Which would you choose?

[Helsbells]

Its butter for me, tastes better and all natural.
My mum told me some nasty things about marg that put me off.
I just leave the butter out so its soft to use on bread. It doesnt go off cos it gets used too quickly.

[JulieSherris]

Butter.....

Oh, should I say anything more?
OK, then - marg is gloopy.... and I make my butter in my little processor - 1 pot of cream a week does us & a pinch of salt - but that's allowed because apart from my bread making, that's about all I use salt for - I never add salt to cooking, ever.....

So, yeah.... butter!!

[Graye]

Tastewise it makes no difference to me. By that I mean I can definitely tell the difference but I don't really like the taste of either and so spread it really thinly anyway. I suppose I like the olive oil spreads most of al. OH has always insisted he hates butter, it tastes rancid etc. When we were emptying the fridge before we left France I discovered I still had a small tub of fresh cream. I made a very small amount of butter and put some on a baked potato for him and he didn't even notice. Now we are back in the UK for a period I think I might have a go at making some more.

[hedgewitch]

Marg - because I don't eat dairy.

Not that I use a lot of marg - in baking and when I make pastry, that's about it.
I use Olive Oil the rest of the time and I've never put butter/marg on my bread/toast since I was about 18.

[old tree man]

BUTTER ........................... and i have to say you don't spread butter you slice butter on fresh warm home made bread.

Russ

[Rosendula]

I'm switching from marg to butter. Unfortunately, because I cut down on trips to supermarkets, I started really stocking up on things like that when I did go. Just before Christmas, I didn't really need any marg (for baking or spreading), but I was in a supermarket so I bought a load anyway. A couple of days later I decided to give up margarine and spreads and only use butter - as soon as the marg had run out. Well, with the exception of a tiny amount that I could use for greasing baking tins I have finally run out this weekend I have loads of home-made butter in the fridge, all measured out into 4oz, which is an amount I tend to use a lot of in baking so it will save me the hassle of weighing it later. This evening was a dough-making evening - I have a batch of bread on its first rise, ready to do more on tomorrow, I have made biscuit dough, pastry and pasta dough. All are in the fridge to get baking with tomorrow - and wherever I have needed fats, it's been pure, home-made butter. I can't wait until tomorrow to sample it all.

[Green Aura]

Unsalted butter. Don't trust any processed stuff and use as little as possible. Probably the only thing are sausages and I plan to start making our own at some point.

[Clara]

And unless you never eat any processed food or go to a commercial bakers or eat out

Yep ... that sounds like me, except the "eat out" bit and we do about 2 or 3 times a year.

Thanks for the advice though, so are you suggesting butter would be better for me everyday instead of this olive oil spread ?
Please say "yes"

Seeing as you've got high cholesterol please don't do anything on my advice alone. My personal feeling would be to avoid both, though I've never liked butter or marg on cold bread anyhow so it's a no-brainer for me.

Even those spreads that claim to reduce cholesterol could well be a source of other problems which to me, with a holistic outlook is no kind of solution at all, trading a lower risk of heart disease for a higher risk of cancer Here is an article on Flora Proactiveas an example.

[Millymollymandy]

Marge for spreading on bread because I can't spread butter! Butter always on a baked spud though. And I never buy salty butter which is difficult round here as in Brittany they are so into their locally produced salt.

Odsox and MMM

Make your own.

500mls double cream in a plastic 2lt milk carton or a 2ltr pop bottle and shake the life out of it. 40 mins later the buttermilk seperates and you are left with the butter. wash under cold water and pst dry. Use the butter milk for making cushty scones.
As for the amount consumed we make 250g each week on a saturday and then when it's gone it's recrimination time.. I mean we do without darling....
I used to be anything in the tub but having made my own before Christmas it is butter for me... but then my waistline is already expanded.

BA

No such thing as double cream in France!!! (or whipping, or sour, or clotted. )

I don't need to make my own unsalted butter cos I can buy it from any supermarket - I just said it is DIFFICULT because 90% of the butter in this region of France is salted due to the salt produced nearby; so it means a few minutes spent searching for it. When I lived in another region of France it was the complete opposite - really hard to find salted butter!

[Graye]

MMM, I actually managed to make some butter just before we left France from some little plastic pots of cream I bought in the cooler of our local Super U. I think they were creme demi epaisse. Not that I would recommend trying it normally as it would work out ridiculously expensive, I just needed to use it up. Unsalted butter is the norm in the Dordogne - as you say, it varies from region to region.

[StripyPixieSocks]

Olive Oil margarine I absolutely hate butter the taste makes me gag!

[Ellendra]

Butter. Butter butter butter butter butter

I prefer things I could theoretically make myself, and I just think butter tastes better. I use unsalted for cooking, salted for spreading on bread. We use it fast enough that we can leave some in a little dish on the counter and it won't go bad before its gone.

I do have instructions for making shortening, but its not the vegetable kind So I use butter.

[sleepyowl]

Butter for preference as it has the right flavour for baking

[Loobyloo]

Definitely butter, I remember hearing somewhere that Marg is only a couple of molecular steps away from being plastic. Don't know if thats true but its a good enough reason for me. I looooovee butter hmmmm.