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Butter, again

R

Rod Speed

Jan 1, 1970
0
Another chapter in the sage of using butter again instead of marg.

The main reason I stopped using it was because its too hard to be
convenient out of the fridge, and I dont like the purported softer butters.

So I thought I'd try keeping it out of the fridge in winter. Its winter here,
and it turns out to not be viable either, its still too hard. Thats with a room
temp of about 20C, 70F, and it gets lower than that on the coldest nights.

One obvious possibility is to use one of those very small camping fridges,
just for the butter and set it to the temperature thats ideal for the butter.

Those are normally peltier devices and can cool and warm.

Bit of an overkill just for the butter, but who cares,
it should last for decades, so the cost is pretty trivial.

The best ones are 12V and mains power too.
 
R

Rod Speed

Jan 1, 1970
0
Wooly said:
I've kept butter out of the fridge during hot Illinois
summers (100f was uncommon but not impossible)
with no adverse effects to either the butter or myself.

Didnt work here last summer, much too runny.

My temps are similar, tho the house doesnt normally
get quite that high, I normally turn the swamp cooler
on when the room temp is about 32C, 90F
During colder temps one can microwave
the butter for a few seconds to soften.

I cant get that to work very well. For some reason it ends up
runny inside, still too hard outside. What heat setting do you use ?
 
R

Rod Speed

Jan 1, 1970
0
Wooly said:
I've got a 1200w nuker. I put a stick of butter on its end on a
microwavable plate, nuke for 5 secs, then over-end it and nuke
for 5 more. The center of the stick softens before the ends so
it may collapse. Use a biggish plate if you don't want a mess.

OK, part of the obvious difference is that I just want enough
for a single slice of toast or slice of bread at a time.

Really doesnt work very well for that situation.

And since summer doesnt work left out either,
makes more sense to have a dedicated butter
temp fridge that both heats and cools fully auto.

Its gunna consume bugger all power.
 
R

Rod Speed

Jan 1, 1970
0
Wooly said:
Another trick for summer is a "butter crock". Its a small glazed
truncated cone crock that sits upended in a saucer of water. Pack the
crock with butter, store it open end down in the saucer. It should
stay cool enough through evaporative cooling to prevent the butter
getting runny. Change the water regularly, of course.

Those did get used in pre fridge days here, but
dont work that well in the hottest weather here.

I think it makes a lot more sense to go a lot more hi tech
now and have a dedicated butter fridge/warmer instead.
 
R

Rod Speed

Jan 1, 1970
0
Q said:
We don't use butter anymore, we use Tahini. Tahini is sometimes refered to as
sesame butter. Great on toast, rice, salads, and good for you too. Comes in a
can and no refrigeration necessary. Ingredients: sesame seeds.

Thats really just another form of marg.

I dont care about the health stuff, just the taste,
and nothing really tastes the same as real butter.

Even the butter softened with canola which is soft
enough to be spreadable in winter doesnt taste the same.

I could use olive oil like the wogs do, but dont care for
it with toast and marmade or salami sandwitches either.
 
R

Rod Speed

Jan 1, 1970
0
Logan Shaw said:
Rod Speed wrote
Here's one idea:
During the part of the year where the butter does OK outside
the fridge, leave it outside, and the problem is solved.

Yeah, thats what I have been doing this year, but it
hasnt been all that long between too hot and too cold.
During the rest of the year, when it's too hot to leave the
butter out for fear of melting it, store it in the fridge,
but take some out and leave it on the counter for 30 minutes
or an hour or whatever it takes to soften sufficiently.

Trouble is that my main use of butter is first thing
after I get up, for what pretends to be breakfast,
just a single very thick slice of toast, as thick as will
go in the wide slot toaster and so that isnt feasible.
Since by definition it's hotter during that time, it should soften reasonably
quickly. Takes a little advance planning, but not _that_ much.

