Epicurious, Yellow
April 30, 2023 5:05 PM Subscribe
As a New Zealander, I always notice how US and EU butter is so pale. Ours is quite yellow by comparison, because the cattle are all grass-fed and the carotenes from the grass colour the milk.
I have tried to like cultured butter and it's ok but honestly I find it a bit distracting from whatever else I'm putting on the bread. I prefer salted.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 5:23 PM on April 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
I have tried to like cultured butter and it's ok but honestly I find it a bit distracting from whatever else I'm putting on the bread. I prefer salted.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 5:23 PM on April 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
Honestly I am not that interested in butter but I am an excellent post title aficionado and this one is amazing
posted by phooky at 5:33 PM on April 30, 2023 [73 favorites]
posted by phooky at 5:33 PM on April 30, 2023 [73 favorites]
It's not just butterfat. In many EU countries, cows are on grass all year. Makes a huge difference.
Read this book!
posted by Miko at 5:34 PM on April 30, 2023 [7 favorites]
Read this book!
posted by Miko at 5:34 PM on April 30, 2023 [7 favorites]
I expected the answer to be the Atlantic Ocean.
posted by srboisvert at 5:36 PM on April 30, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by srboisvert at 5:36 PM on April 30, 2023 [6 favorites]
For some reason Vermont Creamery cultured butter has been consistently $3.49 at Fairway, whereas my go to, Kerrygold has been close to $8.00. Guess which I picked. I do save the cultured for eating on bread and the Kerrygold for cooking. I am thrilled to learn Vital Farms has 85%. I’ve seen it but passed it by and now I’m going straight for it.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 5:37 PM on April 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 5:37 PM on April 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
Metafilter: on grass all year. Makes a huge difference.
posted by lalochezia at 5:54 PM on April 30, 2023 [54 favorites]
posted by lalochezia at 5:54 PM on April 30, 2023 [54 favorites]
been mildly obsessed with Kerrygold since I first tried some; theoretically they're not supposed to sell it in Wisconsin (or weren't, at least) but the Whole Foods on the Lower East Side of Milwaukee had the hookup
always kinda felt like the Dairy Police were gonna tackle me on my way out but that made grocery shopping more exciting tbh
my family has stories about yellow margarine having been verboten in Wisconsin in the 50s, they'd sell you white margarine with a little packet of dye
apparently my grandmother used to drive to Minnesota for yellow margarine & I'm like "but WHY, y'all had BUTTER"
posted by taquito sunrise at 6:01 PM on April 30, 2023 [12 favorites]
always kinda felt like the Dairy Police were gonna tackle me on my way out but that made grocery shopping more exciting tbh
my family has stories about yellow margarine having been verboten in Wisconsin in the 50s, they'd sell you white margarine with a little packet of dye
apparently my grandmother used to drive to Minnesota for yellow margarine & I'm like "but WHY, y'all had BUTTER"
posted by taquito sunrise at 6:01 PM on April 30, 2023 [12 favorites]
that sounded insane to me so i googled it and:
"Wisconsin had another butter ban that ran from 1970 until 2017. The state-wide regulation required all butter sold in Wisconsin to bear a federal grade-mark which meant Wisconsin shoppers couldn't purchase popular Kerrygold butter, which is made in Ireland."
From https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/wisconsin-butter-laws
posted by awfurby at 6:06 PM on April 30, 2023 [9 favorites]
"Wisconsin had another butter ban that ran from 1970 until 2017. The state-wide regulation required all butter sold in Wisconsin to bear a federal grade-mark which meant Wisconsin shoppers couldn't purchase popular Kerrygold butter, which is made in Ireland."
From https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/wisconsin-butter-laws
posted by awfurby at 6:06 PM on April 30, 2023 [9 favorites]
Agreed cultured butter is the best thing for spreading on fresh baked bread and it's unfortunate that it can be hard to find in the US.
My slightly butter-obsessed folks back in Minnesota introduced me to Røros, which makes a great 86% butterfat cultured butter that can be found at lots of ordinary supermarkets around the Twin Cities. I don't know if it's a national brand though -- I haven't seen it here in NYC.
Otherwise, if you're in any decent size US metro area you can find an excellent reasonably-priced cultured butter at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods stocks a few varieties too.
posted by theory at 6:07 PM on April 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
My slightly butter-obsessed folks back in Minnesota introduced me to Røros, which makes a great 86% butterfat cultured butter that can be found at lots of ordinary supermarkets around the Twin Cities. I don't know if it's a national brand though -- I haven't seen it here in NYC.
Otherwise, if you're in any decent size US metro area you can find an excellent reasonably-priced cultured butter at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods stocks a few varieties too.
posted by theory at 6:07 PM on April 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
We just came back from a trip that had us at a restaurant with a 'butters of the world' plate. It was only 4 - French, Italian, Indian, and Ethiopian - but it was a delight. The Italian had some parmesan component, the Indian was water buffalo based true butter, but I have to admit the niter kibbeh was not for me. Or maybe just not for baguette.
posted by cobaltnine at 6:14 PM on April 30, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by cobaltnine at 6:14 PM on April 30, 2023 [8 favorites]
I've become a Kerry Gold devotee and nothing will dissuade me.
posted by tiny frying pan at 6:26 PM on April 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by tiny frying pan at 6:26 PM on April 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
Kerrygold was recently forced to recall its butter by a class action action lawsuit alleging PFAS contamination.
I buy an American 85% butterfat butter which is not cultured even in the unsalted version, and which I am not naming because I don’t think they are capable of meeting existing demand for their butter, much less anything more.
posted by jamjam at 6:27 PM on April 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
I buy an American 85% butterfat butter which is not cultured even in the unsalted version, and which I am not naming because I don’t think they are capable of meeting existing demand for their butter, much less anything more.
posted by jamjam at 6:27 PM on April 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
Beurre Bordier all the way. But seriously, we live in a place with mostly French butter, which is either doux or semi-sel, which is something like .5 to 3% salt, but in places like Normandie you can get butter that’s full sel and it is really great. Usually in a lump, but I forget what that’s called.
posted by snofoam at 6:29 PM on April 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by snofoam at 6:29 PM on April 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
Sorry, tiny frying pan, my comment was not a response to yours and yours did not show up on preview.
posted by jamjam at 6:30 PM on April 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by jamjam at 6:30 PM on April 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
theory: Røros is a city in Norway and it looks like the same-named butter is from Norway and for now only available in the upper Midwest.
posted by madcaptenor at 6:41 PM on April 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by madcaptenor at 6:41 PM on April 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
I'm mostly fine with American butter with my baking, but I'm happy to pay for really good butter to spread on really good toast. I don't have the patience for sourdough, but I adore my tangzhong pulish oat bran home made bread for toast. And toast is mostly why I bake it.
posted by indexy at 6:43 PM on April 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by indexy at 6:43 PM on April 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
Butter porn, you say?
Malaxage
(Contains no actual porn, just sensibly clothed adults folding butter by hand and running it under a wooden roller and speaking French)
posted by Pallas Athena at 6:45 PM on April 30, 2023 [7 favorites]
Malaxage
(Contains no actual porn, just sensibly clothed adults folding butter by hand and running it under a wooden roller and speaking French)
posted by Pallas Athena at 6:45 PM on April 30, 2023 [7 favorites]
I have been sternly advised that if you're going to make croissants, you had better use European-style butter, at least 82% butterfat, because the fat percentage affects the melting point and thus affects whether you're going to get good lamination. I can attest that my attempts to make croissants with regular American butter were not as successful as I would like, but I was also working with the world's worst cheapass-renter-grade oven, so there were a lot of less-than-optimal variables in play.
But the butterfat is a consideration if you're going to make any pastry that needs lamination.
posted by Jeanne at 6:52 PM on April 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
But the butterfat is a consideration if you're going to make any pastry that needs lamination.
posted by Jeanne at 6:52 PM on April 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
PLUGRA IS AMERICAN????
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:52 PM on April 30, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:52 PM on April 30, 2023 [8 favorites]
tangzhong pulish oat bran home made bread
Tell me more? Please?
posted by Songdog at 6:56 PM on April 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
Tell me more? Please?
posted by Songdog at 6:56 PM on April 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
Yes, as an insufferable butter snob, butters in the US do seem to have gotten better over the years, but real cultured butter does not seem to do as well in the US for some reason. Sure, non-cultured Kerrygold (and my favorite bargain version) is good, but it's honestly very hard to think of an application where I would not prefer the fermented stuff. My own gold standard is also Echiré, but it's hard to find in regular shops (yes even the fancier chains) and frankly unjustifiably expensive from the specialty shops. And now my go-to cultured butter from Trader Joe's was apparently discontinued this year? My local store's staff just tells me it's listed as "unavailable" in their system which in their experience implies "indefinitely," but for some reason it's still listed on their website. If you can find it, Isigny Sainte Mére Beurre de Baratte churned butter (navy blue foil) is also pretty good, but also usually quite expensive (though cheaper than Echiré).
