Caveat Emptor
Wanting Your Bread Buttered on Both Sides
Recently, I was in a rush at a supermarket. I had to prepare a dish for a party. I grab some butter on sale and then rush home. Before I added the newly purchased butter to the dish, I decided to taste it to see how salty it was.
That was when my brain stopped. The thing in my mouth was utterly tasteless. I know the taste (or mouthfeel) of unsalted butter. I am familiar with the taste of salted butter. I have eaten margarine. I promptly checked the ingredients listed and my heart sank. It was not 100% butter. M̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶u̶r̶a̶t̶e̶l̶y̶,̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶d̶i̶d̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶t̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶i̶n̶g̶r̶e̶d̶i̶e̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶c̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶a̶ ̶c̶o̶w̶.̶ It had butter in its name. It had the usual gold foil packing and it was yellowish.
I googled the purpose of this butter substitute. It turned out it was meant for baking. This information was promptly filed under highly suspicious. T̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶ ̶m̶e̶n̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶u̶r̶p̶o̶s̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶d̶u̶c̶t̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶a̶c̶k̶i̶n̶g̶. If anything it was packaged to look and feel like butter. Moreover, I know that you can use room temperature vegetable oil in baking so what was the benefit of having a substitute that needs to be refrigerated?
I have nothing against margarine. I ate that stuff for decades. I ate the stuff that needed to be refrigerated. I ate the stuff that came out of cans before it was banned. I never saw a reason to avoid margarine when many products contain vegetable oil. I was however never fooled into thinking margarine was butter.
I am not an advocate for butter. Butter is just a commodity (I buy what is on sale). I can understand the different types of cheese. However, butter to me is just an item that needs to be defrosted before using.
There is some argument that it is made to look like butter for easy measurement. To that, I ask if there is a noticeable difference between measuring a liquid or weighting a solid? Or that there are some poor cooks that can afford a weighing scale but not a measuring cup? I am not buying any environmental reason about its packaging because the fact that you needed to keep it refrigerated cancels out all the benefits of its plastic-free packaging.
So why the rant about a butter substitute? I was not poisoned. It is edible. It is not the money.I̶t̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶i̶n̶c̶i̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶I̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶d̶o̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶c̶a̶r̶e̶. I do care strongly about being taking advantage of. What upset me was when I popped to a different supermarket and spotted it position next to the most expensive brand of butter. And it was not on sale.
Thank you free market for making grocery shopping an exercise in reading the fine prints. And also a reminder to read between the lines.
Update: It turned out that I was more emotional than I realized. It turned out that when I looked back at the packaging, there were actually more facts. The label also showed that it was for cooking and baking. It had butter oil in it. (Dry butter fat) It was also helpful to print the warning that it contained milk if you are allergic to it.