I'm bored and why is butter yellow?

[bajaespuma]

Eddie

Have you tried Cabot 83% unsalted butter solids? I love the stuff and we get it for a good price at Restaurant Depot. The time you'll save waiting for the milk solids to boil off of the regular stuff is worth the small premium you'll pay for it. Also Plugra is equally good; we buy one or the other according to price.

 

I have a friend from the Midwest who is knowledgeable about Dairy Farming who taught me that even with the well-known brands of butter, there will be some significant variation in the water/milk content of butters according to the seasons. When the moo-ladies eat fresher grasses their cream isn't as concentrated, according to her. 

 

Margarine trivia: Invented by a French chemist to address stomach upsets experienced by French soldats during Napoleon's attempt to defeat the Russians. Apparently the boys brought butter with them as part of their rations and it was going rancid during the long sieges. This chemist invented a process that would later be refined as hydrogenation by treating sunflower seed oil with strong acids causing the liquid oils to solidify. Because the fat globules looked like tiny pears under the microscope, he called his invention "Margarine" (Fr., Marguery = Pearl, as in English, Margaret=Pearl {as in "Pearly-Mae"}). Anyway, I hate the stuff and never use it. My philosophy will continue to be, "If I'm going to eat fat, it had damn well better taste delicious". Over and out.

 

[cuffs054]

Baja.
I have tried Plugra. It really is good. I served it one night with homemade french bread and a friggin pasta recipe I worked on for hours. Next day reviews: "Oh there was pasta"?

 

[sudsmaster]

Many years ago I remember watching Julia Child rant on her program about margarine. She said it was no good and that one should only use butter and never margarine. And this was long before all the information about the very harmful effects of trans fats became widely known.

I tried a few of the "healthy" margarines for a while, but finally decided that real butter was the only way to go if I had to have a butter flavor. Most of the time however I used extra virgin organic olive oil in my cooking. If it's a higher heat or stir fry, a good quality peanut oil.

I think the idea that since margarine doesn't have cholesterol it's healthier is kind of bunk. Cholesterol is essential for life - it's a building block in nerve tissue and cell walls. Trans fats are much worse for the heart, IMHO.

And don't get me going about statins...

PS-I agree about unsalted butter. Regular butter doesn't have all that much and I happen to LIKE salty foods. I also never had a problem using salted butter in baking recipes, esp those where you're supposed to add some salt anyway.

Now, when talking about butter, there is the sweet cream variety that most stores stock. It isn't from aged cream and hence has a milder taste. But for a real kick get some butter made the traditional way, from milk that has been allowed to sour overnight. TASTY

 

[mixfinder]

Little Known Fact

Unsalted butter has a slightly higher fat ratio due to it's lower moisture content which makes it better for baking because it is more short.  Personally I use Darigold prints (one pound block, no cubes) for all cooking.  Margerines contain water and it throughs off the fat ratios recipes are written for.  In the old days I used to add a teaspoon of water to cookie dough so the cookies would steam and then collapse during baking to make a crackled top.

Margerines are formulated with transfatty acids which are not digestable and store in the blood vessels contributing to arterial plaque.

The cost of groceries are spiraling so high, so quickly it is frightening to guess what the year ahead holds.

 

[arbilab]

Trans fat is the current devil. Even margarines are eliminating them. They're illegal in New York fast foods.

According to Roseanna Roseannadanna:

Listen my children, I'll tell you why
All food you eat will make you die.

If the meat is red it's full of fat
It's bad for your heart and you don't want that.

If the meat is white your veins will thicken
Considering the things they inject in a chicken.

Daddy I said, why all the fuss?
If the food doesn't kill me I'll get hit by a bus.

We're all gonna die
From one thing or all things
Like my daddy used to say,
It's always something.

 

[sudsmaster]

While we're on the subject... does lard have an expiration date? I've read it lasts forever, but I wonder...