Most of my favorite butters now are the local farmer's market stuff. Vermont Creamery is not bad, but seems to be missing something to me. Banner butter, which is locally available here, is also perhaps under-cultured. Maybe it is the fat content, as the article implies, or perhaps because the cows aren't exclusively grass fed. I've also been wanting to make my own, as is the current trend, but it's hard to find fresh cream and buttermilk from grass-fed cows locally.
posted by donttouchmymustache at 7:25 PM on April 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
Most of my favorite butters now are the local farmer's market stuff. Vermont Creamery is not bad, but seems to be missing something to me. Banner butter, which is locally available here, is also perhaps under-cultured. Maybe it is the fat content, as the article implies, or perhaps because the cows aren't exclusively grass fed. I've also been wanting to make my own, as is the current trend, but it's hard to find fresh cream and buttermilk from grass-fed cows locally.
posted by donttouchmymustache at 7:25 PM on April 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
I've bought local cultured butter and it went bad before I was able to eat most of it, so I haven't bought more. Regular local butter is quite good and easily available, and a lot is from heritage breeds. Cows here in southeastern Pennsylvania are on pasture all year but I assume also get grain only because most horses here do even if they're on pasture full time.
posted by sepviva at 7:40 PM on April 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by sepviva at 7:40 PM on April 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
Honestly I am not that interested in butter but I am an excellent post title aficionado and this one is amazing
Agreed, but did anyone under 50 get the reference?
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:45 PM on April 30, 2023 [10 favorites]
Agreed, but did anyone under 50 get the reference?
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:45 PM on April 30, 2023 [10 favorites]
The USDA defines butter as having at least 80% fat, while the EU defines butter as having between 82 and 90% butterfat and a maximum of 16% water
I immediately jumped to an image of Alton Brown bringing out the FDA cosplayers in sunglasses.
posted by credulous at 8:09 PM on April 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
I immediately jumped to an image of Alton Brown bringing out the FDA cosplayers in sunglasses.
posted by credulous at 8:09 PM on April 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
Agreed, but did anyone under 50 get the reference?
I'm (barely) under that line and got it, but I feel like it was much more of a thing for people ten or more years older than me. I mean, it was made well before I was born.
For the butter, I like the taste of the good stuff, but we go through so little butter that it doesn't seem worth it.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:33 PM on April 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
I'm (barely) under that line and got it, but I feel like it was much more of a thing for people ten or more years older than me. I mean, it was made well before I was born.
For the butter, I like the taste of the good stuff, but we go through so little butter that it doesn't seem worth it.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:33 PM on April 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
Honestly I am not that interested in butter but I am an excellent post title aficionado and this one is amazing
Agreed, but did anyone under 50 get the reference?
I got that reference, and I am only 46.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 8:34 PM on April 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
Agreed, but did anyone under 50 get the reference?
I got that reference, and I am only 46.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 8:34 PM on April 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
I watched my grandmother make buttermilk, and take the butter off the top, with a spatula of a kind, which fitted her butter mould. She would lift it out of the crock and slap it into the mould then push it put, onto a dish, there it was with a rose on top. The The mould made pound of butter, she would make a couple.
posted by Oyéah at 8:56 PM on April 30, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by Oyéah at 8:56 PM on April 30, 2023 [8 favorites]
Yeah, the article title is excellent, and yeah, I'm well over 50.
posted by lhauser at 9:08 PM on April 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by lhauser at 9:08 PM on April 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
> For the butter, I like the taste of the good stuff, but we go through so little butter that it doesn't seem worth it.
FWIW we've had great luck freezing butter, we thaw it a stick at a time as we need it. It makes the good stuff worth buying.
posted by genpfault at 9:09 PM on April 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
FWIW we've had great luck freezing butter, we thaw it a stick at a time as we need it. It makes the good stuff worth buying.
posted by genpfault at 9:09 PM on April 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
I have been sternly advised that if you're going to make croissants, you had better use European-style butter, at least 82% butterfat, because the fat percentage affects the melting point and thus affects whether you're going to get good lamination.
Can confirm, I didn't know about butterfat when I tried making croissants as an experiment, and they came out flat and inedible. I think maybe I shouldn't have used the plastic baggies when I laminated them, but I was scared the flakes would get into the machine
posted by Merus at 9:14 PM on April 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
Can confirm, I didn't know about butterfat when I tried making croissants as an experiment, and they came out flat and inedible. I think maybe I shouldn't have used the plastic baggies when I laminated them, but I was scared the flakes would get into the machine
posted by Merus at 9:14 PM on April 30, 2023 [4 favorites]
I’ve had good luck (thus far) with various forms of local Amish butters, although they do tend to arrive in gigantor rolls rather than sticks or tidy blocks.
posted by aramaic at 9:15 PM on April 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by aramaic at 9:15 PM on April 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
FWIW we've had great luck freezing butter, we thaw it a stick at a time as we need it. It makes the good stuff worth buying.
Can you get the good stuff in sticks? The last time I looked, the better stuff was in big blocks only, but maybe the selection has improved.
posted by Dip Flash at 9:26 PM on April 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
Can you get the good stuff in sticks? The last time I looked, the better stuff was in big blocks only, but maybe the selection has improved.
posted by Dip Flash at 9:26 PM on April 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
I got that reference, and I am only 46.
I got it and my age is less than half the butterfat content of American butter, but I am cultured.
posted by aws17576 at 9:32 PM on April 30, 2023 [35 favorites]
I got it and my age is less than half the butterfat content of American butter, but I am cultured.
posted by aws17576 at 9:32 PM on April 30, 2023 [35 favorites]
I've tried Kerrygold, and I honestly couldn't see or taste a significant difference from my usual U.S. store brand. Some of our local upstate NY butters taste richer to me.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:52 PM on April 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:52 PM on April 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
Everyone knows the right way to enjoy NY butter is to get an ice cream sandwich at a Stewart's and drive over to a gorge and eat the sandwich whilst staring at said gorge.
posted by credulous at 10:05 PM on April 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by credulous at 10:05 PM on April 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
Don't cook with Kerrygold how the West was won by The Irish Dairy Board: it's creamy, made in creameries, like. It's expensive to keep all those account execs behind the wheel their fancy cars. They shoot horses, don't they?.
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:11 PM on April 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:11 PM on April 30, 2023 [1 favorite]
Fetching water from a culinary spring in Hillsdale Ut. I noticed a group of women gathering some plant tops , sisters what are you doing? We feed this to the cows we milk for butter, she replied. There is a farm store up there now, Maxwell Canyon . The water from there tastes like snow.
posted by hortense at 11:58 PM on April 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by hortense at 11:58 PM on April 30, 2023 [5 favorites]
I got the reference but it felt very rep to me.
Ploughgate Butter in the U.S. is good.
It really pisses me off that Rodolphe Le Meunier is so danged delicious without being so insanely expensive (like Animal Farm) that I can regard it as irresponsible to buy. I rarely bake, so I was happily going through life eating relatively inexpensive butter (with goat for an occasional change of pace) at home until I undertook an ill-fated experiment.
posted by praemunire at 12:10 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Ploughgate Butter in the U.S. is good.
It really pisses me off that Rodolphe Le Meunier is so danged delicious without being so insanely expensive (like Animal Farm) that I can regard it as irresponsible to buy. I rarely bake, so I was happily going through life eating relatively inexpensive butter (with goat for an occasional change of pace) at home until I undertook an ill-fated experiment.
posted by praemunire at 12:10 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Røros is a city in Norway and it looks like the same-named butter is from Norway and for now only available in the upper Midwest.
"Rauros, golden Rauros-falls" hits different in this context.
posted by praemunire at 12:13 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
"Rauros, golden Rauros-falls" hits different in this context.
posted by praemunire at 12:13 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Back round 1980 the US had a giant 'butter mountain' (because of all the US dairy subsidies) and were threatening to dump it on the world market effectively depressing the entire market, there was someone who wanted to buy it at and OK price, but it was the USSR and well Reagan ... so New Zealand bought the butter mountain, sold all its internal butter to the USSR and dropped the American butter on the NZ local market.
People hated it, there as no end of letters to the editor, it was too salty, the wrong consistency and the wrong colour (locally it's actually dyed yellow with natural coloration, as mentioned above, much like Americans dye some of their cheeses orange). Of course what butter should be like is basically cultural, something the local marketeers at the time didn't really understand, eventually they remanufactured it, made it yellower, somehow flavoured differently etc
posted by mbo at 12:31 AM on May 1, 2023 [7 favorites]
People hated it, there as no end of letters to the editor, it was too salty, the wrong consistency and the wrong colour (locally it's actually dyed yellow with natural coloration, as mentioned above, much like Americans dye some of their cheeses orange). Of course what butter should be like is basically cultural, something the local marketeers at the time didn't really understand, eventually they remanufactured it, made it yellower, somehow flavoured differently etc
posted by mbo at 12:31 AM on May 1, 2023 [7 favorites]
My slightly butter-obsessed folks back in Minnesota introduced me to Røros, which makes a great 86% butterfat cultured butter that can be found at lots of ordinary supermarkets around the Twin Cities. I don't know if it's a national brand though -- I haven't seen it here in NYC.
