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BS: 'Best' Butter ??
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Subject: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: jimlad9 Date: 14 Feb 07 - 07:51 AM My 92 year old mother has been reminiscing about her younger days and talks about having 'Best Butter' on her butties. What was 'Best Butter'?. It begs the question of whether there was 'Worst Butter'. Can anybody help?. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Jean(eanjay) Date: 14 Feb 07 - 08:30 AM I have also heard that before and I've been looking it up but can't find anything. Could it be anything to do with butter you might use for spreading as opposed to butter that might be used for cooking? I'll keep looking until someone comes up with the answer here. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Jean(eanjay) Date: 14 Feb 07 - 08:44 AM It may be to do with the fat content. I have copied this from an interesting site on butter! "High-fat designer butters make a difference when butter is the key ingredient;" Evidently there's more to butter than meets the eye. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: GUEST,Sparticus Date: 14 Feb 07 - 08:48 AM Do you think simple (or not too simple) economics is the answer? The war years, when shortages were common necessitated substitutes for butter and to get "best butter" on your bread was a treat. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Rapparee Date: 14 Feb 07 - 08:51 AM Could have been farm-churned butter. I've had it, and it definitely superior to the stuff bought in stores! |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: GUEST,Elfcall Date: 14 Feb 07 - 09:05 AM My mam who is 82 this year and from County Durham will even now describe it as 'best butter' - i think it is as a comparison to margarine that was the usual (cheaper) substitute. Elf |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Scrump Date: 14 Feb 07 - 09:58 AM Did you say "Best Bitter"? I'll have a pint! Ah, sorry, misread the title :D I guess butter was like many other foods, and you could get various grades of quality, based on the ingredients? Maybe grocers would sell 'ordinary' and 'best' butter? Just guessing as I don't remember that far back. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Bert Date: 14 Feb 07 - 11:23 AM That's right Elf. Butter was "Best Butter" and margarine was your everyday stuff. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Bee Date: 14 Feb 07 - 11:37 AM I was sure this was an old brand name as in 'Best Butter', but apparently not. The best butter, though is fresh churned, very thoroughly washed, unsalted, used right away, with fresh homemade biscuits and wild strawberry jam. Of course, you have to have cows nearby for this to happen. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: skipy Date: 14 Feb 07 - 11:42 AM "It was the best butter," the March Hare meekly replied. Skipy |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 14 Feb 07 - 11:57 AM I don't think many people would ever refer to margarine as "butter" - though they might talk about "buttering" a slice of bread when they meant using margarine. Just as we still do with all the weird and wonderful spreads that they make these days. I mean you couldn't very well ask for "I can't believe it nit buttered" toast could you? Some people used to stretch the butter ration by mixing it with margarine, in which case "best butter" would be plain butter. But generally I think "best butter" just means what it says, the better quality (and probably more expensive) butter that you might use for special occasions. Just what sort of better quality butter that would be would depend on family preferences. Just have a look at the range on sale in the shops, it's by no means all the same is it? |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 14 Feb 07 - 11:58 AM Thebother thingis, butter goes off, especially in the days before frudges. It's best when it's fresh. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: jeffp Date: 14 Feb 07 - 12:00 PM For really special occasions, I will get some heavy cream and make butter with my food processor. There's nothing quite like spreading butter that was cream just hours before. My kids have come to expect this at major meals. My older son the first was just taking bites of his roll, saying, "Ummmmmmmmmmmm, butter!!!" It was very gratifying. For ordinary special occasions, Kerrygold Irish Butter is available. I use Land O' Lakes for everyday. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Don Firth Date: 14 Feb 07 - 01:59 PM Conversation between the Reverend Geraldine Granger (Dawn French) with Alice Tinker (Emma Chambers) in The Vicar of Dibley (in my opinion, this ranks right up there with Abbott and Costello's routine, "Who's on first?"): Alice: You know that stuff they're selling now at the local shop?Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Georgiansilver Date: 14 Feb 07 - 02:04 PM Az a probber North Deb'm chap. I ate bessest budder when I wuz jus a lad and I can tell-ee tiz made vrum the bes cream vrum the bes cream givin' cows..which in North Deb'm be the Jersey cows. Ope that 'elps. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Mrs.Duck Date: 14 Feb 07 - 02:14 PM I actually think MOST people refer to margerine as butter. I know many cafes and sandwich shops will ask if you want butter and it turns out to be marg whuch I don't like so can always tell. We always referred to 'best butter' as an alternative to margerine. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: autolycus Date: 14 Feb 07 - 02:26 PM Just by-the-way,jimlad9 meant to write "that raises the question..." when he wrote "that begs the question..." If I say,"Parallel lines will never meet because they're parallel",THAT is 'begging the question'. In other words,assuming as true the very thing I'm seeking to prove. Ot you can say,"That poses the question.." , or "The question is..." Thank you. Ivor |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 14 Feb 07 - 02:41 PM If the cafe say it's butter and it's marge they could be in trouble if anyone cared to kick up a fuss. So they'd be likely to come up with the real stuff if you object. Of course most of the time it's not marge either these days. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: jimlad9 Date: 14 Feb 07 - 04:15 PM Autolycus We have a saying in these parts (Gods Country) " NOBODY LIKES SMARTARSES" |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: GUEST,Stilly River Sage Date: 14 Feb 07 - 04:27 PM I've gone back to using mostly butter after years and years of using margarine because we were told it was somehow better for us than butter. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Bugsy Date: 14 Feb 07 - 05:53 PM I agree with Spartacus and Elfcall. When I was really young and rationing was still in force in England, we used margarine for everything except "bread & butter". If we had jam on your bread or any other spread or topping, we had "marg". You didn't waste "best butter" if it was going to be covered with marmalade or jam. All these years later, I still adhere to the habit of a lifetime. Cheers Bugsy |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 14 Feb 07 - 06:00 PM Meself I like a touch of pedantry from time to time. (They're all God's Country, and none more or less so than any of the others, jimlad.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Celtaddict Date: 14 Feb 07 - 11:01 PM Braincrumb from when I was a kid: A bit o' bitter butter bittered Betty Botter's batter, But a bit o' better butter made the bitter batter better. No recollection of the significance if any of this doggerel; jumprope rhyme perhaps? |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Peace Date: 14 Feb 07 - 11:32 PM Butter was a rarity in the house when I was a kid. But I do remember those margarine bags with the dye pack in them. Ya broke the dye pack by squeezing and then kneaded the bag for what seemed like forever but was likely 20 minutes or so and when the margarine had become a yellowish colour, voila. To this day I can't stand margarine (other than Lactantia, which is a brand from Quebec), and will do without on toast if I have no butter available. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: bobad Date: 14 Feb 07 - 11:36 PM Coloured margarine still cannot be bought in Quebec, the dairy lobby believes that consumers will be fooled into thinking that they are getting butter when they purchase margarine. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: gecko Date: 15 Feb 07 - 05:41 AM Celtaddict - I remember that braincrumb as: Betty bought a bit of butter But the bit of butter that Betty bought was bitter So Betty bought a bit of better butter To make the bitter butter better. Well, it used to pass the time!! YIU gecko |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Georgiansilver Date: 15 Feb 07 - 08:52 AM Remember when Irishman 'Hurricane Higgins' was high up in the snooker world...he headbutted a referee in one of his less controlled moments. The players of the day 'nicknamed' him Kerrygold....which is Irelands best butter. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: GUEST,Sparticus Date: 15 Feb 07 - 09:37 AM Kerrygold.......Nah! Give me Golden Cow anyday. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Stilly River Sage Date: 15 Feb 07 - 11:58 AM When I was a kid I remember my mother telling me about how they bought margarine that was white and it came with a packet of yellow color they had to mix in themselves. That must have been in the 1920s or early 30s? The same motivation as the dairy lobby in Quebec, they wanted consumers to know they weren't getting real butter. