Butter Vs. Margarine

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Replies

  • sherambler
    sherambler Posts: 303 Member
    This whole butter v. margarine argument reminds me of another argument that happens a lot because I'm from New England: real maple syrup or fake maple syrup. I get flack for liking the fake stuff in that instance too. I grew up with margarine, not butter, so I never got used to the taste of butter.
  • HardcoreP0rk
    HardcoreP0rk Posts: 936 Member
    sherambler wrote: »
    This whole butter v. margarine argument reminds me of another argument that happens a lot because I'm from New England: real maple syrup or fake maple syrup. I get flack for liking the fake stuff in that instance too. I grew up with margarine, not butter, so I never got used to the taste of butter.

    There's a reason no one ever planned a multi-million dollar Aunt Jemima heist...

    http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-02/the-great-canadian-maple-syrup-heist
  • jessicapk
    jessicapk Posts: 574 Member
    Butter is so much better. I make my own sometimes.

    I've read that margarine is one molecule away from being plastic. ...

    Water is one ATOM away from being highly corrosive hydrogen peroxide so does that make water bad?

  • jessicapk
    jessicapk Posts: 574 Member
    Butter is so much better. I make my own sometimes.

    I've read that margarine is one molecule away from being plastic. ...

    Yeah, and water's only one ATOM away from being hydrochloric ACID!!!!!

    C'mon, you did better in chemistry in high school than to fall for THAT, surely.

    Wow, I saw this after I replied... it's actually 2 atoms since you drop one hydrogen and swap the oxygen for chlorine :smile:
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
    If you want to make butter or buttermilk, it's easiest to start with raw milk, skim the cream and then beat the non-homogenized cream until it separates.
    Heh, no.

    You're being willfully obtuse, which I expected. God I miss boston.
  • spfldpam
    spfldpam Posts: 738 Member
    I used to use margarine or smart balance but have switched to real butter the last couple years. I don't use much of it very often though.
  • Numberwang22
    Numberwang22 Posts: 213 Member
    emilyc525 wrote: »
    Also, what is the point of marg - it doesn't taste good, isn't healthy AND adds calories.
    Quite, can you even imagine 'last tango in Paris' with a tub of marg?! No thanks, pass me the butter lol!
  • leyla87
    leyla87 Posts: 18 Member
    I'd rather have a smaller amount of butter than loads of margarine.
  • DH has an inherited high cholesterol problem so we use a margarine enriched with plant sterols which has been shown to lower cholesterol.

    I usually use butter in cooking if I need to use a large quantity. The plant sterol marg is pretty pricey.

    The butter is better because it's 'natural' argument doesn't hold much weight IMO.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    to quote michael pollan in food rules: "Don’t eat anything your great-great-great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. Imagine how baffled your ancestors would be in a modern supermarket: the epoxy-like tubes of Go-Gurt, the preternaturally fresh Twinkies, the vaguely pharmaceutical Vitamin Water. Those aren’t foods, quite; they’re food products. History suggests you might want to wait a few decades or so before adding such novelties to your diet, the substitution of margarine for butter being the classic case in point. My mother used to predict “they” would eventually discover that butter was better for you. She was right: the trans-fatty margarine is killing us. Eat food, not food products."
    Sorry, but there isn't a food on this planet that your great-great-great grandmother would recognize. We have completely changed everything we eat over the last few hundred years. Hell, a lot of the food we eat today didn't even exist as little as 500 years ago. And I'm talking about the " whole foods" here, not even highly processed foods. Also, margarine is over 150 years old, my great-great-great grandmother was alive when it was invented, so his margarine vs butter example fails, as margarine IS something my great-great-great grandmother would've recognized, so I guess it's perfectly OK to eat it, right? Michael Pollan apparently said so.
  • dutchandkiwi
    dutchandkiwi Posts: 1,389 Member
    Put it this way...ever watch a cooking show and see a chef of even modest reputation toss margarine into...anything? No. No you haven't. Because it's disgusting.
    Yes I have. Usually a cook that makes something for the lactose intolerant people.


  • mmgavitt
    mmgavitt Posts: 82 Member
    jessicapk wrote: »
    Butter is so much better. I make my own sometimes.

    I've read that margarine is one molecule away from being plastic. ...

    Yeah, and water's only one ATOM away from being hydrochloric ACID!!!!!

    C'mon, you did better in chemistry in high school than to fall for THAT, surely.

