Make Your Own Butter

I started to say "Make Your Own Margarine" but that sounds disgusting.  I haven't eaten actual margarine for years and I hope you haven't either.  It's sooooo bad for you in terms of transfats.  Eating butter by the stick, even being a straight animal fat, is healthier for you than margarine, or "oleo" as I grew up hearing it called.

After Gene had his heart attack in 2003, I immediately ran out and bought The Omega Diet by Dr. Artemis Simopoulos, the ground-breaking diet based on the study of the people of Crete. Published in 1998, it is still what I base our overall daily diet on.  Gene's doing well now and I place a lot of credit to his lowered cholesterol numbers on having taken Dr. Simopoulos's advice and switched to healthier oils in our diet, not to mention trying to always eat as fresh and wholesome as possible. Except when I went back to school and I admit that my schedule and being tired all the time gave me excuses to eat out, order out, and utilize drive-thrus much more than we should have. But that's in the past and we're back on track. 

Not only did his cholesterol number drop, and it should have since he was immediately placed on statins, I'm the proof in the pudding. My cholesterol that was only 160 to start with, dropped 30 points over the first year we tuned up and changed our oil, so to speak.

The Omega Diet book promotes a home-made "daily spread" that he simply calls "Canola/Butter" or "Olive/Butter", depending on which oil you choose to mix with butter. The idea is so simple it could be a "Margarine for Dummies" concept.  You put equal amounts of olive or canola oil and butter in the blender and whiz away.  The oil makes the butter consistency spreadable even straight from the fridge and cuts the saturated fats in half while upping the omega values consumed in the oil. 

The biggest problem with the consistency is that it melts too quickly at room temperature and it feels too oily.  At one point we tried the new (at the time) non-transfat margarines on the market and didn't like the consistency or the taste of any of those either.  Tasteless gloppy plastic, anyone?  So I went back to Dr. Simopoulos's canola/butter.

It all seems easy enough, right?  Mix half oil, half butter, blend away.  Then why don't I stop writing? I already gave you the recipe from the book.  Come on. You know me by now. I don't follow directions and I don't leave anything alone, it's simply not in my nature.  I can't take even something that simple and not mess around with it.  I must be a tinkerer down deep in my soul of souls. Or an editor.

So after playing around with it for a few weeks, I created my own recipe that's only slightly different from the original but the difference is one that makes the texture and flavor to be exactly how we like it.  This is the only spread in my fridge, with the exception of the Smart Balance base, just like expeller or cold pressed oils are the only ones to be found in my pantry.  We use this on everything from toast to the vegetables.

We keep ours in small and large sourdough crocks from King Arthur Flour Co.  Gene asks me why we use the crock. I tell him that the crock is the right thickness of pottery to keep the "butter" cold for the exact time we usually have it out of the fridge so that it won't lose any of it's whipped volume from the blender.  The truth is I use the crock because I think it's pretty. Duh.

Glenna's House "Butter"  (inspired by The Omega Diet book)

16oz tub Smart Balance margarine

8 oz (2 sticks) butter, at room temp

16 oz expellor pressed canola oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients and process in the blender. Refrigerate.

To your health!

Comments

[sher]

Well, Miss Fancy Pants--now you're on Food Porn Watch! LOL!! I hate margarine, always use butter. So, I'll have to try this.

[Glenna]

You're saying I rock? LOL! I hate margarine too. It's gross. Do try the canola butter and let me know what you think. We've been using it for 3 years now and it's so force of habit that Gene makes it when we're running low. We've also had guests who've liked it too and asked for the recipe. Let me know.

[Cathy]

I found your blod through "Food Porn". Thanks for this info, great stuff. I am going to try it.

[Glenna]

Thanks, Cathy. You won't be sorry. We've been using this for years now, and even though it's a little work every few weeks, it's worth it for the taste and for being better for your body than butter or margarine.

[Butta Buns]

Here's a little secret: despite my blog moniker I actually prefer margarine over butter anyday. Growing up in a heart disease plagued family, it was the only thing we used. I'm definatly going to try this.