What have you bought today?

[securespark]

My mistake. AFAIR, the original recipe did not have water in.
But it's obviously changed.

 

[Justin Passing]

Lurpack spreadable says it uses veg oil, the one we have at the mo (President) says cream, or something.

veg oils past the peak, then?

 

[JonathanM]

But it's obviously changed.

I think they've made it softer over the years by adding water. I don't remember water being in the full fat version originally.

AFAIR the very first spreadable butter was made by Anchor in the early-mid 1990s, when they were still a New Zealand company. It was 100% butter and I think they claimed they'd fed the cows a different diet and that this made the butter softer so it would spread from the fridge. But the difference was very small and it was still like a rock. It quickly disappeared from the shelves and then a couple of years later we started getting ones like Lurpak. I wondered how they'd solved the problem, but all they'd done was add vegetable oil to the butter!

M&S now sell Softer Butter (100%) from cows fed on rapeseed but they have the same problem as Anchor and it still doesn't spread from the fridge.

 

[JonathanM]

the one we have at the mo (President) says cream, or something.

I've just looked it up. It uses single cream to soften the butter. Does it spread easily from the fridge?

 

[Justin Passing]

I've just looked it up. It uses single cream to soften the butter. Does it spread easily from the fridge?

Not really, no!
We leave a 250g tub out. The Lurpack spreadable would go very soft indeed in warm weather; I don't think the President did.
Lurpack from the fridge wasn't exactly soft either, so a few seconds in the microwave would have been useful, but the silver paint sparked and melted the side of the tub.
President is usually just about right, but it can be popped in for a 5 second nuke. It tastes better than Lurpak too, definitely.

 

[JohnD]

Lurpak is actually different. Almost all butter sold in the UK is made with fresh cream and is called sweet cream butter. Lurpak is a lactic/cultured butter. This type is popular on the continent. The cream is cultured first with live bacteria, like how you make yogurt, before being churned into butter. My grandma never liked it, she said it tasted of cheese (although she didn't actually know why it tasted different).

Unsalted butter is cultured. Otherwise it goes off like cream. The acid, or the salt in salted butter, acts as a preservative. Anybody can tell the difference once they know what it is

Chilled, unsalted, sweetcream butter is used in good class patisserie. Again, anybody can tell the difference if they taste it, it is really nice but you may never encounter it because it does not keep. For cooking, some people use salted butter and warm it in water to wash the salt out

Smokers might not be able to tell the difference

 

[Mottie]

I used to use unsalted butter when I made my own bread (I now use veg oil) and it was definitely different from salted. It was like a very thick cream and I couldn’t resist eating it raw!

 

[JonathanM]

Unsalted butter is cultured. Otherwise it goes off like cream. The acid, or the salt in salted butter, acts as a preservative. Anybody can tell the difference once they know what it is

Lurpak is a cultured butter in both its unsalted and salted forms, and that is why it tastes different to most other butter in this country. These ingredient lists are from the Lurpak website and the only difference between their unsalted/salted block butter is salt:

INGREDIENTS
Butter (Milk), Lactic Culture (Milk).

INGREDIENTS
Butter (Milk), Lactic Culture (Milk), Salt.

I'm not sure about that other point. I always like to learn new things, especially about food and never argue just for the sake of it. But I can't find any reference to standard British unsalted butter being cultured. Everything I've just read says the only difference is literally the omission of salt, and makes the point that unsalted butter has about half the shelf life of salted butter for that reason. But I would be delighted to be proved wrong as I find food and the science behind it so interesting.

For instance, there is no mention of it on the Anchor website and again the only difference is the salt.

Ingredients:​

Butter (Milk)

Ingredients:​

Butter (Milk), Salt (1.7%)

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I don't think it tastes better, although it definitely tastes different. I'm talking about block butter here, not spreadable. When the price of Lurpak first shot up in the mid 2000s, we switched from Lurpak to Aldi butter and after a few days we liked it just as much. We've stayed with Aldi ever since.

We used to buy Lurpak too, back in the day, then moved to the spreadable. Eventually trying the Aldi/Lidl offerings and finding them 'acceptable'.

I now just buy the Danpak stuff with the look-a-like packaging to the Lurpak from Lidl. I also tried their similar cost stuff in the Anchor yellow look-alike tub, but found it is far too wet and watery - leave it out of the fridge a few minutes, and it turns into a puddle.

I usually buy a few tubs together, then keep it in the freezer until needed - It freezes fine.

 

[Mottie]

I also tried their similar cost stuff in the Anchor yellow look-alike tub, but found it is far too wet and watery - leave it out of the fridge a few minutes, and it turns into a puddle.

I think I tried some cheapo stuff from Sainsbury’s and as soon as it touched a knife blade at room temperature it slid off the knife and was bloody hard to pick up and spread. I had to keep a butter knife in the fridge to be able to spread it!

 

[conny]

I treated myself to a new B&D Workmate.

Black and Decker WM825 Plus Dual Height Deluxe Workmate | Workmate Benches

Buy Black and Decker WM825 Plus Dual Height Deluxe Workmate and other Black and Decker Workmate Benches at Tooled-Up.com. Fast Delivery.

www.tooled-up.com

£80 in Homebase. They reckon it should have been £130 as it had a £50 Off sticker on it.
Amazon selling it for £80 at the moment so think I've got a decent deal.

 

[Justin Passing]

I always like to learn new things,....... never argue just for the sake of it. ...... But I would be delighted to be proved wrong as I find food and the science behind it so interesting.

Ha! Good luck with that on this forum!! I sometimes look at another forum, full of geeks, who happily dive into interesting techy rabbit holes. But it doesn't have as many members because they don't allow *ankers like this one does.

 

[Mottie]

I treated mrs Mottie to a new iron today. When I was giving it to her, I affected my best Northern male chauvinist accent and said "I'll not see any wife o' mine unable to do t' jobs I married her for because of a lack of t' right equipment". I thought she'd be pleased!

View attachment 275139

I think she overeworked it. It went 'pop' last night, she said a blue flame shot out of the front and it smelled like a firework had gone off. Just been up and replaced it for her. I'll not see any wife o' mine unable to do t' jobs I married her for because of a lack of t' right equipment…….…..

 

[Mottie]

Just been up and bought our Valentines 'dine in' meal for tomorrow as well as some roses for Mrs Mottie. I’ll tell her to leave the ironing tomorrow night too - she can catch up on Wednesday….

 

[Stivino]

We've got one of them but, as I've not been on the training course, I don't use it. Elf'n safety and all that.
I've not been on the vacuuming course either.