Did You Know – Butter vs Margarine

62 Comments

When you bake your holiday cookies, do you use butter or margarine? I never use margarine because butter adds so much flavor and gives me better results, in my opinion.

According to Taste of Homes:

Butter will keep in the refrigerator for 1-3 months before the quality goes down.

Margarine will last 3-4 months, unopened, before the quality goes down.

Margarine has more additives than butter and thus lasts longer. However, butter will last 6-9 months when frozen, while margarine will last 6-8 months when frozen.

Butter is a dairy product made from milk or cream.

Margarine is made from oil, water, salt, and a few additional ingredients such as emulsifiers. 

It all comes down to the kind of fat involved. As an animal product, butter has high levels of cholesterol and saturated fats that aren’t present in margarine. 

Margarine, on the other hand, has more polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats (the good kinds!) but also often contains trans fats (the very bad kind!).

According to All Recipes, they stated this:

When you’re baking, butter triumphs over margarine every time. For cakes,
cookies, and pastries, butter (unsalted, that is) provides richer flavor. (It begins as
cream, after all, and margarine is made from vegetable oil.) Butter’s high fat content is also what gives baked goods their texture.

You know my choice, what is yours?

http://www.InDianesKitchen.com

Categories: Butter, Did You Know

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62 Comments »

  7. Butter. Grass fed. It makes so much difference in taste and texture of baked goods. I also love that you can freeze butter without ruining it. So when it’s on sale, I get a couple extras.

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  8. Pingback: Did You Know – Butter vs Margarine — In Dianes Kitchen | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  11. Know the difference between a good cook and a great cook?

    A stick of butter!!! Guess that tells you the one I vote for!😂😂

    Blue Rock Horses Frederick County, Virginia bluerockhorses.com

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  13. For so many years, the “experts” (i.e. paid professionals) told us that butter was bad health wise. Now, after years of deprivation, it is leaking out that butter is the healthier choice. (Margarine was also cheaper, but still…)

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  15. I don’t think you can beat the creamy flavor of butter. My son worked as line cook for many years. And he told me that practically everything in a restaurant kitchen is finished off with butter.

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  19. Ah the age of debate. We have margarine at home but often use butter too. I’m making a pan fried steak tonight and it’s butter all way for meB

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      • Margarine is our default purchase. We use it for toast, pancakes etc. I buy butter from time to time. It’s my go-to to make steak if I have it lying around. When I was young I used to love putting a thick slice of butter on warm toast and drizzle it with strawberry jam. So so good.

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  20. You know, I just thought. Years ago, I can remember that margarine was actually WHITE because the dairy industry felt that there would be confusion and unfair competition if it looked like butter. So you had to knead margarine in the wrapper so it mixed with food coloring to make it yellow like butter. That is the Merriam Webster dictionary definition of “YUCK!”

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  24. Butter all the way! I don’t think I’ve ever bought a tub of margarine. I grew up on a dairy farm and my father sold cream to a local creamery and when the delivery man would come and pick up the full canisters he would bring us butter too.

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  26. I used to use margarine all the time, but now use butter almost exclusively. I have a few recipes that call for margarine, but next year, I am going to try using butter and see if I like them better. My kids don’t use “plastic” they only use butter. (their terminology)

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