Your Opinion Please---Butter Or Margarine
Baking By Cookies4kids Updated 18 Nov 2008 , 4:47pm by CookiezNCupcakez
Years ago all we used for baking was margarine. In the last few years, I have switched over to mostly butter. I have a ton of spritz cookies in 5 different recipes to make for this years fundraisers, plus all of the other kinds of cakes and cookies. With the economy and the price of groceries, I am thinking I should go back to margarine for this years baking. What does everyone think about using margarine and what is the best brand to use? Also, can you get margarine in the unsalted variety like butter?
Thanks for your opinion. I will be interested to hear the pros and cons.
Lily
NOOOOOOO comparision to real butter- sorry. I think it is the #1 main ingredient for great flavor.
But, I understand costs too. Personally, I would go to 1/2 butter, 1/2 shortening with added butter flavoring. I love vanilla too, so that gets me as well....
I know this is long but it was sent to me about butter & margarine. Anyone having trouble deciding which to use should really read it.
Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it
killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the
research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure
out what to do with this product to get their money back. It was a
white substance with no food
appeal so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to people to use in
place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some
clever new flavorings.
DO YOU KNOW.. the difference between margarine and butter? Read on to
the end...gets very interesting!
Both have the same amount of calories.
Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams compared to 5 grams.
Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over
eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard
Medical Study.
Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.
Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few only
because they are added!
Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the
flavors of other foods.
Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around
for less than 100 years.
And now, for Margarine..
Very high in trans fatty acids.
Triple risk of coronary heart disease.
Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and
lowers HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol)
Increases the risk of cancers up to five fold.
Lowers quality of breast milk.
Decreases immune response.
Decreases insulin response.
And here's the most disturbing fact.... ! HERE IS THE PART THAT IS
VERY INTERESTING!
Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC.. This fact
alone was enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything
else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the
molecular structure of the substance).
You can try this yourself:
Purchase a tub of margarine and leave it in your garage or shaded
area. Within a couple of days you will note a couple of things:
* no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it
(that should tell you something)
* it does not rot or smell differently because it has no
nutritional value; nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weeny
microorganisms will not a find a home to grow. Why? Because it is
nearly plastic. Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on
your toast?
Yuck!
I use both. Just depends on the recipe Im using. But its either Imperial marg or Land of Lakes butter.
I have been looking for you Lily,you have not been around much!
jenlg---thanks for the article. It was very interesting to read and the last line said it all, plus really made me laugh. I guess I will stick to butter and when I see it really cheap, I will buy a ton and freeze it. I store my cookies in Tupperware and wouldn't want anyone to think they tasted like that LOL !!!!!
Thanks
I know this is long but it was sent to me about butter & margarine. Anyone having trouble deciding which to use should really read it. Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys .....
With pros and cons on both sides, the butter pundits usually pull out the "naturalness" argument. Margarine is indeed a durable foodstuff that can survive outside refrigeration without spoiling. However, its durability is not because margarine is chemically similar to plastic, as the letter above asserts. Rather, margarine is made from vegetable oils (corn, canola, olive, etc.), which are less susceptible to bacteria and fungi than dairy fats.
It is not true that margarine is "but ONE MOLECULE from being PLASTIC," and, even if it was, this doesn't mean that eating margarine is like eating plastic (though some would argue it tastes like it). Many items in nature are chemically similar to one another, but that doesn't make them similar in appearance or effect. It's not the molecules that a substance is made of that defines it, but rather how those molecules are arranged.
Both butter and margarine contain fats, which are basically groupings of the elements carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The difference is how those atoms are bonded together. (Naturally occurring fatty acids generally have one "cis" orientation, meaning both hydrogen atoms are on the same side as the carbon atoms. Trans-fatty acids, logically, have a "trans" orientation, meaning that at least one hydrogen atom is opposite the carbons. Essentially, the molecules making up both butter and margarine contain the same atoms, just in different configurations. Margarine has much more in common chemically with butter than it does plastic.
Butter is more natural (and some would argue more flavorful), is not hydrogenated and, thus does not contain trans-fats. Margarine, on the other hand, is cholesterol free, lower in saturated fats and is increasingly becoming available in trans-fat free varieties. Whichever spread you choose, experts say moderation is key. Too much of either is definitely a bad thing, says the American Heart Association.
http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/margarine.html
What an argument from both of you - wow!