Not really practical tho, see above.
Also, sometimes you can avoid the problem. For instance, when I make buttered
toast, I put a few pats of refrigerator-cold
butter on the bread, then put it in the toaster oven on a low
temp for 30 second or something. The butter softens a bit, and I spread it
around a tad. Then I might do another 30 seconds and spread it again if it
hasn't become spreadable by that point.

Sure but I use a vertical toaster, so that wont work.
If I'm making buttered toast, I don't need the butter to be soft if I use this
procedure.
Then yet another approach is to buy a Butter Butler, which holds
a stick of butter and forces it out through a thin slot, giving
you supposedly paper-thin ribbon of butter. If it really is
as paper-thin as they claim, it should soften quickly due to
increased surface area. I haven't actually tried one of these
myself, but one of the local TV news shows did one of those
"Does It Work?" segments (where they test some gadget every week
and see if it lives up to its claims), and they concluded it
does indeed spread butter really thin, although it might be a
bit of a plain to clean.

Yeah, might be viable.
One final idea is this: in the summer, when it's too hot to
leave the butter out, put the butter in the fridge during
the day, but when you go to bed, take it out and put it on
a counter top. And when you wake up, use whatever you need
for breakfast, and then put it back in the fridge for the day.
Hopefully that should maintain some sort of balance.

My superficial reaction is that its likely to go runny
overnight. And doesnt fix the winter problem, tho I
spose a bulb in a box would be good enough for winter.
 
B

Barbara Bomberger

Jan 1, 1970
0
Another chapter in the sage of using butter again instead of marg.

The main reason I stopped using it was because its too hard to be
convenient out of the fridge, and I dont like the purported softer butters.

So I thought I'd try keeping it out of the fridge in winter. Its winter here,
and it turns out to not be viable either, its still too hard. Thats with a room
temp of about 20C, 70F, and it gets lower than that on the coldest nights.

One obvious possibility is to use one of those very small camping fridges,
just for the butter and set it to the temperature thats ideal for the butter.

Those are normally peltier devices and can cool and warm.

Bit of an overkill just for the butter, but who cares,
it should last for decades, so the cost is pretty trivial.

The best ones are 12V and mains power too.

Rod, I keep butter on the table at all times, no matter the weather.

I will grant you that we are more than one, so "brick" doesnt last
as long for us. We have never had a problem.
 
J

~^Johnny^~

Jan 1, 1970
0
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I could use olive oil like the wogs do, but dont care for
it with toast and marmade or salami sandwitches either.

Extra Virgin Olive (EVO) oil is better, because it is lower in
polyunsaturates and higher in monounsaturates. It has a much longer
shelf life than butter. Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) is another one of
my favorites.

But nothing tastes like real butter, so I use that too...




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--
-john
wide-open at throttle dot info

~~~~~~~~
The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining
- JFK
~~~~~~~~
 
T

The Real Bev

Jan 1, 1970
0
Rod said:
OK, part of the obvious difference is that I just want enough
for a single slice of toast or slice of bread at a time.

Really doesnt work very well for that situation.

And since summer doesnt work left out either,
makes more sense to have a dedicated butter
temp fridge that both heats and cools fully auto.

Its gunna consume bugger all power.

Older refrigerators like my mom's 197x model have a butter compartment which
is warmer than the rest of the refrigerator. Must be some health department
ruling that keeps them from being made now.

The mills of god...

--
Cheers. Bev
==========================================================
It's not true that Lucas, in 1947, tried to get Parliament
to repeal Ohm's Law. They withdrew their efforts when they
met too much resistance.
 
R

Rod Speed

Jan 1, 1970
0
Walter R. said:
You will never again have to worry about the consistency of butter, if you ban
it from your kitchen.
Duh.

Butter is bad for your health.

So are the alternatives except eating
the toast dry, no spread at all. No thanks.
 
R

Rod Speed

Jan 1, 1970
0
Barbara Bomberger said:
Rod, I keep butter on the table at all times, no matter the weather.
I will grant you that we are more than one, so "brick"
doesnt last as long for us. We have never had a problem.

Likely your place doesnt get as hot in the summer, or as cold in the winter
either.

