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Butter
Mar 18, 2009 6:29:01 GMT
Post by mockchoc on Mar 18, 2009 6:29:01 GMT
It's not sparkling but I don't care.
I wasn't sure if it's seized up due to heat perhaps or if it needs a battery but no matter, it's fine as it is. Does what I need it to do.
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Butter
Mar 18, 2009 21:56:52 GMT
Post by auntieannie on Mar 18, 2009 21:56:52 GMT
we used to put a tiny bit of unsalted butter on a cleaned/trimmed radish and eat it, then start again. no salt added to it in our family.
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Butter
May 5, 2010 21:13:22 GMT
Post by Deleted on May 5, 2010 21:13:22 GMT
Delicious, fattening, or heart attack fuel? I don't think that many people think butter tastes bad, but quite a few people fear its effects. Is margarine a suitable replacement? Does it taste as good?
The French consume almost 8 kg per person a year and wouldn't have it any other way (and yet they eat plenty of margarine, too).
Is butter a must for you or something to be avoided?
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Butter
May 5, 2010 22:25:10 GMT
Post by cristina on May 5, 2010 22:25:10 GMT
Butter is a must for me.
Actually, in the interest of health, I *try* very hard to eat foods without any unnatural or chemical ingredients. So if I am going to have some fat of that type, then it will be butter rather than margarine. It tastes better, it cooks better and I think its better for me than margarine.
That said, I still don't think I go through 8 kgs in a year. Maybe a little more than 1/2 of that?
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Butter
May 5, 2010 23:10:10 GMT
Post by imec on May 5, 2010 23:10:10 GMT
Gotta have it! What would me rye toast be without butter???
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Butter
May 5, 2010 23:12:57 GMT
Post by Deleted on May 5, 2010 23:12:57 GMT
I love butter. The taste is wonderful. Actually I have heard that in the long run, butter is more healthy than margarine..
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Butter
May 6, 2010 5:14:36 GMT
Post by hwinpp on May 6, 2010 5:14:36 GMT
Yes, butter is important. Best salted.
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Butter
May 6, 2010 6:06:58 GMT
Post by bixaorellana on May 6, 2010 6:06:58 GMT
If I were to eat butter, which I don't because I am good and pure, it would be unsalted, the way it tastes best. You can thank me for this later.
Actually, the only butter thing that's really a temptation for me is a bread and butter sandwich. I could probably work my way through a stick of butter at one sitting, making one b&b sandwich (fold-over, naturally) after another.
However, I never buy butter and wouldn't eat margarine with someone elses mouth. This is not a hardship, since I don't care about butter that much and prefer my toast plain.
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Butter
May 6, 2010 8:03:24 GMT
Post by hwinpp on May 6, 2010 8:03:24 GMT
But have you ever tried it, Bixa... and tried again in intervals long or short... I actually love untoasted toast with salted butter and (believe it or not) thinly sliced cucumbers or tomatoes on them.
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Butter
May 6, 2010 8:40:22 GMT
Post by onlymark on May 6, 2010 8:40:22 GMT
8kg in France per person? But does that include when used in cooking? Salted butter is a joy to eat, unsalted is a waste of good fat, margarine, though at times necessary, is like chicory coffee - a poor substitute and at times distinctly nauseous. Salted butter on warm thick sliced white bread toast is a meal in itself on par with the choicest cuisine.
Do I want to eat Heston Blumenthals snail porridge, sardine on toast sorbet, bacon and egg ice cream or salmon poached with liquorice? No I bloody don't, I want toast and butter. Baked potato with salted butter is orgasmic as well.
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Butter
May 6, 2010 10:57:02 GMT
Post by lagatta on May 6, 2010 10:57:02 GMT
Mark, GOOD unsalted butter, which is often cultured, has a complex sweet taste. I think both have their places in cuisine. There are lovely farmhouse butters in the UK, by the way. I do like butter but eat it rarely - the cooking fat I use most is olive oil, and after that a light oil for the wok. Certainly don't consume anywhere near 8kg a year. Yes, the French figure would definitely include butter in cooking, and garnishing vegetables. Usually baguettes are eaten as is, except perhaps at breakfast.