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: jimlad9 Date: 15 Feb 07 - 12:56 PM When I was a lad an aquaintance decided to enrich his life by burglarizing a local bakery by entering down the chute used to deliver flour. Sadly the bakery workers had parked a 200 litre vat of melted margerine at the bottom of the chute with obvious results. He is still to this day known as 'Kerrygold Ken' |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: MBSLynne Date: 15 Feb 07 - 02:01 PM No no..it's: Betty Botter bought some butter "But" she said "The butter's bitter! If I put it in my batter, It will make the batter bitter, But a bit of BETTER butter Will make my batter better" So she bought a bit of butter Better than the bitter butter And she put it in her batter And tha batter was not bitter So 'twas better Betty Botter Bought a bit of better butter. Lots of old recipes books I have call for Best butter. I think some foods were adulterated to make them cheaper. Not sure what they adulterated butter with, but best butter would have been the unadulterated. Recipes used to call for sweet milk and sour milk too...they didn't waste anything in those days. Georgian silver...the best cows in North Devon are usually Devon cows. They, and South Devons are the best ones to use for clotted cream anyway. Love Lynne |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Mo the caller Date: 15 Feb 07 - 02:05 PM Yes, in my wartime childhood (in London) 'butter' meant marg. Real genuine butter was refered to as 'best babies butter'. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: autolycus Date: 15 Feb 07 - 02:19 PM jimlad9,thank you for that. My Mum likes smartarses,only she calls them (me) clever. And smartarses like smartarses. So to continue the wish for accuracy,your "NOBODY" WAS erroneous. Butter that. Personally i use cholesteral(?)-lowering marges,which,in my case,work. Ivor |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Don Firth Date: 15 Feb 07 - 02:35 PM During World War II, food was rationed, and everyone had ration books with "blue points' and "red points" and such (I can't remember now which colored "point" was for what kind of food). Fats were in short supply and butter was pricy in terms of points. But you could get margarine. The dairy industry had managed to get a law passed (pre-war, I think) that makers of margarine could not color it yellow, because they could then pass it off as butter. So margarine (which was an unappetizing pasty white) usually came with a packet of food coloring that you had to mix in (pain in the neck). But during the war, some brands of margarine were sold in a plastic bag. At one point beneath the surface of the plastic bag full of white glop was a little thing about the size of an M&M that looked reddish-brown. You'd squeeze the M&M-ish thing until it popped (inside the plastic bag) and color would start to leak into the white glop. Then you'd knead the bag for awhile, distributing the color evenly until all the white glop had turned to a buttery yellow. I was kinda young during World War II, and coloring the margarine was my job. Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: jimlad9 Date: 16 Feb 07 - 07:20 AM A mate of mine was at sea with 'Manchester Lines' sailing between M/cr and Canada. On one of many trips they were carrying a cargo of Margerine. My mates job as they approached the unloading port,Montreal,was to turn on steam to heating coils in the tanks of Margerine to make it fluid enough to pump out of the tanks. He was a prodidgeous drinker and on approaching Montreal he operated the Steam Valves and also the off-loading pumps and the off-loading valves. The result was a 15 mile long yellow stripe along the St Lawrence Seaway. It made the headlines on all the TV stations news |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Bugsy Date: 16 Feb 07 - 08:13 PM Bloody good job it wasn't "Best Butter" Jimlad. Cheers Bugsy |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 16 Feb 07 - 11:26 PM A friend of mine went to France and came back with the idea of putting walnut oil on toast instead of butter or margarine. I've taken it up. It tastes good and it's probably healthier. We like a kind of spread called Smart Balance for everyday, but when it comes time to make cookies, the real butter comes into play. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: dianavan Date: 17 Feb 07 - 03:24 AM I remember the margarine with the yellow blob that had to be worked into the white grease and it was in the 50's! When I asked my mom why we had to eat that crap, she said because real butter was too expensive. I said that I didn't care how poor I might be but when I grew up we would only have real butter in my house. I stuck to it. To make life easier, my grandfather bought me a pound of butter every Christmas. I'd make toast all morning long and share it with everyone. I felt like a princess. