Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with butter

Lather over Lotion?

CollectiveMind — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:07:00 -0800

Why does Palmer's Olive Butter Formula Lotion vary so wildly in price? In looking for a hand lotion, I noticed that their new offering began showing up in Big Lots for $2.00 for a .60 oz tube, $2.50 for a 8.5 oz bottle and $3.00 for a 17 oz pump. Besides that not making any sense, it was on the shelves throughout last winter and spring at these prices, only to disappear for about a month with only the bottle returning at twice the price (which, BTW is the same price it was selling in the grocery stories). Then it disappeared for another month and now, all three are back at last year's prices. Understandably, it is flying off the shelves, again. But (1) Why the disparity in price vs. quantity, and (2) Why even in the discount stores, was the price raised and then reduced again? I'm wondering what kind of market or corporate forces might be at work?

Why is a US West Coast stick of butter so fat?

Rash — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 13:27:04 -0800

Bi-coastal Filter: Why are supermarket sticks of butter different sizes? On the East Coast (DC where I know best) a pound of butter from most supermarkets comes in four long sticks about an inch square. But in California, (maybe all over the West?) the butter sticks are stubby, with a cross-section more like 1.5 inches. Why?

Like buttah!

Cat Pie Hurts — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:05:21 -0800

I learned how to make butter today using just a glass jar, a pint of heavy cream and elbow grease! So I made some, but something strange happened along the way and I seemed to have accidentally made ricotta cheese.... I first poured the entirety of the pint into the glass jar (a clean, 16oz pickle jar). 2 minutes into the shaking, I wasn't feeling any movement in the jar, so I popped it open to find that the foam wasn't allowing for the proper amount of agitation, so I poured off half of the contents to be used later. I finished the shaking, and in 5 minutes, I had a nice amount of butter and buttermilk. Strain, rinse, strain again and butter!

I decided to use the 2nd half of the heavy cream to record a video (if you're interested, check the youtube link in my profile). Now, Since this was a half shaken batch, I was expecting some differences from the first batch. When I poured into the jar, there were some chunks (expected). After a few minutes of shaking, everything solidified! There was no buttermilk to be found. (this part isn't on the video). I opened it up, and the "butter" looked more like small, separated curds. Of course, I took a taste - not butter, but ricotta cheese!

In the end, for the sake of the video, I added buttermilk from the last batch, shook again and within a minute had buttermilk and butter again. I strained and it tasted exactly like the first batch.

I looked around, and every recipe for ricotta that I found involves cooking and an acid. There were no acids introduced to either batch. Everything was between fridge temperature and room temperature (about 68F). What happened? How the hell did I end up with cold fusion ricotta?

What do I do with this ghee?

odinsdream — Sun, 24 May 2009 19:47:10 -0800

So I made ghee. Now what? I've made ghee as described in that link. I'd like to know what I could do with it now. I already plan on using it in place of butter when frying eggs or pancakes. What other recipes can I use it in?

Traditional-schmaditional

owtytrof — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:49:42 -0800

RecipeFilter: Seafood stew stumper! A local Italian restaurant serves a fantastic bowl of cioppino, which I would like to try to replicate at home. The problem is that the dish I'm trying to make is not cooked in the traditional tomato and garlic broth, which is all I can find via Google, but a creamy lemon butter version.

I'm fairly handy in the kitchen, and not afraid of improvisation, but I need a starting point. Any tips, ideas, or actual recipes for this apparently rare version of cioppino would be greatly appreciated!

Have I reached the peanut butter apex?

world b free — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:20:21 -0800

What uncommon, not-brand-name peanut butters are good to try? I'm becoming a peanut butter connoisseur.

I grew up on Peter Pan, converted to Jif, then discovered the stirrable ones out there. I fell in love with Arrowhead Mills' smooth with the valencia nuts, thought Peanut Butter and Co.'s basic creamy was decent, (loved the flavored), was a bit disappointed with Brad's Organic, and tried a bunch more basic, Whole Foods-type brands.

So what else is good out there? I don't care if it's crunchy or smooth, has added flavors, or is bottled in unlabeled jars by some guy in a shack in Minnesota--I'll have it shipped.

Also, I live on the East Coast, so it may be that there is a plethora of them I'm unaware of.

How to cook restaurant-style butter chicken?

pravit — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:55:10 -0800

How do you cook butter chicken like in Indian restaurants? Butter chicken tends to vary a bit between restaurants, but the one I'm after has a reddish-orange color, a nice thick consistency, and a sweet, smooth flavor that I haven't been able to replicate.