The unavailability of something in NYC sparks a little schadenfreude in me after a decade of reading product recommendations from NYC based food writers who assume the products they review are nationally distributed when they are not.
posted by srboisvert at 12:50 AM on May 1, 2023 [11 favorites]
The unavailability of something in NYC sparks a little schadenfreude in me after a decade of reading product recommendations from NYC based food writers who assume the products they review are nationally distributed when they are not.
posted by srboisvert at 12:50 AM on May 1, 2023 [11 favorites]
While I greatly appreciate this post, on one of my favorite subjects, I was a tiny bit disappointed by the article. There is so much more to butter! But I tried to find more links to English-language articles and was disappointed. It seems the English-speaking nations have an unambitious approach to butter.
Because of inflation, we buy butter every time there is a good deal, and we have so many different butters now!
French butters are really good. I like them all. They are also very different, almost like cheese in their individuality.
Kerrygold is not worth the price, regardless of how low that is.
Lurpak is the standard I grew up with, so I like it, but it is not at all my favorite. Here we have a number of independent producers who make organic butter, and it's hard to choose between them, but I'm going to buy a new butter from Thise today. Will update.
Butter should change color and fat content through the year. It's a sign of quality that it changes. I like mine cultured, but I also like a freshly made, slightly salted butter on good bread.
posted by mumimor at 1:40 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Because of inflation, we buy butter every time there is a good deal, and we have so many different butters now!
French butters are really good. I like them all. They are also very different, almost like cheese in their individuality.
Kerrygold is not worth the price, regardless of how low that is.
Lurpak is the standard I grew up with, so I like it, but it is not at all my favorite. Here we have a number of independent producers who make organic butter, and it's hard to choose between them, but I'm going to buy a new butter from Thise today. Will update.
Butter should change color and fat content through the year. It's a sign of quality that it changes. I like mine cultured, but I also like a freshly made, slightly salted butter on good bread.
posted by mumimor at 1:40 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
American butter was a bit of a culture shock when I moved to the US from Iceland, and I switched almost entirely to hummus as my spread of choice while I lived there. Then my local Whole Foods started carrying Icelandic butter, under the brand name Smjör which just means “butter”, so I picked that up from time to time for much cheaper than comparable luxury butters. It’s 82% butterfat, incidentally.
posted by Kattullus at 2:48 AM on May 1, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by Kattullus at 2:48 AM on May 1, 2023 [6 favorites]
I expected the answer to be the Atlantic Ocean.
Speaking of which, butter (and beef) from the Azores islands is wonderful. The animals are grass-fed & the butter is yellow. It's not salty enough, but then I always say that about everything.
But don't take my word for it, when there's SCIENCE
posted by chavenet at 2:59 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
Speaking of which, butter (and beef) from the Azores islands is wonderful. The animals are grass-fed & the butter is yellow. It's not salty enough, but then I always say that about everything.
But don't take my word for it, when there's SCIENCE
posted by chavenet at 2:59 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
I did not get the title reference. Can someone explain?
posted by chara at 3:07 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by chara at 3:07 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
So partly out of curiosity (and partly to distract myself from some dental surgery I'm having today, woe) I tracked down three "we test different brands of butter" articles on 3 different sites:
Taste Of Home (an American food web site, geared towards more of an everyday casual cook)
Tasting Table (more of a "food snob" site)
Consumer Reports (not a food site, more of a product-testing site)
The Tasting Table results come with some links to where you can purchase some of the fancier butters. Results seem to be a little mixed on Kerrygold. But the thing that shocked me most was - a couple of the tests say that Land-o-Lakes worked best for baking.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:56 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
Taste Of Home (an American food web site, geared towards more of an everyday casual cook)
Tasting Table (more of a "food snob" site)
Consumer Reports (not a food site, more of a product-testing site)
The Tasting Table results come with some links to where you can purchase some of the fancier butters. Results seem to be a little mixed on Kerrygold. But the thing that shocked me most was - a couple of the tests say that Land-o-Lakes worked best for baking.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:56 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
I’m surprised that a difference between 80% and 82% can make a perceptible difference. (I know I’m not able personally to tell the difference between 40% and 42% alcohol content, but I suppose that’s a whole nother story…)
posted by Phanx at 3:56 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Phanx at 3:56 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Something in this article didn't seem right, so I just check the packaging of my EU-produced butter procured here in my EU country and indeed it's 80% fat. Maybe there's a by weight or volume difference? I don't know. I have seen the stores trying to sell a "lighter" butter at like 60% fat at a drastically reduced price but haven't dared try it.
posted by St. Oops at 4:24 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by St. Oops at 4:24 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Can I just point out that if you have a food processor then making your own butter is super easy? And so good.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 4:34 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by the duck by the oboe at 4:34 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Surprised they didn't mention texture. Out of the fridge, American grocery store butter is brittle and will crack and sort of crumble when really cold. Higher fat butter—even when cold—will be more smooth and bendable. And when room temperature the difference is noticeable, too. Again, the higher fat butter will be much more pliable. And when it's summertime and butter is out in the kitchen and warm room temp? American butter will separate slightly, and have a greasy look, where higher fat butter stays more uniform looking and spreading. You can taste and feel this all, too.
I also enjoy higher fat butter, Euro butter, etc, but I still buy American butter from time to time. When it comes to Xmas cookies I use the cheap stuff and it turns out fine. I don't do a lot of pastry/dessert baking or cooking.
posted by SoberHighland at 4:36 AM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
I also enjoy higher fat butter, Euro butter, etc, but I still buy American butter from time to time. When it comes to Xmas cookies I use the cheap stuff and it turns out fine. I don't do a lot of pastry/dessert baking or cooking.
posted by SoberHighland at 4:36 AM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
Most of my favorite butters now are the local farmer's market stuff. Vermont Creamery is not bad, but seems to be missing something to me.
As a fella with roots in Vermont, it's perhaps worth noting that Vermont Creamery was bought by Land O' Lakes in 2017.
The crème de la crème (sorry) of Vermont origin cultured butter is from Marisa at Ploughgate Creamery which you can buy online so you can forgo all that supermarket hunting nonsense.
posted by jeremias at 4:36 AM on May 1, 2023 [5 favorites]
As a fella with roots in Vermont, it's perhaps worth noting that Vermont Creamery was bought by Land O' Lakes in 2017.
The crème de la crème (sorry) of Vermont origin cultured butter is from Marisa at Ploughgate Creamery which you can buy online so you can forgo all that supermarket hunting nonsense.
posted by jeremias at 4:36 AM on May 1, 2023 [5 favorites]
Something in this article didn't seem right, so I just check the packaging of my EU-produced butter procured here in my EU country and indeed it's 80% fat.
I believe the guidelines allow 80% for salted butter but a minimum of 82% for unsalted butter.
posted by vacapinta at 4:43 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
I believe the guidelines allow 80% for salted butter but a minimum of 82% for unsalted butter.
posted by vacapinta at 4:43 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
I honestly don’t think I ever taster actual butter until after I got out of college. My childhood “butter” was Blue Bonnet margarine. Later, mom switched to I Can’t Believe This Isn’t Butter margarine. I can’t recall when I “discovered” real butter. It just kind of happened. I’ve not been able to justify spending extra for the KerryGolds and whatnot, though.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:59 AM on May 1, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 4:59 AM on May 1, 2023 [5 favorites]
I grew up in the era of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, etc. My deep, deep resentment of the entire food "science" industry is based on that (and if you weren't aware, it turned out that the fats in fake butters are in fact worse for you than those in real butter). Greasy, bland, always hoping a new different brand would be better. Terrible baking. And the habit of only using the very barest scrape of it on toast...
That was solidified for me on my first trip to France. On my first day, jetlagged, I went to an utterly ordinary corner brasserie for food, at an odd hour. My first bite was bread with butter and it was an out-of-body experience that I can still taste, 15 years later.
I remember some video clip of Anthony Bourdain eating bread with a generous dollop of butter and saying something about people who eat butter like they actually like it .... Amen!
Puritanical American diet culture can put its substitutes back where the sun doesn't shine.
posted by Dashy at 5:53 AM on May 1, 2023 [14 favorites]
That was solidified for me on my first trip to France. On my first day, jetlagged, I went to an utterly ordinary corner brasserie for food, at an odd hour. My first bite was bread with butter and it was an out-of-body experience that I can still taste, 15 years later.
I remember some video clip of Anthony Bourdain eating bread with a generous dollop of butter and saying something about people who eat butter like they actually like it .... Amen!
Puritanical American diet culture can put its substitutes back where the sun doesn't shine.
posted by Dashy at 5:53 AM on May 1, 2023 [14 favorites]
In my house--
Butter for baking: Land O Lakes "European Style" unsalted butter with the 82% fat. It's just butter, it doesn't have lots of extra flavor notes, but it's fine, and it has the extra fat I like in recipes. As well as having a bit less non-fat moisture, which makes for better pie/pastry crusts.