    Wow, I saw this after I replied... it's actually 2 atoms since you drop one hydrogen and swap the oxygen for chlorine :smile:

    BAHAHAHAHA. I think she meant to say hydroxide, which would kill you if consumed (pending you could find it in a stable state), but it's also a base and not an acid :smiley:
  • ashleycde
    ashleycde Posts: 622 Member
    I use butter. In moderation, the calorie value isn't as outrageous as you would think. A tsp is 34 calories, and I just had a small baked potato earlier tonight that was buttered (both halves) with half a tsp. I used a baker's 1/2 tsp measuring spoon.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    Put it this way...ever watch a cooking show and see a chef of even modest reputation toss margarine into...anything? No. No you haven't. Because it's disgusting.
    Yes I have. Usually a cook that makes something for the lactose intolerant people.


    The "real" recipe for Buffalo wings (as in from the Anchor Bar where they were invented) is margarine and hot sauce.

    As for cooking shows, margarine is relatively rare, but in restaurants? Quite a few recipes use it.
  • HardcoreP0rk
    HardcoreP0rk Posts: 936 Member
    Put it this way...ever watch a cooking show and see a chef of even modest reputation toss margarine into...anything? No. No you haven't. Because it's disgusting.
    Yes I have. Usually a cook that makes something for the lactose intolerant people.


    Out of pure necessity for the dietary restricted...not because it's the best quality ingredient to ensure the best taste. Terrible example.

  • HardcoreP0rk
    HardcoreP0rk Posts: 936 Member
    tigersword wrote: »
    Put it this way...ever watch a cooking show and see a chef of even modest reputation toss margarine into...anything? No. No you haven't. Because it's disgusting.
    Yes I have. Usually a cook that makes something for the lactose intolerant people.


    The "real" recipe for Buffalo wings (as in from the Anchor Bar where they were invented) is margarine and hot sauce.

    As for cooking shows, margarine is relatively rare, but in restaurants? Quite a few recipes use it.

    In subpar restaurants that use it to control cost...
  • AmazonMayan
    AmazonMayan Posts: 1,168 Member
    If I'm going to have the calories, I want to enjoy them. Butter all the way...
  • Showcase_Brodown
    Showcase_Brodown Posts: 919 Member
    No contest. Butter.
  • MindySaysWhaaat
    MindySaysWhaaat Posts: 401 Member
    Unless people are out there eating entire sticks of butter or margarine, I can't imagine either will be harmful in moderation. The only thing I've ever really used was Imperial Margarine sticks (and until I moved out and started doing my own grocery shopping, I didn't realize they weren't actual butter). I think it's a taste preference here. I've recently used both butter and margarine. Butter tastes better to me now, but I will still use margarine every once in a while.
  • MikeCrazy
    MikeCrazy Posts: 2,716 Member
    Butter due to the transitional fats in margarine.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Many margarine's are made with hydrogenated oils (trans-fats) which really are the only fats that people should be pretty much avoiding in their diets...and yet, this is still some kind of debate.
  • melimomTARDIS
    melimomTARDIS Posts: 1,941 Member
    I used to be a butter only person, but honestly, its expensive, we dont use much of it, and many (most?) of the spreadable tub type margarines are lower in calories and transfat free.

    I can get a big tub of imperial or blue bonnet for 3.00 locally. So its worth it for me, based on our consumption.

  • melimomTARDIS
    melimomTARDIS Posts: 1,941 Member
    Kalikel wrote: »
    dbmata wrote: »
    Trust me, making butter is a silly endeavor. Lots of good butter to be bought, without the wasted time. LOL. I can do it because I have a good selection of bacteria for getting some flavor into that cream, but why whack it up when I can keep it as creme fraiche? ;)

    Coke vs. Pepsi, huge taste difference. Heinz and Hunts, totally.
    Pref: Coke and Heinz.
    Pepsi is what you buy when they don't have coke! Even then, I hate the the taste. Reminds me of flat coke

    OMG, wth are you two thinking?! Pepsi and Diet Pepsi are sooo much better than Coke.

    I don't know who buys Hunts ketchup. I've never been in any home that had it. I think it's a front for the mob.

    I buy hunts or delmonte ketchup, exclusively.
  • HardcoreP0rk
    HardcoreP0rk Posts: 936 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Many margarine's are made with hydrogenated oils (trans-fats) which really are the only fats that people should be pretty much avoiding in their diets...and yet, this is still some kind of debate.

    I guess it depends, because some people live in places where trans fats are illegal...so they might not encounter this trans fats issue with the margarine that is locally available to them.
  • Definitely butter
  • MissBabyJane
    MissBabyJane Posts: 538 Member
    I don't use neither of them (avocado is my option), but butter is waaaaay better option.
  • girlinahat
    girlinahat Posts: 2,956 Member
    butter.
  • ruqayyahsmum
    ruqayyahsmum Posts: 1,513 Member
    butter for my family

    we dont have toast that often but butter and jam it is

    i also will only use butter in my baking

    cost doesnt matter to us because i only have to buy a block or two every few months