Buttergate: Why are Canadians complaining about hard butter?

[dalton99a]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56175784

Buttergate: Why are Canadians complaining about hard butter?

...

Buttergate began with a question posed on Twitter by Canadian cookbook author Julie Van Rosendaal: "Have you noticed it's no longer soft at room temperature?"

Hundreds of home cooks responded with similar butter woes.

Ms Van Rosendaal suggested in a Globe and Mail column last week that a higher demand for butter in the pandemic led to changes in livestock feed, as farmers sought to increase production.

Adding palm oil-based energy supplements to cow feed is a decades-old practice said to increase the milk output of cows and increase the milk's fat content.

Since the summer, hundreds of farmers around the country have stepped up their use of palm oil substances in an attempt to boost supply.

Little research has been done on the true impact of palm oil in dairy, but agricultural experts say butter made from cows fed with palm oil has a higher melting point and, therefore, may be harder to spread at room temperature.

[bamagal62]

1. I've noticed it on some butters and wondered.

I’ve started buying Irish butter because it’s a nice consistency at room temp.

[SergeStorms]

5. You must be speaking of...

Kerry gold butter. It's the only butter I'll use in cooking and baking, myself.

[bamagal62]

6. Yes!!! I hoard it, actually!

At one point during covid it was out of stock. I buy 3-4 boxes at a time now.

And, during that time I bought LandoLakes remembering that I used to like it. It did not get spreadable at room temp. I found it odd.

[SergeStorms]

10. Besides that...

Land O' Lakes contributed bigly to the Orange Hemorrhoid's presidential campaign. So I stopped buying that crap years ago.

[bamagal62]

11. Good to know!

[Catherine Vincent]

13. Oh shoot

I wish I'd know about it. Oh well, too late.

[SergeStorms]

19. It's not that big of a deal...

but I try not to support right-wing leaning companies. I stopped buying LL Bean clothing as well for the same reason, and their clothing lasts.

[liberal_mama]

18. I should have never bought the Kerry Gold because now no other butter will do!

I used to love any butter, generic or brand name, whatever was on sale. Ever since that day I decided to try the Kerry Gold, I need to have it now.

[SergeStorms]

20. It's the best on the market...

at least that I've found. The color, the richness is so much better than other butters. I'm a 71 year old dude, and it's like the butter my grandmother used to make by hand. I love to bake with it. Yeah, a 71 year old dude bakes. My "late life" hobby.

[SergeStorms]

2. Great question.

I haven't had the same problem in the U.S. at least with the brand I always buy, but the use of palm oil has to stop. We're wiping out the native habitat for Orangutans as well as other species just to cultivate this crappy oil.

[Grasswire2]

8. excellent point nt

[kedrys]

3. Yeah k that's weird because

I'm up here in Montreal and the puddle of butter in the dish on the counter seems to be only semi solid.

[SlogginThroughIt]

4. I have noticed here in MN.

But only because I hate hard butter except while cooking. Soft butter on the table. Use cold or hard butter in cooking unless the recipe calls for softened or room temp butter.

[Grasswire2]

7. interesting!

That's why I don't like some butters! Kinda ooey-gooey.

America's Test Kitchen rates Challenge butter as the BEST BEST BEST supermarket butter, and that's what I always buy -- when it's on sale I buy ten pounds or a dozen and it lasts me for months. If the shelf is bare, I get a rain check for the sale price.

I do also like Trader Joe's butter if I don't have any Challenge. It is good. Not gooey.

A butter made with palm oil is less "transparent" in its appearance when soft.

Thanks for this article!

[Spazito]

9. The butter I use softens when at room temperature...

I haven't had any problems here in Alberta.

[SergeStorms]

12. Could be a regional thing?

I don't guess they'd have east coast butter on the west coast and vice versa.

[Spazito]

14. That's a really good question....

I checked my butter carton and it does not tell me where the butter was made, it only tells me it is a Loblaw s product. I could assume it was made in Alberta but it is only an assumption.

[Backseat Driver]

15. Spin it as Grass-fed Plus for greater sustainability

Butter sculptors are getting sharper, longer-lasting detailing by using Canadian butter.

Grandma's recipes aren't quite right. They too rich! Muffins crumble on impact, so bakers turn to whipped varieties for remembered flavor and spreadability, LOL!

Surely there are worse problems in this world.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/mgxzvx/the-history-of-butter-sculpture-is-strange-indeed

[Tommy Carcetti]

16. One of the reasons why I actually prefer margarine spreads like ICBINB.

I know, this is a sacrilege to many of you, but I don't care.

Butter is awesome melted and for baking. Can't be topped or replicated in that respect.

But for spreading on breads, margarine is butter to me.

Sorry, I meant better to me.

[Dagstead Bumwood]

24. Maybe Joe's slogan should have been "build back butter."

[Dagstead Bumwood]

17. Anne Murray told them to complain and created Buttergate.

She's the Canadian Q. True story.

[SergeStorms]

21. Just have to poke at it with a stick....

don't you. Good one.

[Dagstead Bumwood]

22. It's done with love.

Many a day during the previous administration the wife and fantasized about living north of border.

[SergeStorms]

23. I understand completely.

I live across Lake Ontario from the great nation of Canada, and there were times during "that other guy's" administration when I thought I'd rather swim the 85 nautical miles to Canada than remain in the U.S. for one more minute. I never would have made it, but that "other guy" just drove people to do things like that.