Butter for spreading: Costco has started selling an Irish butter/olive oil blend that combines a bit of the flavor experience people like with the spreadability of a butter/oil blend. Plus, it's olive oil in the blend, so I can tell myself it's healthy. Challenge: it's Costco, so it's sold in great big tubs that don't fit in the fridge's butter compartment. Challenge met: I scoop out bits of it for guests and put it in little mini-ramekins for serving, which looks a little precious, but people love it.
posted by gimonca at 6:32 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
Butter for baking: Land O Lakes "European Style" unsalted butter with the 82% fat. It's just butter, it doesn't have lots of extra flavor notes, but it's fine, and it has the extra fat I like in recipes. As well as having a bit less non-fat moisture, which makes for better pie/pastry crusts.
Butter for spreading: Costco has started selling an Irish butter/olive oil blend that combines a bit of the flavor experience people like with the spreadability of a butter/oil blend. Plus, it's olive oil in the blend, so I can tell myself it's healthy. Challenge: it's Costco, so it's sold in great big tubs that don't fit in the fridge's butter compartment. Challenge met: I scoop out bits of it for guests and put it in little mini-ramekins for serving, which looks a little precious, but people love it.
posted by gimonca at 6:32 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
it's been a minute, somebody give up the post title ref.
posted by j_curiouser at 6:35 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by j_curiouser at 6:35 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
It was posted a bit earlier in the thread, but it's a reference to the 60's Swedish film I Am Curious (Yellow), which primarily lives on through various parodies of its title. The closest I've ever come to watching it is seeing a VHS copy on a staff pick shelf at I Luv Video in the late 90's. Fun fact: no one has ever seen this film! Rumor has it that if you actually manage to track down a copy, it's just a four minute long apology from the director letting you in on the joke.
posted by phooky at 6:42 AM on May 1, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by phooky at 6:42 AM on May 1, 2023 [6 favorites]
Fun fact: no one has ever seen this film! Rumor has it that if you actually manage to track down a copy, it's just a four minute long apology from the director letting you in on the joke.
I tried watching it once, but did not find it that interesting and turned it off after a bit. But back in 1967, it must have been pretty exciting stuff.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:08 AM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
I tried watching it once, but did not find it that interesting and turned it off after a bit. But back in 1967, it must have been pretty exciting stuff.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:08 AM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
primarily lives on through various parodies of its title.
There’s even a Wikipedia disambiguation page for them. I’m pretty sure I first encountered the snowclone via the Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane cover.
posted by zamboni at 7:22 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
There’s even a Wikipedia disambiguation page for them. I’m pretty sure I first encountered the snowclone via the Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane cover.
posted by zamboni at 7:22 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
it's been a minute, somebody give up the post title ref.
posted by j_curiouser at 6:35 AM on May 1 [1 favorite +] [!]
eponysterical?
posted by chavenet at 7:23 AM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by j_curiouser at 6:35 AM on May 1 [1 favorite +] [!]
eponysterical?
posted by chavenet at 7:23 AM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
primarily lives on through various parodies of its title.
There’s even a Wikipedia disambiguation page for them.
this doesn't include my all-time favorite:
I Am Curious (George)
posted by chavenet at 7:24 AM on May 1, 2023 [10 favorites]
There’s even a Wikipedia disambiguation page for them.
this doesn't include my all-time favorite:
I Am Curious (George)
posted by chavenet at 7:24 AM on May 1, 2023 [10 favorites]
Have any Canadians reading this thread been able to make any kind of sense of the Lactantia butter product line? I'll admit that trying to figure out the difference while looking at the products on the store shelves has left me baffled. There is so little information on the actual packaging (actually, looking at the website today, it looks like they've added a few extra details--words like "cultured"), but the vague descriptions like "antique" and "my country" are zero help to me.
Even reading the descriptions on the website, I'm still left wondering what the difference is between "butter with a distinctive European cultured flavour, with no salt added" and "distinctive European cultured flavour churned to a higher fat to deliver a creamier and richer flavour" (which is available in a no-salt version). I guess the first one isn't as high in fat, but it's not like the description offers up a fat percentage. I also have no idea what another line's" old country flavour" is supposed to mean.
Also, I just want to drop in a mini rant. I recently picked up some America's Test Kitchen cookbooks. I just HATE, absolutely HATE the use of "sticks" as a description of how much butter to use. They're so picky and precise in everything else, just tell me how much butter by weight (or some other real measure) I'm supposed to use. I hate having to do the extra mental math. I know it's not complicated math, but I'm always afraid I'll drop a conversion somewhere.
posted by sardonyx at 7:26 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
Even reading the descriptions on the website, I'm still left wondering what the difference is between "butter with a distinctive European cultured flavour, with no salt added" and "distinctive European cultured flavour churned to a higher fat to deliver a creamier and richer flavour" (which is available in a no-salt version). I guess the first one isn't as high in fat, but it's not like the description offers up a fat percentage. I also have no idea what another line's" old country flavour" is supposed to mean.
Also, I just want to drop in a mini rant. I recently picked up some America's Test Kitchen cookbooks. I just HATE, absolutely HATE the use of "sticks" as a description of how much butter to use. They're so picky and precise in everything else, just tell me how much butter by weight (or some other real measure) I'm supposed to use. I hate having to do the extra mental math. I know it's not complicated math, but I'm always afraid I'll drop a conversion somewhere.
posted by sardonyx at 7:26 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
Oh but a stick of butter is such a standard measure in the US; it's just about 64 drams or 88 scruples of butter. (or 113.4 grams if you are fancy like that.) Oddly the stick of butter is one of the few things immune to shrinkflation, I think because "half a stick" is such a common recipe measurement.
Note the US has two different shapes of butter but both are a regulation 64 drams.
posted by Nelson at 7:48 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Note the US has two different shapes of butter but both are a regulation 64 drams.
posted by Nelson at 7:48 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Oh but a stick of butter is such a standard measure in the US; it's just about 64 drams or 88 scruples of butter.
...."Scruples"?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:53 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
...."Scruples"?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:53 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
I am kurious oranj … this is what I thought the reference was.
Compensatory butter related material: how to make clarified butter, when to use it and why it is not the same as ghee.
posted by rongorongo at 8:09 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Compensatory butter related material: how to make clarified butter, when to use it and why it is not the same as ghee.
posted by rongorongo at 8:09 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
at Ploughgate Creamery which you can buy online
Whole Foods carries it. No need to hunt or pay shipping. It's very tasty butter.
posted by praemunire at 8:11 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Whole Foods carries it. No need to hunt or pay shipping. It's very tasty butter.
posted by praemunire at 8:11 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Nelson: 88 scruples of butter
Oh that makes sense, that’s 1/250th of a firkin.
posted by Kattullus at 8:26 AM on May 1, 2023 [6 favorites]
Oh that makes sense, that’s 1/250th of a firkin.
posted by Kattullus at 8:26 AM on May 1, 2023 [6 favorites]
Is it? I'm getting that there are 25200 scruples in a (US) firkin of butter, giving ~286 sticks of butter per firkin. but maybe I'm using the wrong butter density or something.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 8:31 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 8:31 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
Have I ever shared the story here of Grandma and the Margarine Shmoo? I don't guess retelling it will hurt if I have.
Back in the day, the U.S. dairy industry lobby had succeeded in getting legislation passed that margarine couldn't be dyed yellow lest it prove too much competition for butter. To get around this, a package of margarine came with a yellow dye tablet that you had to mix in yourself by putting the margarine and the dye in a plastic bag and squeezing it all up. One day Grandma was starting to dye the margarine just as Grandpa got home from work. She held up the bag full of white margarine, said, "Look, Dad, it's the Shmoo!" and gave it a squeeze. Unfortunately, she squeezed it a bit too hard and it burst, showering them both with undyed oleo.
And then there was Other Grandma. Many years after they started selling pre-dyed margarine, Dad was looking for something in her kitchen drawer and found a stockpile of unused margarine dye tablets. He asked her what she'd been saving them for, and she shrugged and said, "You never know."
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:39 AM on May 1, 2023 [15 favorites]
Back in the day, the U.S. dairy industry lobby had succeeded in getting legislation passed that margarine couldn't be dyed yellow lest it prove too much competition for butter. To get around this, a package of margarine came with a yellow dye tablet that you had to mix in yourself by putting the margarine and the dye in a plastic bag and squeezing it all up. One day Grandma was starting to dye the margarine just as Grandpa got home from work. She held up the bag full of white margarine, said, "Look, Dad, it's the Shmoo!" and gave it a squeeze. Unfortunately, she squeezed it a bit too hard and it burst, showering them both with undyed oleo.
And then there was Other Grandma. Many years after they started selling pre-dyed margarine, Dad was looking for something in her kitchen drawer and found a stockpile of unused margarine dye tablets. He asked her what she'd been saving them for, and she shrugged and said, "You never know."
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:39 AM on May 1, 2023 [15 favorites]
My boyfriend can tell when I make the scrambled eggs "different". Butter is 99% of why people think I'm an amazing chef. Finances are the only thing in my way from being one of those whisk tattoo people.
posted by lextex at 8:44 AM on May 1, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by lextex at 8:44 AM on May 1, 2023 [9 favorites]
Je n'arrive pas à croire que ce ne soit pas de la matière grasse.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:44 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by kirkaracha at 8:44 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Oh but a stick of butter is such a standard measure in the US; it's just about 64 drams or 88 scruples of butter.
