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Butter

Discussion in 'Food & Drinks' started by Beth Gallagher, Jan 10, 2021.

  1. Boris Boddenov

    Boris Boddenov Very Well-Known Member
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    Late in life, I learned that maternal grandfather put butter on his sandwiches. Didn't matter if it was liverwurst, burger, ham, cheese, tomato sandwich, any kind of sandwich. He prolly smeared some on a hot dog bun.

    Never heard of such a thing. Mayo, mustard, catsup, horseradish, ok, but butter?

    In reading thru these posts, unless I missed it, none of you mentions butter on a sandwich. So I guess I'm in good company. :)
     
    #16
  2. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Supreme Member
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    That happened with some sandwiches at our house. I think the theory was the butter would keep anything wet from making the bread soggy. Someone in our family would always first put butter on the jelly side of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Maybe a carry over from when homemade jelly turned out runny? :oops: :)
     
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  3. Martin Alonzo

    Martin Alonzo Supreme Member
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    I always put butter as a healthy lubricant to help side thing down. Number one choice in our family.
     
    #18
  4. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    My father used to have Bermuda onion sandwiches with butter on them.

    I always have mayo or mustard on a sandwich, if for no other reason than to add moisture, but never butter. Butter only seems proper on toast and English muffins...and Italian and French breads.

    As @Nancy Hart said, if I'm having jelly on toast I have butter with it. I've never tried butter when I'm having peanut butter & jelly on toast...it seems redundant.
     
    #19
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  5. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    If I remember correctly, butter made from cream from pastured cattle is generally yellow, as it has more carotene, but winter milk is white as the cows are mostly fed hay in which the carotene is less. Farmers discovered that people preferred yellow butter, so they started coloring it to make it consistent throughout the year, first with "butter yellow", one of the first food coloring agents later found to be carcinogenic. Butter yellow has since been replaced by carotene or annatto, which gives the yellow color but not the carcinogenic tendencies. Ghee and other clarified butter have been found to be more tolerated by those with a sensitivity to milk products, as both water and protein is removed in the process.
     
    #20
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  6. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    When we made butter, while I was a kid, we didn't use fancy butter churns or anything. We had a cow, and sometimes two, and my mom would hand us a clean mayonnaise jar with the cream in it and we'd throw it around, roll it on the floor, or otherwise shake it up until it turned into butter. Our cows were pastured when the pasture wasn't covered with snow, but I don't remember ever seeing yellow butter. It was always white, but it could be that we only made butter in the winter. It's not like I paid that much attention. Perhaps part of the reason we were assigned the task of making butter was to keep us occupied during the winter, which was never a problem in the summer.
     
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  7. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    Never used butter on sandwiches. On toast, pancakes or waffles, but heck if you like it why not?
    Growing up we often had butter and syrup mixed together with hot biscuits.
     
    #22
  8. Martin Alonzo

    Martin Alonzo Supreme Member
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    I made butter for years here and it always came out yellow but the cream was white. The only coloring I remember was the old blue bonnet it was like Crisco in a bag with a little orange button which you broke and blended into the margarine to color it as at that time it was illegal for the companies to sell colored margarine.
     
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  9. Hedi Mitchell

    Hedi Mitchell Supreme Member
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    I was using real butter, but now with our high cholesterol have gone to a less fat type. It tastes like butter but really is not. :(
     
    #24
  10. Martin Alonzo

    Martin Alonzo Supreme Member
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    Yes Gloria the cholesterol phobia that was started by Dr. Ansel Key stared the rush to eating less fat and in turn killing billions of people. The alternatives to butter have more trans fat which are the cause of hi cholesterol by damaging the arteries.
    The old saying butter is better is right.
     
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  11. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    For a long time that was true, @Martin Alonzo, but most of the newer butter substitutes no longer have trans fats in them. You are correct in saying that the switch killed many more people that it ever saved. Going away from fat led to adding sugar, as Crisco and such doesn't taste as good as real saturated fat. Palm oil and coconut oil, once de facto banned as being terrible for you are now looked upon as a health food.
     
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  12. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    There are few things on Earth better than a cheese sandwich grilled in a frying pan with a little melted butter. Butter makes it better.

    @Bill Boggs , butter and syrup (or honey) whipped together with one of Mama's buttermilk biscuits. Ummm-ummm. Them was some good eatin'. :)

    Crisco made the best fried chicken I ever cooked. It wasn't greasy at all. All the healthy oils make fried chicken more greasy.
     
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  13. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Absolutely!! You cannot make a grilled cheese sandwich without butter. I always butter the outside of the bread before throwing the sandwich in the frying pan...you gotta make certain every square inch is covered.
     
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  14. Tony Page

    Tony Page Veteran Member
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    Great snack, my mother used to make them 4 me when I was a kid. We would also have regular saltines sandwiches with either butter or Grape jelly. Of course you can use any jelly or Jam you like. Also good with Ritz crackers I had some last week makes quick and easy snack.
     
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  15. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I've been buying Amish butter for the past several years. It usually comes in a one kilo roll, wrapped in butcher paper.

    [​IMG]
    This package says "2 Pounds," but a kilo is 2# 3 oz. The one I buy comes from Yoders, is not professionally labeled, and weighs one kilo.


    It's tough to nail down a specific definition of what makes Amish butter different from regular butter, but the common opinion is that the fat molecules are not broken down in Amish butter because:

    1: It's gently hand-rolled into a single log instead of machine-extruded into sticks.
    2: The factory machines are metal so the fat molecules get ionized during the process.

    I'm not certain I believe #1, not do I fully understand #2. I don't know what equipment is used to make Amish butter, not do I know if metal vats really ionize fat molecules, and if they do, I don't really know that it effects them.

    I am not a butter connoisseur. I cook with it but I don't eat a lot in ways where you could really taste "butter." I have no idea if one tastes any better than the other. The only time I use stick butter these days is when I'm baking and I need the TB measurements marked out for me.

    I have made tons of ghee out of all butters. Ghee (in America) is made by simmering the whey (water) out of the butter, then simmering it longer until the milk solids precipitate out. The milk solids are somewhat sticky and you have to continuously scrape them off of the bottom an sides of the pan as you brown them until your ghee is the desired degree of "nutty" flavor. Then you filter it and you have pure butter fat.

    I've tried every stick butter there is (all the national brands and all of the local house brands.) The behaviour when making ghee is identical in every single one of them. Making ghee with Amish butter is different.

    -The entire process takes about 20 minutes with all of the stick butters...no exception.
    -The entire process takes under 10 minutes with Amish butter...no exception.

    -The milk solids with stick butter are always somewhat large, like miniature Grape Nuts cereal. In parts of India, they add wheat flour, sugar, and cashew nuts to the milk solids to make laddoo.
    -The milk solids with Amish butter are always like grains of sand. They are too fine to do anything with.

    I've never been able to find out why the milk solids are so different in Amish butter.

    I've posted this pic before. It's the end product of a kilo of Amish butter.

    Amish Butters.jpg
    ----------------------------------Garlic Butter---------------------Ghee-------Ethiopian Clarified Butter----------

    This is just after I've made them. The ghee is shelf-stable at room temp and sets into a semi-solid fat to cook with, kind of like room temp bacon fat does. The other two go in the fridge and set up hard as a stick of butter would for me to use as-needed.
     
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