The way I'm making curry now is starting with onions, garlic, ginger, various spices (cumin, coriander, turmeric, etc.), then making a sauce with tomatoes and adding garam masala and cream at the end. It tastes good, but the flavor isn't anything like butter chicken, and the color is completely off - my curries tend to be medium to light brown most of the time.

I'm not so interested in how to cook the actual chicken; it's the sauce I'm after - what's the secret? How do they get it so orange, and where does the sweetness come from? Can anyone point me to a good recipe or share your tips? Thanks!

Half-arsed pork chop preparation! Help!

chihiro — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:20:58 -0800

I have 3 pork chops which have been dipped in garlic butter and then dredged in panko. Can I now pan fry them or shall I bake them? They're sitting in my kitchen right now. This is the result of some bastardized "little of this, little of that" cooking approach. If I fry them will the breadcrumbs fall off because the only thing holding them on the pork is melted butter? If I cook them in the oven, at what temperature and for how long? Help!

SOS butter stain

footnote — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:15:41 -0800

Heyyylup! I just got some butter on my new suit. It's all synthetic material, dry clean only. Is there anything I should to between now and when I can get to a dry cleaner in the morning? It was a nice lemon-sage-garlic butter, it truly was. But I do wish it was not on my suit.

Smooth-scrolling PDFs?

cgomez — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 23:33:04 -0800

What is the best way to scan documents so that they scroll well in OS X? Regardless of which scanner I use, I seem to produce PDFs that scroll/change pages very slowly in OS X, and as a result, applications that use OS X's PDF rendering engine. Is there a particular application or settings I can use in Acrobat Professional that will lead to black and white document scans that scroll "like butter"? I'd like it to be 300 dpi or so just for document clarity.

I'm linking to two documents that are similar in content but perform differently.

Smooth-scrolling: http://rocketsilence.com/mefi/greenstein_pols157_example.pdf
Not so much scan: http://rocketsilence.com/mefi/finstat_deckers_example_118.pdf

The elusive vegan brown butter - can it be done?

faunafrailty — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:48:37 -0800

Can you brown dairy-free margarine for recipes that call for brown butter? How do you do it? I usually use Nucoa or Earth Balance margarine to veganize recipes. Has anyone had any luck browning this stuff? If so, how?

Here's an example of a recipe that I know I can veganize--except the pesky brown butter.

(Bonus question: Any hope of a vegan ghee or clarified butter? I've never thought so but maybe someone knows. For vegan cooks, do you just sub with margarine?)

She's better in shea butter.

Evstar — Mon, 28 May 2007 08:56:15 -0800

Is shea butter a distinctly feminine scent? I love the smell of it on a lady; is it unseemly on a man, or just as pleasant? Let's not get into any gender debates, I'm only curious because most often I smell it on women.

Can my Ethiopian food be kosher?

geekhorde — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 17:07:12 -0800

Kosher Ethiopian food? Niter kebbeh in particular? So, tomorrow night a rabbi friend of a friend may be coming to dinner and I was wanting to make Ethiopian food. I suspect just from what I know (which is not that much) of kosher restrictions that using the niter kebbeh (spiced butter) to cook the Doro Wat (chicken stew) would not be considered kosher. Am I right? I don't want to offend the rabbi. My wife sent the rabbi an email, but she hasn't answered yet.

I thought about using olive oil, but it wouldn't have the same taste.

Know anything about canned butter from the 1950's?

phonebia — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 19:22:33 -0800

Help me figure out the name of the brand of canned butter my mother loved as a child growing up in Taiwan. I'd love to present her with a tin of this stuff for her birthday. A long shot, for sure but I have to try. :)

She grew up in the Kaohsiung area of Taiwan, in a village that translates into Six Turtle (Liu Kuei or something similar), and remembers this sweet-flavored canned butter from her childhood. She would have had access to it during the mid 1950's-early 1960's. Apparently the Catholic church passed it out to the local people along with flour and such.

There are some traits of this elusive butter that she is quite insistent upon:
1. It was in a round tin, diameter approximately equal to that of a CD.
2. It had a cow on the side.
3. The stuff definitely tasted sweet. In fact it was so awesome that "[she] can still taste it now."

This Red Feather Pure Creamery Butter is the closest thing I could find (Googling yielded some notes about how it was imported to Asian parts of the world also), but it doesn't have a cow on it. Also, the ingredients don't seem to indicate that it would taste sweet.

Can you help me figure this out?

