Butter vs. Margarine and Mom & Dad

I don't think either of my parents would have considered this to be a great debate in my household when I was growing up, but I always found it of great interest. My mom always said that she grew up using margarine and my father grew up using butter. What was interesting about it, is that Mom always preferred butter to margarine. Dad preferred the margarine to butter. I don't remember what their reasoning was, truly. I know that we always used to have margarine in the refrigerator and much later, we would have the tub of Country Crock spread for every meal. Dad preferred to have bread and butter with most of his meals and I think that was probably where the preference for margarine stood. It was usually much easier to spread on a piece of bread. Now, I will be honest, we didn't ever have a nice loaf of Italian bread or French bread. Nothing of the sort. He used to grab a few slices of generic, white, sandwich bread and that would suffice. My brother and I would copy him- who could resist of a serving of bread and "butter?"

I never quite thought through the "spreadability" of butter until there was a great debate at my babysitter, Sharon's house when I was a kid. Burt and Sharon used to watch many kids at their house and I used to even take the bus from school to her house and wait for my parents to pick me up. Sometimes they would be a little late and we would be the last kids to be picked up. I remember Sharon saying that we would be staying for dinner on those days. She would prepare something very simple, like spaghetti. One afternoon, I remember them sitting down to eat at their small kitchen table and Burt was so upset with her. She didn't have any margarine and only had butter. He had to wait for the butter to come to room temperature before he could spread it across a piece of bread and therefore, dinner was delayed by about a half an hour. I, on the other hand, tried to spread the butter across my sandwich slice of bread with little success. I ended up with giant pats of butter barely sticking to the surface and eventually tore through the center of the slice. Interesting. Burt claimed that margarine does not act that way and melts much faster. He explained to me that margarine even melts faster on hot food. I tested this theory a few times after on hot vegetables and mashed potatoes my mother would serve. It was true!

Mom used to get butter for special occasions like holidays. I know she preferred the taste of butter and I was interested to compare the difference. I must agree with Mom. I would rather be patient and wait for butter to soften at room temperature before using a product like Country Crock. The taste of butter is unlike any other and I know that there are certain things you just can't skimp on: a baked potato, a piece of bread, corn on the cob and God forbid, a baked good like pies and cakes. Butter only, please. Recently I purchased a Butter Bell crock which keeps butter at room temperature all of the time and it is safe. I recommend that everyone try it if the reason you are not using butter is because it isn't spreadable. I keep it on my kitchen counter and nothing makes me happier at mealtimes than when I have the butter ready to go. Afraid of the calories and fat in butter? Get over it, use it in moderation and know that most cultures wouldn't be caught dead eating a butter substitute.