Why Real Butter is Better

There are many types of low fat butter alternatives out there but the best type of butter will always real butter. The reason why butter butter is better is because it often does not have preservatives, artificial colors or artificial flavors. Another reason butter is better is since substitutes like margarine often include trans fats. Since Margarine is supposed to be the low-fat substitute to butter, I'm a bit confused about why most margarine has trans fats listed in the ingredients.  So if you would like to know more, here is some useful information about butter.

What Butter is Best?
The best type of butter to get is organic grass fed butter.  Grass fed butter is rich in omega 3 and is a healthy source of fat.  A step down is just regular butter.  You'll know which one is real butter since it will only have a few ingredients listed whereas the butter alternatives have a long list of ingredients.

Low Fat/ Low Cholesterol Butter for Diets
In every diet, a certain amount of fat is needed. Butter happens to be one of the fats that is a good fat and can be consumed in moderation.  Zero fat diets are actually counterproductive.  If you are looking for a low cholesterol butter substitute, the best thing is to make your own margarine since this will not include trans fats.  To make margarine, melt 1 part real butter and stir in 1 part vegetable oil.  Let this mixture cool and it will solidify into margarine.  Since vegetable oil is not great for diets, you can use light in flavor olive oil instead.  Another option, which is much easier, is to substitute 1/2 of the butter called for in a recipe with light in flavor olive oil.  This way the butter taste will remain in the recipe but it will have less cholesterol.

Making homemade Butter
There are plenty of recipes for homemade butter on-line and it is actually pretty easy.  If you were wondering why you would ever consider making homemade butter, here are a few things to consider.

1. Homemade butter is delicious but it can also be economical.  I make butter whenever I need buttermilk since I never really need a half gallon of butter milk and I'm sure to throw it out and waste a lot of buttermilk.  So you can buy four cups of heavy cream for the same price as four sticks of butter and you will end up with two cups of butter milk as well.  If you cook with all three ingredients (heavy cream, buttermilk, and butter), you need only buy heavy whipping cream.
2. Another reason to make homemade butter is since most spreadable butters are not real butter.  Making butter on your own gives you a soft spreadable butter without all the chemicals and preservatives.
3. Making your own base foods is always best since you know exactly what is in it.  Labeling laws in the U.S. have many loopholes which mean many opportunities to sneak in the bad stuff many of us wish to avoid.  

How to make butter: 
So basically, making butter involves putting cream in a jar and shaking it until you have butter and butter milk in the jar.  Nothing to it but some arm pain.  You might want to share the shaking with the family for a fun scientific experiment.  Here is an instructional video and a recipe that give additional information on the butter making process to assure the good quality and preservation.  The video also has a great shaking method and a method for cutting down the shaking time needed.

How to make butter instructional video    (short version - 7-10 min of shaking) This recipe may result in little to no butter milk if you shake too long.
How to make butter & butter milk (long version - 20 min of shaking) Has equal parts butter and butter milk.
Homemade butter using a beater (definitely less work and easier on your arms)

My experiences with butter making

homemade butter #2 - 25 Aug 2011