Its not too bad in the winter and currently I do what someone else said
with the toast, drag shavings off the block with a knife and let it warm up
on the toast until is spreadable, but that doesnt work for the sandwitches.
 
J

~^Johnny^~

Jan 1, 1970
0
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You will never again have to worry about the consistency of butter,
if you ban it from your kitchen. Butter is bad for your health.

Margarine is worse. Even the new "no trans-fat" spreads are made of
highly refined oils, and chemicals galore. Highly processed
polyunsaturates are just as bad as hydrogenated oils.

But never mind butter... got milk? ;->


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--
-john
wide-open at throttle dot info

~~~~~~~~
The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining
- JFK
~~~~~~~~
 
J

~^Johnny^~

Jan 1, 1970
0
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Since when? I saw a study several years back that showed the
various (natural) fats in butter are substantially better for a body
than the (fake) fats in all but a very few margarine products.

That is correct. Butter is also a complete fat. It runs the gamut
from short to long chain, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, and
saturated fatty acids.

http://webexhibits.org/butter/compounds-fatty.html

http://www.mercola.com/2001/mar/31/butter.htm

http://www.dldewey.com/hydroil.htm


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--
-john
wide-open at throttle dot info

~~~~~~~~
The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining
- JFK
~~~~~~~~
 
J

Jim Vatunz

Jan 1, 1970
0
Likely your place doesnt get as hot in the summer, or as cold in the winter
either.

Its not too bad in the winter and currently I do what someone else said
with the toast, drag shavings off the block with a knife and let it warm up
on the toast until is spreadable, but that doesnt work for the sandwitches.
On the few occasions i've been lucky enough to have butter at home, i
prefer to slice it like cheese and just lay it on the bread. Usually
followed with a nice little layer of vegemite. ;)
i don't see anything frugal in the peltier approach. Those things chew
through a fair bit of power for what they achieve, or spoken another
way, they're not very efficient devices.
Maybe finding a small insulator box and storing the butter in that in
the fridge may strike a fair balance between the cold fridge time and
the warmer kitchen time.
 
M

Mel

Jan 1, 1970
0
I gotta say that buying a peltier fridge thing just to keep a pat of
butter at the right temperature to butter one slice of toast in the
morning is the most wasteful, trivial abuse of ressources and energy
that I have heard of for a long time.

A bit like the person that told me he bought a fridge just to keep his
bottled water in so he would be sure not to run out of chilled water in
summer...



For your toast I don't really understand your problem - I use a butter
knife, scrape of butter from the brick and put it on the toast. By the
time I have opened the jam jar the butter is half melted and ready to
spread.....

For sandwiches, cut your "brick" into several smaller bricks - this way
the temperature change you will need to apply will be minimised. When
doing sandwiches you could take your smaller piece of butter out of the
fridge a half hour before (in summer) - it will warm quicker than a
bigger block and in winter leave it out all the time - put your butter
pat over your mug of tea/coffee, or over your toaster when you want to
heat it up, works well too.

(By the way, most fridges have door compartments that are slightly
warmer than the rest of the fridge)



(And then they wonder why those of us trying to keep our home planet in
a reasonable state for our kids end up pessimist!?)






Mel




Rod Speed a écrit :
 
R

Rod Speed

Jan 1, 1970
0
The Real Bev said:
Rod Speed wrote
Older refrigerators like my mom's 197x model have a butter
compartment which is warmer than the rest of the refrigerator.

Yeah, my 195x does. It doesnt work very well on that tho.
Must be some health department ruling
that keeps them from being made now.

Nope, some still do. It aint frugal buying one for that tho.
The mills of god...

There is no god, just an endless variety of
crutches for pathetically inadequate 'minds'
 
R

Rod Speed

Jan 1, 1970
0
On the few occasions i've been lucky enough to have butter at
home, i prefer to slice it like cheese and just lay it on the bread.

Yeah, and you have the layers of blubber to show for that approach |-)
Usually followed with a nice little layer of vegemite. ;)

Down, boy, there are clearly children reading in here.
i don't see anything frugal in the peltier approach. Those things
chew through a fair bit of power for what they achieve, or
spoken another way, they're not very efficient devices.

