It is an age old question. Before the Pepsi or Coke debate even existed, there was margarine versus butter. While I can understand how people could prefer apples to oranges, or even how one might grab a Pepsi, when it come to spreads, butter is better.
In the early 1900s, in the wake of a serious cattle plague, chemists solved their butter shortage by discovering that liquid oils would harden when heated and bombarded with hydrogen atoms in the presence of metal catalysts. Margarine was the poor man’s butter, reserved only for the lowest ranks of society.
Available today in spreads, sprays, sticks, powder and flake form, Americans now eat four times as much margarine as butter. What perplexes me most is that margarine has been proven to be less healthy due to its trans-fatty acids.
Although it is remarkably spreadable, margarine is a one trick pony. In terms of flavor, texture, and consistency, butter takes the cake. And for the record, last week, in a blind taste test, I most certainly could believe that it was not butter. Without it, your sugar cookies and frosting would taste like Safeway’s, popcorn would be dry and lobster would sink to the level of canned tuna. On a trip to New Hampshire last week, I ate the best apple pie I had ever tasted; the cook had put butter in the apple mixture. Sure, it clogs your arteries, but it makes life so much sweeter.
On its own, butter doesn’t really have much flavor, but it enhances the taste and texture of any food, sweet or savory. Butter can literally be added to anything, from garlic bread and peas to pancakes and brownies. Leave a stick of butter out for ten minutes before your meal and it spreads just like margarine, but margarine will never melt into the nooks and crannies of an English muffin like a pat of butter and its texture will always resemble slimy, stiff pudding.
As both products are pretty much pure fat, one should take either in moderation. With its creaminess, smoothness and slight saltiness, though, a dot of butter provides more satisfaction than a tub of margarine. While the debate over Pepsi and Coke might still rage on, here the case is closed. Butter rises triumphant.
