else would taste right. Guess what, no one can ever tell the difference and I've had many people express surprise when I told them I hadn't used butter.

kittendothroar

I always bake with stork tub, though use real butter for pastry - normally kerrygold but nowadays its whatever is cheapest! My mum always used stork so am used to the taste and prefer it over butter ones!

terra_ferma

rosie383 wrote: »

Stork does still exist. You can buy it everywhere.

I thought Stork was a bit more natural than margarine, but looks like I was wrong.

Vegetable Oils, Water, Salt (1.75%), Buttermilk, Emulsifiers: Mono- and Di-glycerides of Fatty Acids, Flavourings, Vitamin E, Citric Acid, Preservative: Potassium sorbate, Colour: Beta-Carotene, Vitamins A & D.

de1amo

My mother is now 85 and still uses Stork so i am told! you cant change a habit of a lifetime and Mum's cooking is best! no health lecture please!

pigpen

we use stork too..

northern_star

Stork here for us too.

BitterAndTwisted

I'm currently buying "Best for Baking" marg from @sda at two 250 grammes packs for a quid. $tork is currently 69 pence. For all cake-baking that's not a light sponge or shortbread I use just marge. Using butter is just too damned expensive for me at £1.20-plus for the cheapest.

About lard: it's pretty tasteless but gives fantastic results when used 50/50 with marge for pastry-making. It's the lard which gives it it's "shortness". As I haven't bought lard in a couple of decades-plus I can't advise whether there is any that's kosher or not. For certain types of baking my Mother used to have "Palmin" sent over from Germany. That's palm-oil and it should be good for pastry-making as it's a solid at room temperature. Dunno about its artery-hardening properties, though. I have a feeling it's a super-saturated fat but I expect it's OK if you don't have masses of it on a daily basis.

cherie1122

I use tubs of Stork margarine and my cakes usually taste great.

If I'm making them for my grandson who is allergic to milk I use the blocks of hard Stork margarine

I rarely bake with butter