Register

spreadable butter

For all refugees from the old Beeb Food Boards :-)
Chill out and chat with the foodie community or swap top tips.
NOTE: CHATTERBOX IS IN THIS FORUM

Moderators: karadekoolaid, THE MOD TEAM, Stokey Sue, Gillthepainter

User avatar
Posts: 3919
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 6:33 pm

spreadable butter

Postby scullion » Sat Aug 29, 2020 3:26 pm

i have just had a go at making this.
i made it with light olive oil (i'm sure we have some avocado oil but could i find it?) maybe it would be better with extra light as i can taste the olive oil, a little.
it could be that it's not a very flavoursome butter (tesco unsalted) or that the butter should have been mixed with part water and part oil as some recipes and the pack of 'spreadable' has, but it seems quite a good (and healthier?) option.
when it's been in the 'fridge for a while i'll try it for spreadability.

User avatar
Posts: 8629
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:02 pm
Location: Stoke Newington, London

Re: spreadable butter

Postby Stokey Sue » Sat Aug 29, 2020 6:09 pm

So it's a UK 8 oz/250g pack of butter plus about 160-175 ml oil + salt?
Worth a try

I bought some Country Life butter yesterday, unfortunately I muddled up the colour coding and bought green label, which is salted, I hate salted butter and this seems to me very salty, like licking crisps, yuk

It would seem to me that you want the oil to be as tasteless as possible, the avocado oil I've tasted has been strongly flavoured and quite green, so wouldn't it produce something Fungus the Bogeyman would appreciate? Also more expensive than butter

I notice that the brands of ready made spreadable butter I like are those containing "lactic ferment" so I'm wondering if a dash of buttermilk/yogurt/kefir would make it taste less oily and more buttery?

Site Admin
User avatar
Posts: 3253
Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:56 pm
Location: Bushey

Re: spreadable butter

Postby Sakkarin » Sat Aug 29, 2020 6:14 pm

Not surprised it doesn't taste like best butter, it's 42% "other oil"!

Might be a good way of ekeing out butter though, as butter's so expensive now, olive oil is 55% cheaper, maybe not quite as much of it though.

User avatar
Posts: 3919
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 6:33 pm

Re: spreadable butter

Postby scullion » Sat Aug 29, 2020 6:29 pm

Stokey Sue wrote:It would seem to me that you want the oil to be as tasteless as possible, the avocado oil I've tasted has been strongly flavoured and quite green, so wouldn't it produce something Fungus the Bogeyman would appreciate? Also more expensive than butter


yes, i thought it might be quite flavoured and i pointed out to my partner that i wouldn't be trying it as it would make it rather expensive - one of the reasons i didn't look too hard for it!.
i've just tried it for spreadability and it's very soft - like butter left out on a warm day - so i think it could have less oil in. i think the next try will be for the equivalent of 50g of oil and 70g for each of a half pack of butter (but that will be in a couple of weeks or more -we don't use that much!)
my partner is quite happy with the hint of olive oil but i would prefer it to be a little less noticeable.

User avatar
Posts: 3919
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 6:33 pm

Re: spreadable butter

Postby scullion » Sat Aug 29, 2020 6:34 pm

Sakkarin wrote:
Might be a good way of ekeing out butter though, as butter's so expensive now, olive oil is 55% cheaper, maybe not quite as much of it though.


i worked in an old peoples home to get a guide badge for quite a few weekends and one of the things i was asked to do was to 'cut' the block of butter with a block of margarine. the manageress said that the 'inmates' didn't know the difference - i bet they did!

User avatar
Posts: 2581
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:40 pm

Re: spreadable butter

Postby karadekoolaid » Sun Aug 30, 2020 3:49 am

I think the best way to make "spreadable" butter is to leave it out of the fridge for an hour 8-)
It´s an interesting thought, though. Spreadable butter is obviously much more convenient. Take it out of the fridge and instantly spreadable.
I suppose it´s just a question of convenience. Personally, I prefer the real thing, and I´m with Sue - unsalted.

User avatar
Posts: 455
Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:34 am

Re: spreadable butter

Postby northleedsbhoy » Sun Aug 30, 2020 8:37 am

I’m in the unsalted camp as well however I have taken to buying Kerrygold spreadable butter for toast, it’s only very slightly salted. The one I buy is the 100% pure butter in the gold tub. I only buy block unsalted butter as I consider any added oil etc to be just one step up from artificial spreads.

