Buttergate!

[mossrose]

I used to hate it when we'd go to some formal dinner somewhere, and you get this nice big freshly baked roll and ONE of those little 'pats' of butter.

I know! And they seem to make the pats smaller and smaller in restaurants. And if the butter is "whipped" it's all air and hardly covers anything.

[mossrose]

In this era, I question any regulation as anything more than a marketing scheme. I doubt there was a Canadian-wide protest that the butter was too soft or that it did not work properly when used in frying pans.

Not that I'm aware of, certainly.

[mossrose]

When I was a kid we had oleo. I remember my mother sending me to the store to get some oleo. By the time I got home I had them half eaten. I would pull the chocolate wafers apart first and eat the white frosting in the midle.

Wrong thread, sweetie.

[Sparko]

Oh, when will I be able to spread my room temperature butter again without it tearing my bread!

Buttergate controversy causing a stir among Alberta dairy producers

Canadians’ inability to easily spread butter has sparked an online controversy that has led to Alberta Milk recommending dairy farms no longer using palm oil supplements.

Over the past couple of months, foodies and bloggers have been voicing difficulty with their butter. Sylvain Charlebois, a senior director of Dalhousie University’s agri-food analytics lab, tweeted in December an observation about his butter remaining hard at room temperature. The so-called “buttergate” took off and garnered the attention of international outlets such as the BBC and the New York Times.

Some people placed the blame for the hard butter on palm byproducts that are fed to dairy cows, although this hasn’t been definitively proven to be the cause. In response, the Dairy Farmers of Canada announced on Thursday the formation of a working group to get to the bottom of the issue and recommended dairy farmers consider alternatives to palm supplements. Following suit, Alberta Milk posted the recommendation on its website last week.

Cherylynn Bos, owner and operator of Rock Ridge Dairy Farms near Ponoka, said she does not use palm oil supplements to feed her cows or goats, as that would cause her cow dairy products to lose their organic designation. She said it is tough to say whether they are causing Canadian butter to become harder.

“I mean, they haven’t done a lot of scientific studies from the bit that I’ve seen on palm fat and how it may change the dairy products,” said Bos. “So, is it a subjective thing that the butter is harder now than before? I’m not certain.”

Palm oil is used to create palmitic acid, used in cooking oil, industrial lubricant, and margarine as well as soap, biofuels and cosmetics. A paper published by the Dairy Research and Extension Consortium of Alberta shows the use of the supplement in cow feed increases milk fat yield. The paper says there is an economic value to using palm oil in feed based on that increase as well as benefits to cow health and dairy quality.

Bos said that butter producers actually look to make their products firmer to make it higher quality for cooking. She said that regulations and restrictions on the industry may be partly to blame as higher qualities of butter will have less water in them, causing them to be denser.


“Over the years, industry and dairy producers and processors like myself have been so much more scrutinized and regulated to make sure that all the standards are followed 100 per cent. So you’re not going to see higher moisture butters out there,” said Bos.

Karlee Conway, the marketing and communications manager with Alberta Milk, an entity of Dairy Farmers of Canada, told Postmedia in an interview that she was a little surprised by the controversy as palm supplements have been used for years.

“They’re (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) certified and they play a really important part regarding the health of our cows,” she said. “That being said, we’re hearing from consumers that this might be something that they’re uncomfortable with and maybe they don’t like. We need to get more information on this topic. The most important thing for us and our farms is to make sure that we meet and exceed the demands of consumers.”

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...airy-producers


I have noticed for some years now that although I keep my butter at room temperature it doesn't EVER get soft enough to spread on a piece of bread or whatever. It just sits there in a hard lump. I thought is was because my kitchen is cool, but now I see it isn't my kitchen and it isn't just me! The whole country has hard butter!

Well since "room temperature" in Canada is below freezing so it's no wonder your butter is hard as a rock. It's frozen.

[mossrose]

Well since "room temperature" in Canada is below freezing so it's no wonder your butter is hard as a rock. It's frozen.

I knew you were going to say that.

[rogue06]

Two things that can help just about any food item --- BUTTER and BACON!

4fudz.gif

[Sparko]

4fudz.gif

"bacon whiskey?"

LWHIOLMAAE_360x.jpg?v=1556380458.jpg

[rogue06]

"bacon whiskey?"

LWHIOLMAAE_360x.jpg?v=1556380458.jpg

You had me at "

[mossrose]

This is NOT a bacon thread!

It's a butter thread, and I will ban anybody who mentions bacon!

[Sparko]

This is NOT a bacon thread!

It's a butter thread, and I will ban anybody who mentions bacon!

You just mentioned it! Ban yourself!

[Cow Poke]

Does one of those butter packages work okay for a dinner roll now?

I likes the way ya think.

(on that, anyway)

[rogue06]

This is NOT a bacon thread!

It's a butter thread, and I will ban anybody who mentions bacon!

What about

Slow-Cooker-Bacon-green-Beans-7.jpg

Slow cooked buttery bacon Beans?

[mossrose]

No, no, no!

No more bacon!

BUTTER!

[rogue06]

No, no, no!

No more bacon!

BUTTER!

Like Maple Bacon Butter, made with maple syrup, crispy bacon and unsalted butter. Or straight up Bacon Butter


Bacon Butter
0 min·Yield: 3/4 cup
Bacon and butter make food taste better, so we combined them! Bacon butter is perfect as a soup ...
Ingredients

• 8 slices bacon
• 1/2 cup Land O Lakes® Butter softened
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

[The Melody Maker]

Well, it has butter in it...