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: jimlad9 Date: 17 Feb 07 - 04:23 AM Jeeneia Just tried the Walnut oil,will never do butter/maggie-ann/peanut butter etc again. Thank you you have made an old man happy,and probably healthier to. Jim |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Linda Goodman Zebooker Date: 17 Feb 07 - 01:25 PM The vegetarian cookbook, Laurel's Kitchen advocates "Better Butter". You make it in a blender by mixing half vegetable oil and half melted butter, then store in a container. It has the health properties of a good vegetable oil, spreads well and tastes like butter. I haven't tried it in baking, but it's nice for spreading and cooking with. Linda |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Linda Goodman Zebooker Date: 17 Feb 07 - 01:32 PM Refrigerated, of course. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 18 Feb 07 - 09:15 AM "use cholesteral(?)-lowering marges" Tried that stuff - after 3 days use, I started apouting at both ends for 12 hours... then had a week of tasting/feeling grease all the way through from top to bottom. Qld Health Dept said I was first person to lodge a complaint. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 18 Feb 07 - 09:22 AM er... spouting .... but, believe me, both ends were a-pouting too... :-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 18 Feb 07 - 12:24 PM The funny thing is that a lot of the most expensive and best butter is pretty well white to start with. Best butter for us was the soft creamery butter our cousins in Ireland used to send us sometimes wrapped up in newspaper during rationing times in England. Can't get it these days anywhere I know, and the creamery closed down years ago. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 18 Feb 07 - 12:54 PM Bee commented: The best butter, though is fresh churned, very thoroughly washed, unsalted, used right away, with fresh homemade biscuits and wild strawberry jam. Now you've touched a sore point: "unsalted". I vigorously disagree. I can't see what anyone sees in unsalted butter, which is essentially tasteless. The salt is necessary to bring out the rest of the flavor. And especially I'm puzzled by recipes which will call for "unsalted butter" but then list salt as one of the other ingredients. Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: Penny S. Date: 18 Feb 07 - 01:32 PM I should imagine, drawing on my mother's reminiscences of farm life that the bestness of the butter depended on a number of things. The breed of cow would influence not only the fat content of the cream, but the other ingredients as well. What the cow had been eating would be pretty important, as well. Butter from fresh grass would be yellower, and richer tasting than butter from hay or pellets. So time of year would be important. The time of the lactation would affect things, too. Beestings milk, rich with colostrum, is used for custards and curd tarts, but I should think there would be other changes during the lactation period. The churning would be affected by external conditions, as well, sometimes the butter wouldn't "come", so that might affect the quality. How well the butter was worked with the pats to drive out the buttermilk. How long it had been kept. Lots of factors. During the war, one way to extend the ration was to soften the butter and work it with water - obviously butter stretched in that way would not qualify as best. Penny |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: CET Date: 18 Feb 07 - 05:57 PM Jeff: Do you have a particular method for making butter in your food processor. Do you add salt? Do you just put it on high until the cream turns solid? Edmund |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 18 Feb 07 - 06:09 PM It's easy enough to add salt to anything, Uncle DaveO. Damn hard to take it out though. |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: MBSLynne Date: 19 Feb 07 - 03:13 AM I use the butter/vegetable oil. You do have to keep it in the fridge or it goes semi-liquid but I now like it better than straight butter. The best butter around here is the stuff I occasionally bring home from the farm I work on. It is jersey butter, churned on the farm and with a little salt added. That is VERY yellow. Love Lynne |
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Subject: RE: BS: 'Best' Butter ?? From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 19 Feb 07 - 07:02 AM Even Butter is now 'standardised' with food colouring - but they don't have to list it as an ingredient... :-) |
