Butter or Margerine?

[Anonymous]

Butter, or a natural butter or yogurt spread if you really need to watch cholesterol. But I think Kostyra people know these daydream that margarine is artificial and full of trans fats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Butter, or a natural butter or yogurt spread if you really need to watch cholesterol. But I think Kostyra people know these daydream that margarine is artificial and full of trans fats.

Most people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in definite agreement with the PPs that butter is best for straight-up flavor -- wouldn't put anything else on my toast, for example.

My question is re: baking. All of my family recipes call for margarine or "oleo." Is that just a midwestern thing, and I can sub in butter as per my preference? Or does margarine bake differently (in such way that I might want to actually follow the recipes on this point)?

You can sub butter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Butter, or a natural butter or yogurt spread if you really need to watch cholesterol. But I think Kostyra people know these daydream that margarine is artificial and full of trans fats.

Most people.

Autocorrect, or what?


(PS Tee hee -- wasn't this Martha Stewart's birth name? You know where she'd come down on the issue)

[Anonymous]

Cookies made with margarine will generally be softer and chewier than those made with butter b/c the margarine is softer than butter. But I prefer the taste of real butter. Oh, and the trans-fat free butters probably don't bake the same as the margarine we grew up on. In fact, many of them state that they are not for baking (probably b/c there's too much water in them).

Oleo was a brand name during WWII, I think, when butter was not available. It also wasn't legal to sell margarine that was yellow, so it had a button of color that you broke open and blended through to make it yellow; or so my mom tells me.

[Anonymous]

I thought margarine makes baked items more crispy?

I use butter for baking (except will use canola oil in quick breads and muffins), canola oil for cooking, and olive oil for dressings. And will occasionally put butter into food to "finish" a sauce or dish - risotto, polenta, pasta, some meat sauces.

I stopped using margarine more than 10 years ago and have excellent cholesterol levels.