...."Scruples"?
When it comes to consuming butter, I have no scruples.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:48 AM on May 1, 2023 [5 favorites]
...."Scruples"?
When it comes to consuming butter, I have no scruples.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:48 AM on May 1, 2023 [5 favorites]
Despite being 52, I was unaware of the phenomenon of I Am Curious (Yellow), so I read the Wikipedia article so helpfully linked to here. I'm very curious to watch it now. If it's true that no one has ever actually seen it, how could it be the highest-grossing foreign-language film in the United States and Canada of all time?
This is the line from the article that really leapt out at me, though (as it were):
This is the line from the article that really leapt out at me, though (as it were):
Jacqueline Onassis went to see the movie, judo-felling (emphasis mine) an awaiting news photographer, Mel Finkelstein, alerted by the theatre manager, while leaving the theatre during the showing.posted by slappy_pinchbottom at 8:49 AM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
If it's true that no one has ever actually seen it, how could it be the highest-grossing foreign-language film in the United States and Canada of all time?
It had raw sexuality at a time when movies didn't do that. It was definitely hot property. But at least to me, trying to watch it decades later, it was dated and boring, not sexy.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:59 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
It had raw sexuality at a time when movies didn't do that. It was definitely hot property. But at least to me, trying to watch it decades later, it was dated and boring, not sexy.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:59 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
The author, Carina Finn Koeppicus has some fun content on Tiktok @sheneedsasnack
posted by Jon_Evil at 9:05 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Jon_Evil at 9:05 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Back when Lucky Peach was putting out amazing issues of neediness, they published a review of all the butters the writer could put his greasy fingers on. Here’s a copy of it!
posted by misterpatrick at 9:22 AM on May 1, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by misterpatrick at 9:22 AM on May 1, 2023 [5 favorites]
Fun fact: no one has ever seen this film!
Uh I have, barely under 50 here. It is on Criterion (they have a physical release and it is on their streaming service). It is very much of its time and in 1967 its sexual frankness (and politics) was way too much for the United States (probably still is for some parts of the US). And yeah if you're looking for say Emmanuelle you're not going to find it here - frumpy 60s Nordic people talking about sex is what you're gonna get.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:40 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Uh I have, barely under 50 here. It is on Criterion (they have a physical release and it is on their streaming service). It is very much of its time and in 1967 its sexual frankness (and politics) was way too much for the United States (probably still is for some parts of the US). And yeah if you're looking for say Emmanuelle you're not going to find it here - frumpy 60s Nordic people talking about sex is what you're gonna get.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:40 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
(my fun facts often sacrifice fact in the service of fun; this is an actual movie)
posted by phooky at 9:51 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by phooky at 9:51 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
I use the cultured butter only if I am using it as a post cooking addition. When I cook with it, especially Indian food (where I use it as a substitute for ghee), the final product taste is not influenced too much by the use of cultured butter, because of all the spices I add anyway.
OTOH, as a garnish; I see this in the same vein as real good EVOO.
I bought some Buffalo Milk Butter from the local Indian grocer (Amul Brand), and that was significantly tangier. But it is too expensive for my cheap-ass to buy regularly.
posted by indianbadger1 at 9:59 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
OTOH, as a garnish; I see this in the same vein as real good EVOO.
I bought some Buffalo Milk Butter from the local Indian grocer (Amul Brand), and that was significantly tangier. But it is too expensive for my cheap-ass to buy regularly.
posted by indianbadger1 at 9:59 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
I remember that one of my fathers friends went to see it when it came to Milwaukee. Later, when they were discussing it over beers, I overheard him say " it was just like you were getting your nose up there in it," Pretty sure they weren't talking about Swedish butter.
posted by ackptui at 10:02 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by ackptui at 10:02 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
Metafilter: frumpy 60s Nordic people talking about sex is what you’re gonna get.
I spent one day working in a dairy and vegetable oil quality control lab at a huge factory. I was doing melting point, density, solids, and water content assays.
Floor workers would pick up random boxes of incoming raw ingredients, intermediate steps, and the final product to bring to the lab, 20 kilos or more, and the lab only needed a couple hundred grams.
The lab technicians used some of the remainders and the lab equipment to make, in their words, Platonic reference butter. I was not interested enough to ask questions, but it took warming, centrifuging, a weird vacuum apparatus, culturing, and smuggling out of the factory to take home. It was very very good butter. One of best I’ve ever had.
Now I am wondering if I could find out the process and turn the good but not great butter I get at the farmers market into something Plato would spread on his toast.
posted by Dr. Curare at 10:02 AM on May 1, 2023 [8 favorites]
I spent one day working in a dairy and vegetable oil quality control lab at a huge factory. I was doing melting point, density, solids, and water content assays.
Floor workers would pick up random boxes of incoming raw ingredients, intermediate steps, and the final product to bring to the lab, 20 kilos or more, and the lab only needed a couple hundred grams.
The lab technicians used some of the remainders and the lab equipment to make, in their words, Platonic reference butter. I was not interested enough to ask questions, but it took warming, centrifuging, a weird vacuum apparatus, culturing, and smuggling out of the factory to take home. It was very very good butter. One of best I’ve ever had.
Now I am wondering if I could find out the process and turn the good but not great butter I get at the farmers market into something Plato would spread on his toast.
posted by Dr. Curare at 10:02 AM on May 1, 2023 [8 favorites]
Oh but a stick of butter is such a standard measure in the US...
I get that, Nelson, but it's just such an American-centric way of thinking about butter (and yes, I realize the irony when complaining this when talking about ATK books) but it's such a odd way for non-Americans--well, me in particular--to think about this.
We tend to use cups to measure butter (3/4 cup, 1 cup) extra. For smaller amounts, tablespoons. Some recipes use weights in grams.
For "sticks" my thought process usually has to make very deliberate associations: four sticks to one pound, two sticks for half-a-pound, half-a-pound is one cup, and then measure one cup of butter from the one-pound brick.
It really needs to be a deliberate process because my mind works in such a way as if I see "1 XXX butter," my thoughts pretty much jump to 1 cup (based on the type of baking I ten to do), and there's a big difference between using half a pound and one-quarter of a pound of butter in a recipe.
posted by sardonyx at 10:16 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
I get that, Nelson, but it's just such an American-centric way of thinking about butter (and yes, I realize the irony when complaining this when talking about ATK books) but it's such a odd way for non-Americans--well, me in particular--to think about this.
We tend to use cups to measure butter (3/4 cup, 1 cup) extra. For smaller amounts, tablespoons. Some recipes use weights in grams.
For "sticks" my thought process usually has to make very deliberate associations: four sticks to one pound, two sticks for half-a-pound, half-a-pound is one cup, and then measure one cup of butter from the one-pound brick.
It really needs to be a deliberate process because my mind works in such a way as if I see "1 XXX butter," my thoughts pretty much jump to 1 cup (based on the type of baking I ten to do), and there's a big difference between using half a pound and one-quarter of a pound of butter in a recipe.
posted by sardonyx at 10:16 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
But a stick of butter looks so nice in the dish. And it's easy to drag your corn on the cob over.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:26 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:26 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
In your dishes, maybe, but try finding a Canadian-sized butter dish. It's practically impossible. If you read the reviews online for products, there's always a question "does this fit a Canadian pound?" and most of the answers are "not quite" or "mostly but it sticks to the lid" or "kind of but you have to shave the sides". It's all so frustrating.
A brick pound of butter looks equally nice when properly displayed. There's just more of it to like and look at.
posted by sardonyx at 10:33 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
A brick pound of butter looks equally nice when properly displayed. There's just more of it to like and look at.
posted by sardonyx at 10:33 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Too many people I know use margarine and I just don't understand it at all. Forget good or bad butter — just getting people to stop eating margarine is an accomplishment.
(I buy Kerryhold and am happy to pay for it. I'd get more picky, but it's not worth the hassle for me as I'm disabled and shopping is very difficult.)
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 10:40 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
(I buy Kerryhold and am happy to pay for it. I'd get more picky, but it's not worth the hassle for me as I'm disabled and shopping is very difficult.)
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 10:40 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
But a stick of butter looks so nice in the dish. And it's easy to drag your corn on the cob over.
A brave man butters his corn WarGames style. Here's to the Army and Navy and the battles they have won; here's to America's colors, the colors that never run.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:42 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
A brave man butters his corn WarGames style. Here's to the Army and Navy and the battles they have won; here's to America's colors, the colors that never run.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:42 AM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Have you noticed they are marketing oleomargarine as "vegetable butter" these days? When I search for butter on Walmart, their first three guesses are for "Hey, this shit ain't butter!"
posted by ackptui at 10:49 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by ackptui at 10:49 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
We get butter in 500g bricks and after years of practice I can most of the time cut perfect 113 gram slabs off (to the amazement of my daughter) for following American recipes. Not much of a party trick. Or maybe I need to start going to different parties.
posted by St. Oops at 11:07 AM on May 1, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by St. Oops at 11:07 AM on May 1, 2023 [8 favorites]
Great post and nthing high fat content butter. but this post needs toast. Here's my go-to toast. Heidelberg Bread. Their sourdough is not for the weak hearted but wow it's amazing as toast, buttered with high fat content butter, or anything really (except french toast). It's the closest to real German bread that I've found in the US. I'm still on the hunt for comparable Brötchen.
posted by bluesky43 at 11:11 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by bluesky43 at 11:11 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
just getting people to stop eating margarine is an accomplishment.