I personally prefer butter for flavour etc. but most of my favourtite recipes (from my grandma's ancient recipe book) call for marg presumably because butter was considered too good to be wasted on cakes 
. As the fat (?) content etc is different how do you go about substituting one for the other - i presume with the chemistry involved a straight swap is out of the question.
I'd be really interested to know. The folks on here just amaze me with the wealth of info they have on the most bizarre subjects.
TIA 
Does the government still disburse butter once a month? When we all finally reach the poverty level we can use just butter! lol
For me, I prefer butter and find that it is usually a tossup for price anyway, so I go with what just makes home baking that much more 'homey' - for me. Perhaps if I had a better choice, I'd use Imperial too...dunno! 
[quote="susies1955"]
It is not true that margarine is "but ONE MOLECULE from being PLASTIC," and, even if it was, this doesn't mean that eating margarine is like eating plastic (though some would argue it tastes like it). Many items in nature are chemically similar to one another, but that doesn't make them similar in appearance or effect. It's not the molecules that a substance is made of that defines it, but rather how those molecules are arranged.
haah thats like saying that we differ from fish by 3% of genes - its the 3% that is important! 
Wow, this is really getting interesting. I never thought of the butter handout program. It's about time we get back some of the zillion dollars we have payed in taxes over the years. Good thinking!!!!! I will check into that while I am waiting for somebody to have butter for 1.50 lb. It's usually WalMart so get ready everyone LOL.
I use butter. I LOVE the taste of butter. When I make buttercream I use butter, butter flavored Crisco and butter flavoring 
. I really don't like the taste of margarine. My gramma only uses parkay and when we lived with her she asked me to go buy butter. Not thinking, I went and bought real butter. She wouldn't eat it and said my grampa hates butter and wouldn't eat it. Well, we put it on my grampas bread and he said"WOW, this parkay tastes really good today, really fresh tasting". We all laughed(except for gramma, who still insists grampa likes parkay better ). Whenever we go over there to eat, my gramma will make a point to say, "We only use parkay here, so you don't get anything on your bread". Gotta love her....she is where I get my stubbornness from 
I only use butter. I wouldn't even buy margarine. I was told years ago that if you put a tub of margarine in the trunk of your car and left it for twelve years, it would look exactly the same when you opened it. The body apparently has trouble getting rid of it because it doesn't melt. AND everything tastes so much better made with butter. Even icings - I don't know how anyone can like the ones made with shortening. Yuk!! Or with margarine. Yuk!
Welcome DoubleTroubleCreations! I'm from the Island as well!(not living there right now though)
Anyways..so with all this talk about using butter or marg. i decided to do a taste test. The cookies with butter won hands down! The marg. ones tasted horrible! My family refused to eat them. So much for the hope of cheaper products.
I quit using margarine years ago mostly because butter tastes so much better. I like to think butter is better for you since (unlike margarine) you don't have to have a degree in chemistry to make it.
Either way, if I take a hot, homemade buttermilk biscuit and slather one with butter and the other with margarine, the buttered biscuit is the clear winner IMO.
All I did was just post an article someone gave me. People can use whatever they feel comfortable with. I wasn't out to persuade someone to change what they use.
I think everyone understands this...and thank you for the article. It's good to have different info. to be able to make choices from.
Now, to my opinion...BUTTER! I have used margarine (Imperial is my choice) in my sugar cookies for one, because it's cheaper to make more batches, and I find that the cookies don't spread. However...butter tastes SO much better. I have done comparisons with chocolate chip cookies too, and I could tell a distinct difference.
Like someone said, a lot of people use margarine, because to them that is butter, and they don't know what they are missing in real butter. When I 1st started baking all I used was Imperial.
Now...even if I have to cry when butter goes up in cost, I have to use it. I get mine from Costco.
For you gals that are looking for less expensive PS, butter and shortening that still has trans fat.
I don't know who has an Aldi grocery store but I get my PS for $1 per 2lb bag, $2 per pound for butter, and the shortening there still has trans fat.
I know some of you don't buy generic but it all tastes the same to me.....well these three things anyway.
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