What Happened to the Butter?

[lindylady]

I was in the grocery store yesterday to buy ingredients for chocolate chip cookies. As I went to the dairy aisle, all I came across was those massive tubs of solid hydrogenated vegetable oil and salt, otherwise known as I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!, Parkay, Country Crock, etc. I looked and looked, but I couldn't find just plain old butter. I had to settle for the fake stuff. (I could taste the difference in the cookies :eusa_doh: )

Has this happened to anyone else? You're in the grocery store (or any store for that matter) and you're looking for a particular product that's been in use for eons, but all you can find is a substitution that's artificial and substandard. It's not just food, but clothes (cotton and wool fabrics are being replaced with those flimsy polyester blends that tear apart in the first wash), leather goods (now plastic), even car frames (the chassis are made with lighter frames that offer no protection in an accident). Is it a sign of rapidly progressing times, or modern society's strange penchant for artificial things? What do you think?

 

[Paisley]

Maybe your grocer had a run on butter that day.

The grocery stores in my area are offering more and more "all natural" and "organic" foods. I particularly like Horizon butter (it's organic and hormone free). I can taste the difference between that and store-brand butter.

The all-natural laundry soap is good, but I don't like the "natural" dishwashing detergent. It leaves residue.

Where rose growing is concerned, there has been a trend for about 10 years towards old-fashioned roses that do not need as much care or spraying as the floribundas and hybrid teas that were all the rage from the 40s and 50s on. Chemicals were king among rose growers from perhaps the 50s through the 80s or 90s.

 

[Kt Templar]

As we are on the subject of butter. On trips to the US I've noticed them giving me, in hotels and some restaurants, something that's like thick (fake) whipped cream in little pots instead of real yellow butter. Is this normal and what is it supposed to be?

 

[Nathan Flowers]

.

I have no trouble finding real butter at my grocer.

 

[Lady Day]

I have no trouble finding real butter at my grocer.

Ditto.

LD

 

[Viola]

I think real butter is actually better for you than some of the margarines. Its not hard to find in my grocery stores, either.

-Viola

 

[Elaina]

As we are on the subject of butter. On trips to the US I've noticed them giving me, in hotels and some restaurants, something that's like thick (fake) whipped cream in little pots instead of real yellow butter. Is this normal and what is it supposed to be?

Whipped Margarine. Most Americans do not use real butter as a spread, and restaurants reflect that choice frequently.

 

[Lady Day]

Whipped Margarine. Most Americans do not use real butter as a spread, and restaurants reflect that choice frequently.

Yeah, folks are too lazy to spread cold real butter. Their bread may rip, and that can dampen the entire bread eating experience

Hmmm...perhaps we need to build a better bread.


LD

 

[photobyalan]

I always have three pounds or so of butter in the fridge. Never know when the urge to bake is going to strike and I never use margarine. I do use shortening combined with butter in some things such as drop cookies where I feel it is essential to the texture of the final product.

If you don't like trying to spread cold butter on bread, get yourself a butter bell. They work well, except in very hot weather when the butter may tend to slide out of the bell and drop in the water.

 

[Kt Templar]

I see, it doesn't really taste of anything though. I'm sure you have the "spread from the fridge" butter over there don't you?

Any way back to the original question we still have many types of "butter like" spreads, olive oil based spreads, real butter and spread from fridge butter. It's not sold in sticks normally, except maybe one or two brands, it's usually in sort of brick shapes wrapped in greased paper or foil and also in tubs.

 

[Matthew Dalton]

We don't have any trouble getting butter. (I'm the only one in the house that eats it.) And for the life of me, I've NEVER seen "Non-Dairy Creamer" over here.

 

[JazzBaby]

I would give anything to take all my Irish dairy products with me when I go abroad. The milk, the butter, it's all fantastic. I'm sorry you've been having trouble with finding good butter - it's such an important element of cookery. Especially baking. I'm sure the cookies were delicious anyway!

 

[Canadave]

...If you don't like trying to spread cold butter on bread, get yourself a butter bell. They work well, except in very hot weather when the butter may tend to slide out of the bell and drop in the water.

That looks cool and retro, but we just keep butter in a covered dish on the counter in all but the hottest weather.

...I'm sure you have the "spread from the fridge" butter over there don't you?...

Uhhh, I've never seen it. [huh]

No problem getting real butter here,

David

 

[Dinerman]

I trust cows more than chemists. -Joan Gussow

 

[Fletch]

I would give anything to take all my Irish dairy products with me when I go abroad. The milk, the butter, it's all fantastic.

We sure enjoy Irish cheddar over here! I've never had Irish butter, though. The best butter I ever had was in Denmark!

 

[JazzBaby]

We sure enjoy Irish cheddar over here! I've never had Irish butter, though. The best butter I ever had was in Denmark!

Ours is better I'd send you some but I've eaten it all.

 

[CanadaDoll]

I hear that I get to look forward to some darn fine dairy products when I move over there JazzBaby

 

[carebear]

oleo vs. butter isn't anything new

In 1904 a case about oleo went before the US Supreme Court. McCray v. US.

To protect the powerful dairy lobby (say that without giggling ), oleomargerine, which is whitish when manufactured, was not permitted to be made yellow by artificial colorings in order to prevent folks from being fooled into thinking it was butter and because the artificial colors are less healthy.

(The case revolved around a type of oleo that used butter in its manufacture and so had "natural yellow". The wholesaler refused to pay the higher tax on "yellow" oleo since it didn't use the evil artificial colors. The whole thing was part of teh expansion of the -ptooey- Commerce Clause)

The name of the policeman who seized the oleo? Bat Masterson of Dodge City fame.

 

[matei]

The butter in the US, to my tastebuds, is rather bland. You guys don't know what you are missing until you try some full-fat, full-on Euro butter!

Seriously though - it is rather bland. Is the butter in the US made differently than what we have here? I don't know what goes on regarding the manufacture of butter, not being a dairy expert meself.

 

[scotrace]

Everything in the US (mass market) is bland. Breads, dairy, sausages, beer. Things are made differently in America in that we have developed a patended and well-guarded secret process for sucking the flavor out of everything edible before offering it for sale.

Even in ethnic restaurants (at least in my area). Three local Mexican places, all of them blanded down. May as well go stick your head in the Amish Starch Trough.