People have been wondering what the difference is between butter, margarine, and ghee.

Is one or the other a better choice for your health? Is there any preference for food preparation? Yes, and yes!

Things go better with butter…

Ghee is the healthiest choice for your health. Ghee is popular in the East, but it can be a challenge to find it commercially in the West. You might have to make your own clarified butter. I believe that you will be able to find it online, but be sure that it’s properly prepared and fresh before you order it from any source on the Net.

You can find recipes for making ghee and it won’t take you long to master the technique. It’s more of a matter of time than anything else.

If you wish to use butter; then at least be sure to purchase organic butter. Some commercial brands of butter have added salt and added coloring. You don’t need that… Butter needs to be properly stored and you need to check it for rancidity. It’s OK to keep a little butter at room temperature to be easy to spread. When you are baking, your butter needs to be cold, especially when making pastries and dough that you want to be flaky.

Butter can be blended with olive oil or other healthy oils to keep from browning too quickly or burning when you cook with a higher heat. Butter is often used to finish sauces and to adhere the edges of food packages like ravioli.

You might want to experiment with compound butters. You can add some herbs and spices to season your butter. The flavor profiles are amazing and it contributes to the success of many dishes when you use a slice of cooled compound butter on the top of a meat, vegetable, or whole grain dish.

I am not a proponent of margarine. It is my opinion that you should avoid it at all costs. It is not going to contribute to your health and the taste is marginal at best.

If your grocery store carries soy alternatives; then give them a trial run and see if you like them as a substitute. You can exchange many nut and seed oils for butter in most recipes and dishes.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 19th, 2011 at 5:31 pm and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.