They dont need to be very efficient if the device is well insulated.
Maybe finding a small insulator box and storing the butter
in that in the fridge may strike a fair balance between the
cold fridge time and the warmer kitchen time.

Dunno, I keep the fridge pretty cold, basically so the beer is cold
enough, and its likely that even a well insulated box will be about
as cold inside when I get up in the morning as inside the fridge.

Guess what would work is a well insulated box with a small incandescent
bulb inside it tho, inside the fridge, so it works all year round.

Brilliant, you're worth your weight in blubber |-)

I damned near bought the fridge/warmer
today too, if I had, I'd have to kill you now |-(
 
R

Rod Speed

Jan 1, 1970
0
Mel said:
I gotta say that buying a peltier fridge thing just to keep a pat of butter at
the right temperature to butter one slice of toast in the morning

Wasnt talking about one pat, stupid. It would be much more
viable effort wise to keep an entire bar of butter at the right temp.
is the most wasteful, trivial abuse of ressources and energy that I have heard
of for a long time.

You really need to get those ears tested then.
A bit like the person that told me he bought a fridge just to keep his bottled
water in so he would be sure not to run out of chilled water in summer...

Nope, nothing like, since that works in the fridge fine.
For your toast I don't really understand your problem - I use a butter knife,
scrape of butter from the brick and put it on the toast. By the time I have
opened the jam jar the butter is half melted and ready to spread.....

That isnt viable in summer, the butter straight out of the fridge is too hard.
For sandwiches, cut your "brick" into several smaller bricks - this
way the temperature change you will need to apply will be minimised.

Still not viable with butter out of the fridge.
When doing sandwiches you could take your smaller piece of butter out of the
fridge a half hour before (in summer)

Sure, but that wont work in winter.
- it will warm quicker than a bigger block and in winter leave it out all the
time

Too hard to spread.
- put your butter pat over your mug of tea/coffee,

Dont bother with either. Just drink tap water.
or over your toaster when you want to heat it up, works well too.

Wont work for the sandwiches.
(By the way, most fridges have door compartments that are slightly warmer than
the rest of the fridge)

Yep, but thats still too hard. Looks like the best
approach is an insulated thing in the fridge with a
low wattage bulb in it to get the temperature right.

Thats why I asked, to get a good idea like that.
(And then they wonder why those of us trying to keep our home planet in a
reasonable state for our kids end up pessimist!?)

'they' had best do the decent thing and shoot themselves.
 
M

max

Jan 1, 1970
0
Mel said:
I gotta say that buying a peltier fridge thing just to keep a pat of
butter at the right temperature to butter one slice of toast in the
morning is the most wasteful, trivial abuse of ressources and energy
that I have heard of for a long time.

Wait until you come across the current trends in <cough> "gracious" and
luxury kitchens. It may not get worse, but the field is definitely
growing.

..max
 
J

Jim Vatunz

Jan 1, 1970
0
Yeah, and you have the layers of blubber to show for that approach |-) 8*)

Down, boy, there are clearly children reading in here.
Better warn those who've never experienced it to spread it thin.
About 10% of peanut butter proportions is enough.
They dont need to be very efficient if the device is well insulated.


Dunno, I keep the fridge pretty cold, basically so the beer is cold
enough, and its likely that even a well insulated box will be about
as cold inside when I get up in the morning as inside the fridge.

Guess what would work is a well insulated box with a small incandescent
bulb inside it tho, inside the fridge, so it works all year round.
Yeah i thought of the bulb but also thought you may have considered
using some resistance wire for a heater element. In hindsight a bulb
is vastly easier and is a simple job to swap wattages to achieve the
ideal temp..
Brilliant, you're worth your weight in blubber |-)
I suppose that's why i rarely get the treat of butter.
I damned near bought the fridge/warmer
today too, if I had, I'd have to kill you now |-(
Don't worry there must be plenty of others who want to. ;)
 
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