 

[tomturbomatic]

Ken, Moo Ladies--too funny. Interesting about the word "pearl" in French. In Hebrew, it is margalit or marganit. The surname Margolis relates to pearls. Maybe with the Jewish gem trade, the word crossed into French with slight modification, much like Saturday, in Spanish, is Sabado, the sabbath, from perhaps the Moorish age.

Those French scientists were pretty smart. They also invented pressure canning for the military. I guess we will always be indebted to Napoleon's chef for Chicken Marengo, an easy dish at Passover served with a potato kugel.

Obviously know nothing about lard, but honey and true love are two things that are supposed to last forever.

 

[toploader55]

Ken...

The butter I was complaining about is Cabot's. Been using it for years. Maybe it was a bad batch run.

I have coming in today from US Foods Pre Clarified butter. I want to see what this is all about.

Love Plugra... I used to keep some on my Nightstand years ago back in the day !!!
(Just Kidding) LOL

The nearest Restaurant Depot from the Cape is in Chelsea... not quite the trip to the General Store. But Thanks.

 

[bajaespuma]

Not quite dead languages

Tom, thanks for that interesting bit of etymology. I guess it's from French, via Latin, via Hebrew. The same thing is true for our word "Cider".

 

Have any of you people who, like me, are interested in food read or watched Michael Pollan's "The Botany of Desire"? One of the best works on food/plant history ever.

 

 

...and Arbilab, thanks for the Roseanne Roseannadanna poem. It made my morning! I loved that woman. I still giggle at the image of those two pathetic barrettes in her hair, purportedly trying to keep all that frizz down. Brilliant.

 

[hunter]

Dairy protein allergy

I have an allergy to whey - dairy protein.

I LOVE butter, but, alas, cannot have it any longer.

There are two - two! - margarines that I have been able to find; Fleishman's UNSALTED margarine and Nucoa.

Everything else has whey in it.

 

[stan]

Sudsmaster

Good question
Store bought Lard contain an antioxidant, and some citric acid = (long shelf life) Store bought Lard, has been hydrogenated, at least partially, It contains 0 trans fat, and 0 cholesterol.
Organic Leaf Lards shelf life may be different ?

if you check out www.foodandwine.com, there is some interesting info, article titled " Lard The New Health Food"

 

[cuffs054]

I use very little lard so it seems to get 'rancid' after a while, not unlike Crisco. It does make a difference in baking though.

 

[waterwitch]

I LOVE butter! I think real butter is always better. Salted for me please. I've always left my butter out on the counter in a butter dish. I've heard somewhere along the line that this could be a bad thing, but it's never made me sick so there ya go!

Hi KELLY! I miss you! That picture you posted looks yummy! Haha I don't even know what it is and I want some...

 

[mixfinder]

Out On The Counter

Anthony, it was such a pleasure spending time with you in Long Beach. My wheels fell off in the return and I have been in the middle of medical, familial and personal stress ever since, so it makes the Wash-In seem even sweeter. I leave a couple pounds of butter out ready for baking. Fat is one of the recognized perservatives of food stuffs and one reason why all boxed mixes have more fat per ounce than a homemade recipe. Lard will racidify rather quickly because of the added animal protiens and freezing or keeping it refrigerated will slow down the process. It gets more difficult all the time to find heirloom baking ingredients as less demand is the norm. I tried in vain to find suet at all the local market for Suet Pudding which was a specialty of my Dutch grandmother. I ended up buying beef and trimming the fat to grind my own suet. An substitute, not the real thing. When the kids were all younger and we baked in daily volumes, I left eggs, butter and buttermilk on the shelf to be ready to go. I've gotten pretty good at tempering those ingredients in the microwave without causing the buttermilk to curdle or the eggs to explode.

 

[foraloysius]

Kelly

Funny that suet pudding was a specialty of your Dutch grandmother. I've never seen anyone making this overhere in Holland. Could it be she picked up that recipe when they had already crossed the big pond?