Don't want sardine sorbet, but luvs me sardines... All the other mucked-up food items Mark mentioned are based on good basic foods as well. Salmon with anise or fennel is actually a traditional dish.
imec, some Jewish friends, who aren't remotely kosher, would still avoid butter on rye bread in a sandwich made with meat. Mustard would be the spread. A strong one, not the one fumobici hates, but more similar to German style than Dijon.
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Butter
May 6, 2010 11:20:52 GMT
Post by onlymark on May 6, 2010 11:20:52 GMT
Mark, GOOD unsalted butter, which is often cultured, has a complex sweet taste. I think both have their places in cuisine. So let me get this straight. Salted butter is not unsalted butter with salt added. Otherwise why when you cook with unsalted butter do you then add salt nearly always? Why not cook with salted butter? unless the taste between unsalted butter and salted butter before they put in the salt, is different? So - if I cook with salted butter I put less salt in to get the taste right than if I cook with unsalted butter whereby I add more salt. So why not ignore unsalted altogether? And if it is a complex sweet taste then there is no way I want that on my toast, I want the taste of butter with salt in it. Nothing sweet at all. It's like going to the Philippines, buying bread and finding it's all sweet tasting, which it is, or was when I lived there.
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Butter
May 6, 2010 13:58:45 GMT
Post by Deleted on May 6, 2010 13:58:45 GMT
Most of France prefers unsalted butter, except for Brittany where they prefer salted butter. However, in the shops you will find about 2/3 unsalted butter and 1/3 salted.
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Butter
May 6, 2010 14:55:35 GMT
Post by fumobici on May 6, 2010 14:55:35 GMT
I only use butter, never margarine. And I'm with oM on salted butter for cooking, just use the common salted and adjust the seasoning as one should anyway. I always laugh at recipes that specify unsalted, then call for salt- which is almost all of them. Unsalted butter doesn't keep- the salt is apparently there for a good reason- and as little as I go through, I end up throwing unsalted butter away as it goes bad.
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Butter
May 6, 2010 15:32:42 GMT
Post by bjd on May 6, 2010 15:32:42 GMT
I only eat unsalted butter, but then I don't much like the taste of salt. I use it on bread with jam, for example, so wouldn't want a salty taste in there. But I don't use butter in cooking or on vegetables -- either olive oil or some other oil if needed.
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Butter
May 6, 2010 16:36:27 GMT
Post by cristina on May 6, 2010 16:36:27 GMT
I generally use unsalted butter as well, mostly because I prefer it for bread baking, which where I use the most butter. Although I do have the salted version from time to time.
And fumobici, butter can be frozen if you don't find you use it quickly enough.
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Butter
May 6, 2010 17:16:02 GMT
Post by bixaorellana on May 6, 2010 17:16:02 GMT
I actually love untoasted toast with salted butter and (believe it or not) thinly sliced cucumbers or tomatoes on them. That sounds so English. I make sandwiches of cucumbers or tomatoes, but with mayonnaise, salt & pepper. What the heck is untoasted toast?
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Butter
May 6, 2010 17:33:44 GMT
Post by onlymark on May 6, 2010 17:33:44 GMT
The only time I'd use unsalted butter is for bread and butter pudding. Yum.
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Butter
May 6, 2010 17:37:40 GMT
Post by onlymark on May 6, 2010 17:37:40 GMT
I generally use unsalted butter as well, mostly because I prefer it for bread baking, which where I use the most butter. I always thought a bread recipe would include salt.
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Butter
May 6, 2010 17:47:24 GMT
Post by bixaorellana on May 6, 2010 17:47:24 GMT
There are excellent reasons for using unsalted butter in a recipe that also calls for salt.