When my son was a boy he encountered his first vegan in person - a friend of ours. He was fascinated by it (intellectually only; he remains an omnivore) and kept asking the man questions about what he could and couldn't eat. The guy answered them all with good grace. Then this happened:
Son: Can you eat butter?
Friend: Nope.
Son: What about margarine?
Friend: NO! I don't eat butter, but margarine is POISON!
Can't say I disagree...
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:18 AM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
When my son was a boy he encountered his first vegan in person - a friend of ours. He was fascinated by it (intellectually only; he remains an omnivore) and kept asking the man questions about what he could and couldn't eat. The guy answered them all with good grace. Then this happened:
Son: Can you eat butter?
Friend: Nope.
Son: What about margarine?
Friend: NO! I don't eat butter, but margarine is POISON!
Can't say I disagree...
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:18 AM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
In your dishes, maybe, but try finding a Canadian-sized butter dish. It's practically impossible..
Oh man yes. I gave up on ever finding a nice one and resort to just cutting the 454 g (what is this "pound" they refer to) butter rectangle into American style "sticks". You'd think that we, especially as we have jugs for our (eastern) milk bags, would have proper butter dishes.
posted by Ashwagandha at 11:21 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
Oh man yes. I gave up on ever finding a nice one and resort to just cutting the 454 g (what is this "pound" they refer to) butter rectangle into American style "sticks". You'd think that we, especially as we have jugs for our (eastern) milk bags, would have proper butter dishes.
posted by Ashwagandha at 11:21 AM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
four sticks to one pound
Well that explains why American recipes never work for me. I was assuming they meant the standard (here) 250g block.
posted by biffa at 11:28 AM on May 1, 2023 [5 favorites]
Well that explains why American recipes never work for me. I was assuming they meant the standard (here) 250g block.
posted by biffa at 11:28 AM on May 1, 2023 [5 favorites]
the antecedent of that pronoun: giving ~286 sticks of butter per firkin
You are correct, but I can’t help but be impressed with myself that I got so close doing it in my head. Mind you, that kind of loosey-goosey conversion of measurements is how you get crossaints that don’t rise and Mars rovers that crash into the planet’s surface.
posted by Kattullus at 11:36 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
You are correct, but I can’t help but be impressed with myself that I got so close doing it in my head. Mind you, that kind of loosey-goosey conversion of measurements is how you get crossaints that don’t rise and Mars rovers that crash into the planet’s surface.
posted by Kattullus at 11:36 AM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
It's worthy remembering also that American "cups" in cooking are not the same as "metric" ones, which in turn are not the same as "imperial" cups - "fluid ounces" enjoy a similar issue (without the metric bit) - best to just avoid recipes that use "cups" and "fluid ounces"
Here in NZ selling things using non-metric units has been illegal since we converted to metric back in the 60s/70s, I have an ongoing beef with the local cafe which persists in selling coffee in (American) fluid ounces
In the US Starbucks is fun: "Venti - that's Italian for 20 isn't it? yes. 20 what? fluid ozs. Can't be that, they're metric, must be litres or milli-litres, which is it? ...." - usually they pick litres ....
posted by mbo at 11:44 AM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
Here in NZ selling things using non-metric units has been illegal since we converted to metric back in the 60s/70s, I have an ongoing beef with the local cafe which persists in selling coffee in (American) fluid ounces
In the US Starbucks is fun: "Venti - that's Italian for 20 isn't it? yes. 20 what? fluid ozs. Can't be that, they're metric, must be litres or milli-litres, which is it? ...." - usually they pick litres ....
posted by mbo at 11:44 AM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
best to just avoid recipes that use "cups
Thank God that's what I've been doing.
posted by biffa at 12:10 PM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Thank God that's what I've been doing.
posted by biffa at 12:10 PM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
> Agreed, but did anyone under 50 get the reference?
Well, I'm 49 and got it...
posted by desuetude at 12:10 PM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
Well, I'm 49 and got it...
posted by desuetude at 12:10 PM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
It's worthy remembering also that American "cups" in cooking are not the same as "metric" ones
You can hardly blame Americans for that. Why are there metric "cups" in the first place? I thought the whole point of the metric system was to do away with traditional units and and standardize on (I guess in this case) liters of butter? Live the dream:
A: "How many liters of butter should I use in this recipe?"
B: "0.118 liters."
A: "Quant suff. And what are the cooking instructions?"
B: "1.2 kiloseconds at 450 Kelvin."
A: "Excellent. Most scientific."
posted by The Tensor at 12:32 PM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
You can hardly blame Americans for that. Why are there metric "cups" in the first place? I thought the whole point of the metric system was to do away with traditional units and and standardize on (I guess in this case) liters of butter? Live the dream:
A: "How many liters of butter should I use in this recipe?"
B: "0.118 liters."
A: "Quant suff. And what are the cooking instructions?"
B: "1.2 kiloseconds at 450 Kelvin."
A: "Excellent. Most scientific."
posted by The Tensor at 12:32 PM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
I like Chimay, but every time the local tiny market introduces me to something I like, they wait two or three years and then perversely quit carrying it. So now I do Cabot. It's inoffensive.
posted by Don Pepino at 12:54 PM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Don Pepino at 12:54 PM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
I did the Great British Baking Show cooking thing too, and found the only dishes where it matters specifically specify that they require higher butter fat, which basically means you have to buy some imported butter in the US, because it's not even listed on most US butters. US butter sticks are actually divided into 8 table spoons on the wrapping, or 1/2 a US cup. I actually prefer that to having to measure grams of everything, it is just so tedious.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:43 PM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:43 PM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
While I'm happy to weigh ingredients, most of what I make with butter can be done with the ruler that is printed on the wrapper. (Okay, technically, I use the ruler that is printed on every shortening or lard box because it's a bit sturdy than foil paper and easier to position, but the idea is the same). Here's a fancy metal version for those who don't know what I'm talking about. It's just so easy. For example, I'd hate to measure something like 2/3 cup based on American stick sizes.
posted by sardonyx at 1:55 PM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by sardonyx at 1:55 PM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
Danish butter is divided into grams on the wrapping. I feel it was 50 grams when I was younger, now some brands have 25 grams, others have 20 grams, which I suppose reflects the general fear of fat. Or something. I bake bread but only rarely cakes and cookies, so I don't think much about weighing or dividing butter. In savory cooking, you just use "enough" after all. Generally a lot more than the recipe says.
posted by mumimor at 1:58 PM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by mumimor at 1:58 PM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
Likewise with UK sticks, 50g marks with smaller marks between.
posted by biffa at 2:38 PM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by biffa at 2:38 PM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
2/3 cup is one and a third sticks. That's easy for someone whose teachers never envision everyone having a calculator.
posted by Miss Cellania at 3:09 PM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Miss Cellania at 3:09 PM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Can I just point out that if you have a food processor then making your own butter is super easy? And so good.
One of my fondest memories of the first grade was the day we made butter in class by passing around a Mason jar of heavy cream and shaking it each in turn until our little arms wore out. It was delicious.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:42 PM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
One of my fondest memories of the first grade was the day we made butter in class by passing around a Mason jar of heavy cream and shaking it each in turn until our little arms wore out. It was delicious.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:42 PM on May 1, 2023 [4 favorites]
Margarine = Plant-based butter
posted by SoberHighland at 6:02 PM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by SoberHighland at 6:02 PM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Kattullus I assumed you were joking at first but then I discovered you were within 20% so I consider it a victory on your part.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 7:11 PM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 7:11 PM on May 1, 2023 [2 favorites]
For a while I remembered how many tablespoons were in a cup by looking at a stick of butter and seeing that it had eight markings and was also half a cup. Eventually I was able to remember that, but it took surprisingly many tries.
posted by madcaptenor at 7:42 PM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by madcaptenor at 7:42 PM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Venti - that's Italian for 20 isn't it?
Right, but an iced venti is 24 ounces. They also have a size "trenta" (I think this is only iced?) which is 30 ounces.
posted by madcaptenor at 7:45 PM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
Right, but an iced venti is 24 ounces. They also have a size "trenta" (I think this is only iced?) which is 30 ounces.
posted by madcaptenor at 7:45 PM on May 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
You can hardly blame Americans for that. Why are there metric "cups" in the first place?
Made it easier to convert the recipes, because you could keep the proportions the same. Also much more convenient to write down. You don't think we'd tolerate recipes where you have to add 62.5 grams of something, do you?