 

[frigilux]

Kelly-- If I could make a pie crust to save my life I'd think we're related! I also put a pound or two of butter out the night before to soften for early-morning baking. And I think of you every time I use a chopstick for little chores like getting batter off beaters. Sorry to hear you're facing still more challenges! My thoughts are with you.

 

[sudsmaster]

I remember shopping at the Co-Op in Berkeley in the 80's and this nice old black lady I struck a conversation up with said that she liked to use lard for pie crusts because it gave them "that old timey taste". I agree, and it's probably a lot healthier than hydrogenated vegetable oil full of trans fats.

But it's been a LONG time since I made a pie crust...

I have a 40 lb box of lard I got at Costco (don't ask). I thought I'd wind up using it for baking but instead it's just been sitting in my pantry for years. Kind of a afraid to open it and find out if it's still any good. I hate to toss it in the trash (more like lug it into the trash). I wonder if it could be turned into bio-diesel instead (probably).

Next time I'll just buy it by the pound at the local supermarket.

If still good, it could be killer for frying a turkey though.

Or french fries.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Hunter, any margarine with the small word "PARVE" or "PAREVE" on the label or box means it has no dairy in it. It's the Hebrew word meaning neither meat nor dairy, neutral in dietary terms like eggs, permitted fish and vegetables. There are several brands, often labeled "Sweet Unsalted" like Fleishman's that have no dairy. There is some version of Smart Balance tub margarine that has no dairy. You might not be able to find every brand in your stores, but there are more. If you Google parve margarine, you might find more brands. They are a mainstay in kosher cooking. There is another that I used to use in baking that performed better than Fleishmans, Mazola Sweet Unsalted, maybe.

I often take eggs out of the refrigerator and put them in a bowl of very warm water while I am creaming the fat for something and by the time I am ready to add the eggs, they are at a nice room temperature. I can't plan ahead for baking anymore because I don't know when I will have the strength or energy so I just warm up the eggs fast when I need them.

 

[mixfinder]

Suet Pudding

Grandma made steamed pudding often.  Usually they contained dried plums, raisins, or dried apricots, dark sugar, spices, eggs and she always used beef fat that was finely minced.  She spoke often of her mother making them. Grandma's family came first to Alberta, Canada and then migrated to the US so maybe there's a Canadian influence of what they ate. Yet, I have a great aunt whose maiden name was Bos and married into the van Belle family.  She also makes Suet puddings and at the annual family reunions the steamed puddings were served hot around 7:00 when the meal was warmed up for a seconds.  Grandma's pudding was dark, moist and heavily spiced which she served with custard sauce.  Aunt Gertrude's pudding was much lighter colored, dryer and served with a lemon sauce made from bottled Lemon extract.  Neither one were big sellers and no one ever questioned why they both made them but it was clear Grandma's was better. We all dutifully had some of Aunt Gertrude's pudding as well so to avoid the Suet Pudding Wars.  Mind you this is the same family reunion where the pies outnumber the guests and we eat from 1:00 PM until 1:00 AM playing cards, catching up, sharing the latest jokes and having a ball all day long.  There are so many us of now we rent the gynasium of the Christian School which is connected to the Netherlands Reformed Church.  My grandfather got sideways with an elder of the Netherlands Reformed in the 40's and he was not allowed to take communion because Maid o'Clover picked up milk from his cows on Sunday's which constituted doing business on the Sabbath.  Grandpa spent a week in prayer and reading the bible and then sold all his cows, plowed up the pastures and hay fields to plant potatoes and orchards and never set foot in a church again.  Most of the family drifted over to the more progressive Christian Reformed and the bulk of the family  went to Grand Rapids Michigan to Calvin College.

 

[foraloysius]

The only thing that looks a bit like that suet pudding is "Jan in de zak", but that is more a yeast bread with raisins that is steamed. Less filling and certainly no beef fat. Perhaps it was a local specialty, perhaps from a British influence (?).

Having problems reconizing the recipe as Dutch, getting sideays with an elder certainly sounds familiar. I guess that is the reason why there are so many protestant churches in the Netherlands!