In many recipes the "shortening" is incorporated in a different step from the salt. But the main reason is because there's no telling exactly how salted a particular brand of butter might be. It makes more sense for the recipe to specify unsalted butter and a specific amount of salt.
Obviously the cook can substitute salted butter & lessen the amount of salt added, but the recipe writer has an obligation to be specific.
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Butter
May 6, 2010 17:55:44 GMT
Post by cristina on May 6, 2010 17:55:44 GMT
Mark, Bixa answered your question. I think of the salt in butter as too much of a variable (for bread making, anyway) so I prefer to control the amount by adding it myself.
And in other cooking, I really try to minimize the amount of salt used so adding it myself just seems easier.
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Butter
May 6, 2010 18:19:50 GMT
Post by onlymark on May 6, 2010 18:19:50 GMT
I understand then.
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Butter
May 6, 2010 18:28:01 GMT
Post by Deleted on May 6, 2010 18:28:01 GMT
I never think of unsalted butter going bad, because I don't mind using rancid butter for cooking.
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Butter
May 7, 2010 2:40:50 GMT
Post by lagatta on May 7, 2010 2:40:50 GMT
Smen!
Even in the most stereotypically "manly" act of cooking - frying a piece of meat when it can't be grilled outright, it is better to salt later on so as not to leach juices and dry out the meat.
But as for bread and jam, that is cultural. Idem sweet baking. Most French people, for example, would prefer sweet butter with jam, as sweet and savoury don't mix. That is not true in Britain,nor in Brittany (perhaps because they were seafarers - salt is a preservative). Oh, these rules are changing a lot, but they should be kept in mind.
Drat, this thread made me go out and buy some butter, which I hadn't bought in months.
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Butter
May 7, 2010 7:44:31 GMT
Post by hwinpp on May 7, 2010 7:44:31 GMT
I actually love untoasted toast with salted butter and (believe it or not) thinly sliced cucumbers or tomatoes on them. That sounds so English. I make sandwiches of cucumbers or tomatoes, but with mayonnaise, salt & pepper. What the heck is untoasted toast? That floppy, square, pre- cut bread in plastic bags you get in supermarkets. I think only Germans call it toast even though it's not toasted in the state it's sold in...
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Butter
May 7, 2010 17:54:59 GMT
Post by joanne28 on May 7, 2010 17:54:59 GMT
I use a mix of butter and oil - mostly oil for cooking with the odd dab of butter thrown in for flavour. Butter for toast and sandwiches - but if I'm using mayo or mustard I don't use butter.
When I bake, I mostly use butter. Butter and chocolate is one of those delicious marriages. I've made brownies with margarine back in the days when I ate margarine but brownies made with butter are infinitely better.
Butter tastes better. I'm truly of northern European descent - I take butter over olive oil on bread every single day of the week.
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Butter
May 10, 2010 14:58:37 GMT
Post by imec on May 10, 2010 14:58:37 GMT
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Butter
May 10, 2010 16:24:28 GMT
Post by spindrift on May 10, 2010 16:24:28 GMT
I love butter. I don't use lashings of it because I know that's bad for my arteries when eaten in excess. We all need a certain amount of fat and pure butter is the best possible fat to eat. Margarine should be avoided at all costs for it has been chemically altered and trans fats are bad I equally love salted or unsalted butter but buy mostly French unsalted which has a superior taste to English unsalted.
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Butter
May 10, 2010 17:18:24 GMT
Post by lagatta on May 10, 2010 17:18:24 GMT
I just hope nobody pops up with a panpipe next time I concoct a soup including butter, tomato and ... well, that cooo liquor.
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Butter
May 14, 2010 15:04:56 GMT
Post by bixaorellana on May 14, 2010 15:04:56 GMT
What is the difference between ghee and clarified butter -- is there any?
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