Metric cups are 250mL, so everything still stays relatively tied to the litre.
posted by Merus at 9:19 PM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Made it easier to convert the recipes, because you could keep the proportions the same. Also much more convenient to write down. You don't think we'd tolerate recipes where you have to add 62.5 grams of something, do you?
Metric cups are 250mL, so everything still stays relatively tied to the litre.
posted by Merus at 9:19 PM on May 1, 2023 [3 favorites]
Have you noticed they are marketing oleomargarine as "vegetable butter" these days?
And decided it was fine for it to continue to taste like nothing! I'm an omnivore but I generally cook vegan for mixed groups and I do not understand how we can put human beings on the damn moon but we cannot somehow make fake butter that tastes like sweet grass-fed joy. You can have basically perfect chick'n (some of which my actual hated-meat-from-toddlerhood vegan friends won't eat because it's got fake gristley bits in it), we have almost accomplished fully-competitive vegan queso, the mayos are spot-on. If we have the technology to make industrial movie popcorn butter*, why does Earth Balance have to taste like they took the flavor out to use in something else?
I have tried the two Miyoko's cultured options and the non-oat one is still a little flavorless, the oat one has more flavor but unfortunately that flavor is oats.
In your dishes, maybe, but try finding a Canadian-sized butter dish.
The easiest way to solve the butter dish problem, regardless of where it lives, is to make a big batch of brown butter and then keep that in a tub or jar. Keep the solids on the bottom, they are a good finishing flavor for anything that wants to be buttery-toasty.
*In the 80s a friend of mine who worked at the local Twin Cinema told me that stuff was chicken-fat-based**, which is why it was so delicious, and yes they all brought jars to fill for home use. Because most cinema chains still won't say specifically if their topping substance is kosher OR vegan, I'm assuming there are still chicken- and dairy-derived flavorings in it.
**My aunt, a fatphobic doctor/dietician, once told me that powdered (American-style granules, with herbs) chicken bouillon tastes better than butter/popcorn seasoning. I only considered it because of the friend who worked at the theater, and she wasn't entirely wrong. But even I, who would keep a salt lick on my desk if I didn't have a small amount of dignity, will concede you have to use the low-sodium stuff.
posted by Lyn Never at 6:56 AM on May 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
And decided it was fine for it to continue to taste like nothing! I'm an omnivore but I generally cook vegan for mixed groups and I do not understand how we can put human beings on the damn moon but we cannot somehow make fake butter that tastes like sweet grass-fed joy. You can have basically perfect chick'n (some of which my actual hated-meat-from-toddlerhood vegan friends won't eat because it's got fake gristley bits in it), we have almost accomplished fully-competitive vegan queso, the mayos are spot-on. If we have the technology to make industrial movie popcorn butter*, why does Earth Balance have to taste like they took the flavor out to use in something else?
I have tried the two Miyoko's cultured options and the non-oat one is still a little flavorless, the oat one has more flavor but unfortunately that flavor is oats.
In your dishes, maybe, but try finding a Canadian-sized butter dish.
The easiest way to solve the butter dish problem, regardless of where it lives, is to make a big batch of brown butter and then keep that in a tub or jar. Keep the solids on the bottom, they are a good finishing flavor for anything that wants to be buttery-toasty.
*In the 80s a friend of mine who worked at the local Twin Cinema told me that stuff was chicken-fat-based**, which is why it was so delicious, and yes they all brought jars to fill for home use. Because most cinema chains still won't say specifically if their topping substance is kosher OR vegan, I'm assuming there are still chicken- and dairy-derived flavorings in it.
**My aunt, a fatphobic doctor/dietician, once told me that powdered (American-style granules, with herbs) chicken bouillon tastes better than butter/popcorn seasoning. I only considered it because of the friend who worked at the theater, and she wasn't entirely wrong. But even I, who would keep a salt lick on my desk if I didn't have a small amount of dignity, will concede you have to use the low-sodium stuff.
posted by Lyn Never at 6:56 AM on May 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
In your dishes, maybe, but try finding a Canadian-sized butter dish.
The best we could find was a squarish butter dish that nicely fits a thick slice of Canadian-sized butter. That works for us as the butter dish doesn't go into the refrigerator and I'm not sure I would want a whole brick sitting out on the counter.
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:02 AM on May 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
The best we could find was a squarish butter dish that nicely fits a thick slice of Canadian-sized butter. That works for us as the butter dish doesn't go into the refrigerator and I'm not sure I would want a whole brick sitting out on the counter.
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:02 AM on May 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
In your dishes, maybe, but try finding a Canadian-sized butter dish. It's practically impossible..
Wait, Canadians have a butter shape different than the USA, but they don't make butter dishes to fit their butter shape? Why would you use the American shape if you have a different shape? Why aren't you making dishes to fit your own shape?
It's worthy remembering also that American "cups" in cooking are not the same as "metric" ones, which in turn are not the same as "imperial" cups - "fluid ounces" enjoy a similar issue (without the metric bit) - best to just avoid recipes that use "cups" and "fluid ounces"
Imperial cooking is a volume based measurement, not mass. So a cup of butter is a totally different metric weight than a cup of marshmallows. If you're cooking and trying to convert an American recipe, you need to look up the conversion for that specific ingredient. Our tablespoons and teaspoons are the same size (or close enough for kitchen chemistry). Another solution is to buy USA sized measuring cups, it is handy to just be able to pull that out and they're quite easy to find.
I really really prefer imperial for cooking. Because its all fractions (and doesn't everyone just looooove fractions!) its all relative. Doubling or halving or whatever is easy. If I only have one measuring piece, I can still create the dish using different proportions that single tool. It makes cooking feel more intuitive to me than metric. 65ml of milk vs 220g of flour doesnt give me the same sense of proportion, not to mention you need a scale (which I guess is technically also one tool, but not one I ever had in a kitchen until I moved abroad).
I also prefer the American butter shape style because I think it keeps better. I like only having to open 1/4 of a package of butter (i.e. 1 stick) at a time instead of having to open an entire 250g block. Just for storage reason, one stick at a time seems better for me.
posted by LizBoBiz at 7:37 AM on May 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
Wait, Canadians have a butter shape different than the USA, but they don't make butter dishes to fit their butter shape? Why would you use the American shape if you have a different shape? Why aren't you making dishes to fit your own shape?
It's worthy remembering also that American "cups" in cooking are not the same as "metric" ones, which in turn are not the same as "imperial" cups - "fluid ounces" enjoy a similar issue (without the metric bit) - best to just avoid recipes that use "cups" and "fluid ounces"
Imperial cooking is a volume based measurement, not mass. So a cup of butter is a totally different metric weight than a cup of marshmallows. If you're cooking and trying to convert an American recipe, you need to look up the conversion for that specific ingredient. Our tablespoons and teaspoons are the same size (or close enough for kitchen chemistry). Another solution is to buy USA sized measuring cups, it is handy to just be able to pull that out and they're quite easy to find.
I really really prefer imperial for cooking. Because its all fractions (and doesn't everyone just looooove fractions!) its all relative. Doubling or halving or whatever is easy. If I only have one measuring piece, I can still create the dish using different proportions that single tool. It makes cooking feel more intuitive to me than metric. 65ml of milk vs 220g of flour doesnt give me the same sense of proportion, not to mention you need a scale (which I guess is technically also one tool, but not one I ever had in a kitchen until I moved abroad).
I also prefer the American butter shape style because I think it keeps better. I like only having to open 1/4 of a package of butter (i.e. 1 stick) at a time instead of having to open an entire 250g block. Just for storage reason, one stick at a time seems better for me.
posted by LizBoBiz at 7:37 AM on May 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
Hmm. Looks like if you search for "butter dish 1lb Canadian" on Amazon there are a lot of results.
I still don't want an entire brick of butter out at one time though.
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:44 AM on May 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
I still don't want an entire brick of butter out at one time though.
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:44 AM on May 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
Imperial cooking is a volume based measurement, not mass.
I think measuring butter by volume is particularly weird. We generally experience butter as a solid, no way I'm measuring butter in an actual table spoon. But I imagine in Imperial Times folks were scooping warm butter out of a jar rather than slicing cold butter from the fridge. And it is true that you can visually estimate a volume of an item in a way you can't estimate the weight. (OTOH get a scale! $12 for a scale accurate to 0.02g, not just for drug dealers!)
The "ounce vs fluid ounce" thing is particularly a problem with less thoughtful measurements like the garbage that appears in calorie counting databases. It's very common to find an entry like "beans, 4oz, 200 calories". Which could mean anything from 4 oz weight of dried beans to 4 fl.oz. of wet cooked beans, or roughly a factor of three difference in calories. It's a spectacularly dumb way to measure food.
posted by Nelson at 7:46 AM on May 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
I think measuring butter by volume is particularly weird. We generally experience butter as a solid, no way I'm measuring butter in an actual table spoon. But I imagine in Imperial Times folks were scooping warm butter out of a jar rather than slicing cold butter from the fridge. And it is true that you can visually estimate a volume of an item in a way you can't estimate the weight. (OTOH get a scale! $12 for a scale accurate to 0.02g, not just for drug dealers!)