Cheers
NLB :thumbsup

User avatar
Posts: 1489
Joined: Thu Jan 14, 2016 6:07 pm

Re: spreadable butter

Postby Badger's Mate » Sun Aug 30, 2020 9:55 am

I suspect that spreadable butter, 'olive oil' spreads and cholesterol lowering spreads are simply marketing tools to get us to buy more rapeseed oil. We've usually got some, though.

I generally buy salted butter, but there is usually a pack of unsalted at home too.

User avatar
Posts: 5297
Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:58 am
Location: Wiltshire

Re: spreadable butter

Postby Earthmaiden » Sun Aug 30, 2020 11:07 am

karadekoolaid wrote:I think the best way to make "spreadable" butter is to leave it out of the fridge for an hour 8-)

Sadly that doesn't work in an English winter! A split second in a microwave does the trick though. I do tend to leave the butter dish out if I know it's going to be used at several meals per day but not if I know it won't be.

The oil is an interesting experiment and certainly seems better than the processed stuff. Handy as you can just make the quantity of 'spreading' butter you want and keep blocks intact for cooking.

User avatar
Posts: 8629
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:02 pm
Location: Stoke Newington, London

Re: spreadable butter

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:41 pm

Yes, I used to try to manage the butter by putting a small portion in a dish at room temperature but I use so little and so irregularly it really didn’t work well, spreadable is far more practical for me

NLB I liked the Kerrygold version but don’t see it locally, Country Life, Lurpak, or Anchor ( which I don’t like)

User avatar
Posts: 1137
Joined: Sat Aug 24, 2019 6:03 pm

Re: spreadable butter

Postby Busybee » Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:44 pm

We use an insulated butter dish that stays out all the time. I find that it keeps the butter spreadable all year round.

BB

User avatar
Posts: 3919
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 6:33 pm

Re: spreadable butter

Postby scullion » Sun Aug 30, 2020 1:01 pm

i'm thinking of making one of these - when i get the use of a kiln again!
Stokey Sue wrote:Yes, I used to try to manage the butter by putting a small portion in a dish at room temperature but I use so little and so irregularly it really didn’t work well, spreadable is far more practical for me

that is our 'problem', too. i could put a quarter of a pack in the butter dish and some would still be there at the end of a week - and that's with two of us.

Posts: 3511
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:42 pm

Re: spreadable butter

Postby KeenCook2 » Sun Aug 30, 2020 1:09 pm

Earthmaiden wrote:A split second in a microwave does the trick though. I do tend to leave the butter dish out if I know it's going to be used at several meals per day but not if I know it won't be.


I'm afraid we use spreadable butter as well, Lurpak. I used to get the "light" but found it too oily and now get the normal.
I'd love to use proper butter in a butter dish (I have some lovely dishes that look really nice!) but am always slightly dubious about letting it warm up and then cool down again several times. We've also tried portioning it up but have also found it doesn't really work for us.

On the other hand there's nothing quite like a slab of cold butter on a hot crumpet! :yum It's just not the same with spreadable!

User avatar
Posts: 2152
Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2017 2:38 pm

Re: spreadable butter

Postby PatsyMFagan » Sun Aug 30, 2020 3:06 pm

scullion wrote:i'm thinking of making one of these - when i get the use of a kiln again!


Here's my French beurre dish made by my French/Canadian friend

Annoyingly the inner pot on the left hand one is quite small and I broke the inner pot for the one on the right. I presume you would also put water in the outer pot ?

User avatar
Posts: 3919
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 6:33 pm

Re: spreadable butter

Postby scullion » Sun Aug 30, 2020 3:50 pm

yes, lucky you.
the water is meant to stop the air getting to the butter, slowing down the process of going rancid. whether it does or not i don't know but it's worth finding out.

User avatar
Posts: 455
Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:34 am

Re: spreadable butter

Postby northleedsbhoy » Sun Aug 30, 2020 4:17 pm

I had to put the butter in the microwave before I could make a sandwich at lunchtime today :(. Can’t ever remember having to do that in August :o

Cheers
NLB :thumbsup

User avatar
Posts: 3919
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 6:33 pm

Re: spreadable butter

Postby scullion » Mon Aug 31, 2020 11:06 am

trying the homemade spreadable earlier (yesterday - i got blocked out last evening), on freshly baked bread, it had firmed up nicely, the slight olive oil flavour from freshly made was hardly noticeable and it was, interestingly, more buttery.
so, i'd say, a good alternative to shop bought spreadable - with fewer additives.

ps. my partner has just come in and said how good it is - and he can't taste any olive oiliness, now, either.

Return to Food Chat & Chatterbox

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 28 guests