Where does "bread and butter" come from?

zardoz — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 05:12:33 -0800

When walking on the strip in Vegas recently, a couple walking toward me was forced to split to either side of me, and the woman said "bread and butter!". I remember my mom using this phrase when I was a kid, but it was the first time I'd heard it from someone else. What's the origin of this phrase? My mom's from Iowa/Kansas, and no telling what part of the States (or Canada) that couple was from. I'm wondering as well if any Brit MeFites have heard this expression.

¡Margarina! ¡Mantequilla!

Robert Angelo — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 17:22:23 -0800

I like the taste of butter. I grew up with margarine as the "healthier" substitute, then switched to various spreads, then back. What provides the healthiest butter or butter analog? I was just cooking some broccoli and I went to the fridge and chose between the butter and margarine to add my buttery taste.I happened to glance at the labels, and I saw that butter had 11 grams of fat per serving, but 0 trans fat. Butter also had 7 grams of saturated fat, fwiw. The margarine had 9 grams of fat, but 2.5 grams of trans fat and 3 grams of polyunsaturated fat. The balance in each case was monounsaturated.

So which is best? I know I prefer the butter, by taste and texture, and it seems like so many people and government regulators are freaking out about trans fats (but not sat fats). On the other hand, I always thought that the polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats were supposed to be better for you. So which is it?

FWIW, I grew up in the 1970s, when my Dad had high cholesterol and Parkay was the best thing going. Now that I'm his age, the information seems so much more complex. Help!

1. Eat butter 2. Test cholesterol 3. ???

hindmost — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 13:21:53 -0800

I'm curious as to how much cholesterol numbers can change on a daily or weekly basis. Is it possible to raise your cholesterol by a measurable number if you ate, say, a stick of butter before your fast? Let's say Bob has a "natural" level of around 190, gets exercise 3 times a week, and has a reasonable diet. How long would he need to eat fried chicken day in and day out to raise his cholesterol to 200? There seems to be a lot more information regarding how fast cholesterol drops than how fast it can rise.

butterfilter:

bash — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 23:43:50 -0800

Why feed babies butter? An acquaintance of mine recently told me a story about his infant: they took their kid to a pediatrician who told them to feed their baby half a stick of butter every day? What would ever be the purpose for this?

Butter on nubeck leather (suede-like) shoe

rabbus — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 18:56:28 -0800

Any ideas on how to remove melted butter stain on brand new pair of "nubeck leather" shoes? (Nubeck leather looks a lot like suede, and looks a lot like crap with the butter.) Today was my first day with the shoes and I managed to step in dog dew with one (easy, albeit unpleasant, clean-up) and spill about a square inch worth of butter on the other.... Thanks for any help.

Butter bell?

ColdChef — Sat, 23 Jul 2005 11:48:51 -0800

Anyone here use a butter bell? I love the idea of spreadable butter all the time, but I'm afraid of it going rancid. It looks good in theory, but I'm wondering if anyone here has actually tried it.

Peanut Buuter Filled Pretzels

askmatrix — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 08:19:08 -0800

Could someone please explain to me the factory process of making peanut butter filled pretzels?

Special Mexican Cocoa

hautenegro — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 22:56:08 -0800

Does anyone have a good recipe for mexican hot chocolate that involves melting cocoa butter with ...ahem, smoking tobacco?

Why does margarine melt my popcorn?

sled — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 17:02:21 -0800

Whenever real butter is used for a topping on my popcorn it seems to work well, coats the popcorn, does not make it soggy. When I use margarine it seems to "melt" the popcorn, making it soggy. I am curious to hear some technical reasons why this might happen. I know the melting points are nominally similar, so I have crossed that out. My brainstorm starts with a higher specific heat, a different lipid bilayer, or some more complex organic interaction between the differing molecules?

Can Butter Go Rancid?

Brad — Wed, 24 Mar 2004 20:33:34 -0800

Once again microbiologists & bacteria enthusiasts your wisdom is needed. My roommate is mad because I left the butter out overnight, he won't touch it and said I have to buy a new stick. But my grandma always kept her butter in a covered dish on the counter, not in the refrigerator. My question then, what are the facts here: does butter require constant refrigeration? How long till butter goes bad {packaged, refrigerated, covered dish} and in what ways, and at what risk?

Almond Butter

donfactor — Mon, 19 Jan 2004 04:02:12 -0800

I love Almond Butter but here in the UK a little jar that holds about 300 grams costs around £4.00 or $7.00. I decided to try and make it myself. I bought a bunch of almonds, put them - as I was advised into a food processor, using the steel blades and turned it on - what I ended up with was finally ground almonds. I have looked everywhere from google on down and found nothing useful. What i am after is a pure almond butter, with nothing added, like the stuff that comes in the expensive jars from health food shops. Can anyone tell me how to this?