The "ounce vs fluid ounce" thing is particularly a problem with less thoughtful measurements like the garbage that appears in calorie counting databases. It's very common to find an entry like "beans, 4oz, 200 calories". Which could mean anything from 4 oz weight of dried beans to 4 fl.oz. of wet cooked beans, or roughly a factor of three difference in calories. It's a spectacularly dumb way to measure food.
posted by Nelson at 7:46 AM on May 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
I probably should have read the Canadian reviews on the butter dishes from my link. Most of them say Canadian bricks don't fit.
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:59 AM on May 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:59 AM on May 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
I find the only disadvantage of a butter bell is that I eat even more butter. Not shaped like anyone’s sticks, though, so neutral among the nations.
posted by clew at 8:41 AM on May 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by clew at 8:41 AM on May 2, 2023 [2 favorites]
I used a butter bell for about a year, but then something went wrong and I started finding mold in it so I went back to the old sticks and dishes.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:26 PM on May 2, 2023
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:26 PM on May 2, 2023
I find I have to empty the crock, thoroughly wash it out with hot water, then add fresh cold water. I also throw the whole thing in the dishwasher after using up the stick in the bell. Doing that, even in the summer I have no mold issues.
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:30 PM on May 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:30 PM on May 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
They weren’t scooping warm butter all the time in the past. Cold butter is essential for pastries, and after all the great French pastries were perfected a couple hundred years ago and require cold butter.
I defnitley measure butter by volume, even TBSPs. For many recipes like cakes and cookies, you do soften it to room temp, which makes the measuring easy. If it’s cold or frozen, and it’s american, it’s handily marked in TBSPS on the paper anyway. .
posted by Miko at 7:00 PM on May 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
I defnitley measure butter by volume, even TBSPs. For many recipes like cakes and cookies, you do soften it to room temp, which makes the measuring easy. If it’s cold or frozen, and it’s american, it’s handily marked in TBSPS on the paper anyway. .
posted by Miko at 7:00 PM on May 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
Ummm TBSP (tablespoon) .... so standard .... 14.8mL in the US, 15mL in the UK, 20mL in Australia .....
posted by mbo at 1:03 AM on May 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by mbo at 1:03 AM on May 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
Ya know, lots of people like to make fun of the US and our funny measuring standards, but its not like the rest of the world is completely standardized and we're the weirdos. Every place is different and has slightly different measurements due to local history and needs.
Are we at the "your favorite measurement system sucks" stage? When do we get to the "everyone is allowed to measure things differently" stage?
posted by LizBoBiz at 1:28 AM on May 3, 2023 [4 favorites]
Are we at the "your favorite measurement system sucks" stage? When do we get to the "everyone is allowed to measure things differently" stage?
posted by LizBoBiz at 1:28 AM on May 3, 2023 [4 favorites]
Ya know, lots of people like to make fun of the US and our funny measuring standards, but its not like the rest of the world is completely standardized and we're the weirdos
That actually is mostly the case.
posted by vacapinta at 6:32 AM on May 3, 2023 [5 favorites]
That actually is mostly the case.
posted by vacapinta at 6:32 AM on May 3, 2023 [5 favorites]
Mostly =/= completely and the map actually shows that also China and India, along with the rest of SE Asia are not completely metric. That’s like 35% of the worlds population lives in a place that, at the very least, has another system in addition to metric. Are those people also weird for choosing to also keep another system other than metric?
(It also seems very Euro-centric to insist that the entire world use metric and anyone who doesn’t is weird)
posted by LizBoBiz at 10:29 AM on May 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
(It also seems very Euro-centric to insist that the entire world use metric and anyone who doesn’t is weird)
posted by LizBoBiz at 10:29 AM on May 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
This is the clearer map of the world wide state of metrication. India and China have switched almost completely to the metric system. If memory serves, the exception is that China retains some old units, but their values were changed so they would fit easily into the metric system. It would be like if the pound was defined as exactly 500 grams.
With India, there’s a handful of cases where they use imperial measurements (e.g. square feet instead of square meters) and another handful where they use old Indian units (e.g. crores and lakhs instead of hundred thousand and ten million). Other than those few cases, they’ve been entirely metric since the 1960s.
Other than Canada, the US and the UK, the world has almost entirely switched to the metric system, and it had almost entirely done so by 1980.
posted by Kattullus at 11:24 AM on May 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
.svg){kind=link}
With India, there’s a handful of cases where they use imperial measurements (e.g. square feet instead of square meters) and another handful where they use old Indian units (e.g. crores and lakhs instead of hundred thousand and ten million). Other than those few cases, they’ve been entirely metric since the 1960s.
Other than Canada, the US and the UK, the world has almost entirely switched to the metric system, and it had almost entirely done so by 1980.
posted by Kattullus at 11:24 AM on May 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
This is the clearer map of the world wide state of metrication. I
The weird thing to me on that map is they list Liberia and Myanmar/Burma as using "unknown" system of measurements. People travel to and from those countries, surely this is not actually an unknown piece of information.
More generally, though, both here (where all measurements are in Freedom Units) and the rest of the (metric) world, other than for baking most people mostly cook using unit-less proportions (like 1 part rice to 2 parts water) or by eye, rather than anything tied to a specific unit of measurement. Other than doing your shopping (where you might need to specify a quantity in units, like asking for a certain weight of meat), most people aren't interacting with units much when cooking.
(It also seems very Euro-centric to insist that the entire world use metric and anyone who doesn’t is weird)
I'm old enough that the first few years of elementary school I was taught the metric system as part of a "the US is in the process of adopting this, so learn the New System quick," and then at some point that fizzled out (thanks Reagan!) and all we are left with is liter measurements for soda.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:58 PM on May 3, 2023
The weird thing to me on that map is they list Liberia and Myanmar/Burma as using "unknown" system of measurements. People travel to and from those countries, surely this is not actually an unknown piece of information.
More generally, though, both here (where all measurements are in Freedom Units) and the rest of the (metric) world, other than for baking most people mostly cook using unit-less proportions (like 1 part rice to 2 parts water) or by eye, rather than anything tied to a specific unit of measurement. Other than doing your shopping (where you might need to specify a quantity in units, like asking for a certain weight of meat), most people aren't interacting with units much when cooking.
(It also seems very Euro-centric to insist that the entire world use metric and anyone who doesn’t is weird)
I'm old enough that the first few years of elementary school I was taught the metric system as part of a "the US is in the process of adopting this, so learn the New System quick," and then at some point that fizzled out (thanks Reagan!) and all we are left with is liter measurements for soda.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:58 PM on May 3, 2023
crores and lakhs are still metric - they're still powers of 10 - it's not like they are multiples of 12/14/16/20 - it's much more like arguing about where the commas go in big numbers (every 2 or 3 digits?)
posted by mbo at 11:50 PM on May 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by mbo at 11:50 PM on May 3, 2023 [2 favorites]
You are absolutely correct, mbo. I meant for it to be analogous to my example of "pound" simply meaning "half a kilogram", but I didn't actually write it out, for which I apologize. It's just another name for the same thing, but it's still considered "non-metric" for the purposes of measuring metrication. My point is that for most countries, the variation from the metric system is minimal.
posted by Kattullus at 2:16 AM on May 4, 2023
posted by Kattullus at 2:16 AM on May 4, 2023
The weird thing to me on that map is they list Liberia and Myanmar/Burma as using "unknown" system of measurements. People travel to and from those countries, surely this is not actually an unknown piece of information.
Not unknown, but in an indeterminate state.
Wikipedia: Metrication > Overview
Not unknown, but in an indeterminate state.
Wikipedia: Metrication > Overview
According to a Liberian journalist, Liberia uses U.S. customary units, but is committed to adopting the metric system in the future. The government of Myanmar stated that the country had a metrication goal of completion by 2019, which was not met. Both Myanmar and Liberia are substantially metric countries, trading internationally in metric units.posted by zamboni at 7:38 AM on May 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
crores and lakhs are still metric - they're still powers of 10
One of my favorite odd cultural puns is a Sydney spice shop that sells candied mukhwas as
posted by zamboni at 8:59 AM on May 5, 2023 [8 favorites]
One of my favorite odd cultural puns is a Sydney spice shop that sells candied mukhwas as
lakhs and crores.This only makes sense if you know that in various Commonwealth countries, nonpareils are known as
hundreds and thousands.Since mukhwas looks like big hundreds and thousands, and are imported from India, the store owner decided they were obviously
lakhs and crores.
posted by zamboni at 8:59 AM on May 5, 2023 [8 favorites]
We'd have been metric, too, if it wasn't for that pesky Reagan! *shakes fist*
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:12 PM on May 5, 2023
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:12 PM on May 5, 2023
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This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
It's very hard to find a cultured American butter big enough to be stocked in supermarkets. Vermont Creamery is the closest I know. Organic Valley used to make one but stopped.
The Irish brand Kerrygold is my go-to butter: 82% butterfat. The unsalted is cultured, the salted (which I usually buy) is not.
posted by Nelson at 5:16 PM on April 30, 2023 [22 favorites]