The Glade 4.0

NF likes the Betty Crocker chocolate chip oatmeal cookie mix so I usually try to make some once a week or so. I made some last night, and NF notes that the cookies "taste funny." (NF is not a complainer, nor is he picky, but he notices and comments on EVERY imperfection in his food...and then eats it anyway. He'd make a great food critic.)
The only difference between last nights cookies and the hundreds of other cookies I have made was that I happened to have some sticks of real butter (sale at Kroger!) and used unsalted-butter instead of the cheap wal-mart brand of stick margarine that I usually use.
Yes, they tasted different, but for me (and one of the kiddos) the difference was awesome. Usually when I use margarine, since it melts faster, the cookies are flatter and tend to have air-holes in them.
With the real butter, there were no air-holes and the cookies were perfectly shaped and nice and fat.

Now I just have to convince NF that they taste better.....he does not like it when I change his food.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Butter only, please.

Margarine is nasty, and should still be illegal. Wisconsin only repealed the anti-margarine laws in '67. Before that, we had margarine smugglers who would drive the stuff up from across the Illinois state line. You could get coloring packets that you would smoosh into the margarine to make it look like butter.

NF, renounce your simulated dairy product ways and toss that contraband in the trash where it belongs!

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So (maybe this is a question for NF),

By "Funny", did you mean they were they better? or worse? or just different?

What was the opinion of the other cookie monsters in the house?

My god, you've just triggered memories from way back in my primordial past. I have no clue why, but we would make regular trips to Illinois to buy "oleo" (margarine) in the days prior to legalization. We never re-sold though, except maybe to family. It was strictly for personal use, really.

It's ironic, because nowadays I won't even have margarine in the house unless something specifically calls for it. And, even then, I don't use it my Kraft Mac and Cheese, despite the instructions on the box.

Butter makes everything better.

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

I hate margarine. I only use real butter. I usually buy salted, but that part isn't as important.

Recent studies have shown that butter is actually not really that bad for you in small amounts, whereas vegetable oils, from which margarine is generally made, are one of the worst oils you can use in cooking.

And butter tastes way better anyway.

I only use Margarine for grilled cheese sammiches.

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Most margarine has added water to make it spreadable at room temp, which affects the texture of baked goods. Margarine is also salted, so switching to unsalted butter will mess up the salt balance of the cookies.

For baking we use unsalted butter at home. But for normal every day use; I prefer (and buy) Country Crock with Calcium.

But if we are going to be cooking something extravagant (for company or parties) we will then splurge and spend the extra money for the butter as well.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

I only use butter. I used to use margarine because that's what my mom always bought, but I always preferred the taste of butter, so I finally decided to go with taste rather than what mom always bought! I dont bake a lot any more, especially sweets, because of my type 2 diabetes and hubby's propensity for developing it, so we buy unsalted butter.

Hopwin...
Room temperature butter is soooo much better on grilled cheese sammiches than margarine ever thought of being!!

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"Said I never had much use for one, never said I didn't know how to use one!"~ Matthew Quigley

"nothing like a little meow in bed at night" ~ Bruskey

"I gotta float my stick same as you" Hondo Lane

"Fill your hand you son of a *****!"

I rarely cook or bake, and I don't keep either in the house. Butter all the way when I have to choose, unsalted preferred.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

butter is better....



except that it's soo damn hard to spread. i dont mind using margarine when i have to spread it (like making a grilled cheese, or on toast)....but I would prefer butter I could spread without having to heat it up first, since I store the sticks in the refridgerator. PITA.

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Ron Paul 2012

Land O' Lakes makes an incredible spreadable butter. It's pricey, but oh so worth it!

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

I am sure it is, the problem is that grilled cheese are a spur of the moment thing for me so my butter is never room temperature when I want/need it to be. Essentially here is how it goes...

Me: "Nothing sounds good..."
Me2: "What's in the fridge again?"
Me: "Italian bread, mustard, ketchup, pickles, soda, milk, cheese slices..."
Me2: "You fool! We have bread and cheese!?"
Me: "Yeah, and?"
Me2: "GCS MOFO!"
Me: "Oh hell yes!"

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Get a butter dish?

I don't use enough butter to keep it from going rancid

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Then only keep a 1/4th of a stick in it at a time!

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

I don't even use that much in a week... I mostly use butter for pan-cooking chicken and I don't like chicken that much.

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Yeah, when I was a kid, we always kept the butter out. My wife, however, refrigerates it, despite the fact that we go through it pretty quickly. I may have to start "forgetting" to put it in the fridge overnight so I can have it nice and melty the next morning. /whistles

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

I've switched to butter in the last couple of years after growing up in a Margarine household. I'm a big fan of natural stuff (no I don't mean some bullshit "organic" label companies throw on everything nowadays) and I don't use oodles of it anyways, so for me its fine. I find it tastes better too.

LOL!

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"Said I never had much use for one, never said I didn't know how to use one!"~ Matthew Quigley

"nothing like a little meow in bed at night" ~ Bruskey

"I gotta float my stick same as you" Hondo Lane

"Fill your hand you son of a *****!"

when I was a kid we always kept butter out on the counter in a butter dish.

There were five of us and we used it fairly liberally for cooking and toast and such, so it went pretty fast.

These days I don't use enough of it to justify keeping it out, so I usually settle for some kind of refrigerated butter spread substitute....

It takes what...maybe 10 to 15 seconds to soften butter in the microwave?? You can't wait that long??

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"Said I never had much use for one, never said I didn't know how to use one!"~ Matthew Quigley

"nothing like a little meow in bed at night" ~ Bruskey

"I gotta float my stick same as you" Hondo Lane

"Fill your hand you son of a *****!"

I don't own a microwave...

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I would starve without a microwave...

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