Betty bought a bit of butter

Let’s talk about something that adds a little happiness into our lives…butter!

Several times I have been asked if I use butter in my products and the answer is always going to be yes. Butter is best for taste and us.

In May, I was given about thirty retro and vintage cookbooks, including a magazine collection on microwave cooking and baking. To my surprise (and secret horror) Good Housekeeping Caking Making 1952 suggests using margarine, lard or dripping in their cakes and bakes and heavily flavour cakes with spices or flavouring to make up for the absence of butter. As butter was rationed until 1954 it suggests butter should be used only on rare occasions. However what constitutes a rare occasion is unknown as even their Wedding Cake recipe calls for margarine.

On a recent trip, to a well-known Supermarket in Ireland, it was pointed out to me just how much butter I do buy. The checkout assistant smiled and asked me “Back for more butter?” Feeling slightly embarrassed by the 7 extra pounds of butter that I hadn’t revealed to her yet that lay in my basket along with bags of caster sugar (strict diet) I tried to justify my answer with “Yes but it’s for my cakes” to which she laughed. ‘Good’, I thought, ‘she bought it, now to avoid her next time I visit the shop for my butter fix.’

In the health conscious society we live in these days, butter is being shunned for low-fat spreads, however the health properties from butter can be hugely beneficial. It contains your fat soluble vitamins A,D,E and K, tastes great, it is a natural fat source, contains essential fatty acids, helps protect delicate and vital organs, it gives you energy, tastes great, etc., etc., etc.

Now I am not suggesting we all start having butter on our Cornflakes, in our tea or as some crazed ladies like to do with dairy products, bathe in it, but all I am saying is give butter a chance and maybe try make up for those butter rationed years our grandparents missed out on.

Until next time, keep it Irish and eat your butter!