Butter, margarine, oil

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This article/section is a stub — some half-sorted notes, not necessarily checked, not necessarily correct. Feel free to ignore, or tell me about it.


Butter is made by churning cream or milk, to be called butter should consist of mostly milk fats.

More generally it could refer to any edible fat that is solid at room temperature.


Clarified butter has had most milk solids and water removed through rendering. Clarified butter can be used at somewhat higher temperatures (has a higher smoke point), making it interesting for sautéing and such.


Ghee is a clarified butter most associated with Asian cooking, and may have a little more taste. It is classically made from churned cow's milk, which is then left to simmer for a good time until the water in the milk solids evaporates, leaving behind milk solids that are filtered out; the result is a clarified liquid. Ghee made this way may have more taste, presumably from having simmered with the milk solids for a decent amount of time(verify).


Margarine specifically has water added - it is an emulsion of water and oils, and can be animal or plant-based. It historically was a butter alternative as it is cheaper to make, and can be kept longer.

The fact that margarine contains a good deal of water makes it less fit for baking, as it is more likely to spray hot fat as the water evaporates.

People may regularly refer to margarine as butter, although in many countries the packaging cannot legally do so.


Vegetable margarine and soy margarine focuses on just the oils (and not of milk origin),

The process and components are not always fully vegan, so check the packaging if you care about that.
note that these may have less taste without your help -- though any margarine is generally bland already


Vegetable oils are often based on things like canola, safflower, sunflower, corn, soybean, peanut, sesame and such.



Products like margarine and vegetable oils are also interesting to vegetarians, vegans, and people with allergies, because they usually use a specific ingredient and avoid others.

Note that specific margarines use no cream, buttermilk, or whey, or so little that the lactose lactose intolerant will not be bothered by it.

You may want to specifically look (or avoid) for nut oils, (vegetable) margarine, soy oils, etc.


There are also kosher margarines.


Shortening

Shortening refers to fats used in cooking that are usually solid at room temperature, and have a higher smoke point than butter or margarine.

In a broader sense it can refer to margarine, lard, etc., but is often specificially refers to pure fat (often with little or no taste), and is often specifically used to give bread and such a more crumbly texture (it avoids long protein strands in wheat-based doughs, although that is not the origin of the term).

Shortening may be butter, lard, margarine, but can also be purely vegetarian (and particularly earlier shortening was not so healthy).



See also