Butter

[gyrafoam]

The Challange brand is tasty, just hard to find around where I live. The KerryGold with Sea Salt is really good on fresh from the oven yeast breads.
French butter with sea salt is also very good.

None of the brands I grew up with taste the same to me anymore. Something serious is missing. A&P had Ann Page brand butter that was very good. Breakstones butter was also excellent. Land o Lakes unsalted was like a fine soft cheese.
None of them impress me anymore.

 

[sfh074]

I remember ......

both sets of my grandparents would leave the butter on the table. Is that pretty much a thing of the past? Or is there folks here that still do this? Did your parents or grandparents do this as well?

I find this interesting. How long would butter keep if left out?

 

[ea56]

I always leave the butter out and so did everyone on both sides of my family.  A stick lasts anywhere from 2 to 5 days here and never tastes off.  

 

My stepfathers family left it in the refrigerator and you could never butter a piece of toast or slice of bread without tearing it up. And BTW, these people were always plagued by some intestinal distress or another.

 

Eddie

 

[sudsmaster]

Well, I lived in SF from '63 to '69, when I left to go to college out of town. I don't remember any community preference for butter. At the time I'd use whatever was in the fridge. And yes, I refrigerate unused butter. If I need it softer, a few second in the microwave at a low power setting will handle that. 

 

Last week I got 4 lbs of Kirkland brand butter at Costco for $7.19. That works out to $1.80/lb. To me it tastes the same as Challenge or other brand butters. I keep 1 lb in the butter bin in the fridge; the rest I vacuum wrap and freeze for later. Refrigerated butter may pick up off odors from the rest of the fridge, so I'll probably vacuum wrap all but the stick I'm using.

 

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

When I was a young teen, my mom used to get a Danish butter that came in a yellow, white and brown tin. Can't remember the brand name. Boy, was that an eye opener. Prior to that it was usually Brookfield and Land-O-Lakes. She stopped buying it when the local supermarket stopped carrying it. Margarine was never a staple in my home. On occasion, the odd tub of Blue Bonnet or Chiffon would appear.  Today I usually get Trader Joe's or Aldi's butter.

 

One of the joys of eating pancakes is cooking them in butter. Those crispy, buttery edges...Mmmmm!

 

[mattl]

I always keep butter out- hate hard butter, hence this topic.  Also just keep extra butter in the fridge, 2-3 months without issue, never have frozen it.

 

[askolover]

My mother hates butter.  She always used Blue Bonnet or Shedd's Spread.  Her mother used real butter  for some things like her homemade rolls at Christmas and I liked it.  Restaurants use real butter and I started liking it so when I moved out on my own I started buying real butter, typically at Save-a-Lot or Aldi unless Walmart or Kroger has it on sale.  I've always wanted to try Kerry Gold but just haven't yet.  We really don't use that much unless I'm baking or we have baked potatoes or if I fix some popcorn. 

I switched to Lactaid milk a few years ago due to the shelf life being longer than regular milk.  It's ultrapasturized.  At the time I didn't use much milk and kept powdered milk in the house for cooking and regular milk for the occasional bowl of cereal before bed in the morning.  I tend to eat more cereal now (and my waist shows it).

 

[mattl]

I generally go through a gallon of milk a week, but now it's a little less as I've cut back on my coffee.  I was drinking a 10 cup pot a day - of decaf- but still felt a little shaky.  Took a few weeks but in the AM I look forward to my herbal tea Wild Berry Zinger is my tea of choice these days.  Might have a cup or two of coffee during the day but that is it.

 

I have no issue keeping milk for 2 weeks in my fridge, can't recall the last time it turned.  I was gone for 3 week a bit ago and came to to milk that was still good.  Keep it in the door but my WP fridge does have a cold air vent that blows on that shelf, maybe it helps.

 

[foraloysius]

I only use unsalted butter. I don't like salted butter with sweet things and the flavour of unsalted butter is what I'm addicted to. Especially butter from grass fed cows like Kerrygold (weidebutter in German where I used to buy it). I keep half a pack (around a stick) on the counter as well. My regular breakfast is toasted raisin bread with butter and cinnamon. Yummie!

 

[vacerator]

After nealry a century

of the Indian squaw on Land-O-Lakes butter, they are removing her from the label.

 

[retro-man]

For those of us in the northeaster US we have Hood ultra milk. I bought some on the 22nd of April and the expiration date is June 3rd. I use the fat free and it is the best no fat milk I have ever drank, and I use it in cooking also.

Jon

 

[chachp]

Only Butter here..

 

<span style="font-family: georgia, palatino;">When I was about 8 or so we moved from New York to Wisconsin.  At that time you couldn't buy margarine in Wisconsin so I think my Mom started using butter then and never went back.  Seems I remember we made a couple of trips somewhere to buy some margarine but I don't remember doing that many times.</span>

 

[sudsmaster]

For some reason I prefer salted butter. But then I don't usually put it on sweet stuff. Other than pancakes, but the salt seems to add some character. I also understand the butter is more stable with salt.

 

 

 

[eronie]

Does anyone know what this is?

 

[chachp]

Slicer?

 

Does it slice the butter into little squares?

 

[firedome]

Growing up on margarine...

we now use only butter, and lots of it. Keep in the freezer until 1 day before use, then kept in fridge section, to use sliced in pats on toast & whatever... never spread.

We like Cabot Vermont butter best, also the French (Brittany) butter from Trader Joe's and Kerrygold is good too but prefer the French when feeling flush.

However home-made butter from Vermont cream is easy to make in a jar and is much better that any of those, no comparison, our son in VT makes it from time to time.

 

[sudsmaster]

It's called a "one click butter cutter"...

 

Cause, you know, butter is so hard to cut with a knife...

 

 

 

https://susnows.com/products/one-cl...tm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google Shopping

 

[eronie]

Yes. I love it. It cuts nice uniform pats. It sits out on the counter, an no messy butter dish.

 

[justjunque]

When I was growing up, my parents always bought margarine.
Mom would use sticks for cooking/baking, and we always had a tub of something for spreading.
Greg, thank you for mentioning Shedd's. That was the most recent one I remember them buying.
I think they believed margarine was healthier because it didn't have the fat of butter.
When I met my now in-laws, they only used butter. I thought they were trying to be all hoity toity or something. But, MIL's thought was, I'd rather eat the fat in butter than the chemicals in margarine.
So, now we use butter almost exclusively. And, we do leave the stick that we're using out at room temperature. We usually buy Land O' Lakes. Yes, I will miss the Indian/native American woman on the package. Sometimes political correctness does go too far. I certainly don't think she's presented in a disrespectful way. *steps down from soap box*
I did recently buy a package of stick margarine, (also Land O' Lakes), to make my mom's old layer cake filling recipe that specifically called for it. That required one half stick. I don't know what I'm going to do with the rest of the package. Unless I start baking a lot more cakes! Oh...twist my arm!

Barry

 

[chachp]

It sits out on the counter, an no messy butter dish...

 

<span style="font-family: georgia, palatino;">Doesn't it get too soft to cut like that if you leave it out on the counter?  We have one of those butter dishes that has water in the bottom to keep it cool but soft.</span>