# Butter-it, Beyond, liquid margarine, butter flavored cooking oil



## nebraskabeef (Nov 8, 2011)

Hello to all.

Just curious, in the restaurant you work at, what is the fat of choice for cooking? I am talking about searing, sauteing, etc. The restaurant I'm insists on using liquid margarine for everything. It's not, in my opinion, real food, but it actually does taste pretty good and good lord it is easier than using real butter. What do all of you use?


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## petemccracken (Sep 18, 2008)

It depends on what I'm searing, sautéing, etc.

It sure as h3ll is *not* _liquid margarine_!


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## ianman1128 (Sep 22, 2009)

Ew. Im not very food pretentious, but those things are gross. I mostly use a blended oil (canola/olive) and often, depending on what it is Im cooking, combined with butter.


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## meezenplaz (Jan 31, 2012)

_"I mostly use a blended oil (canola/olive) and often, depending on what it is Im cooking, combined with butter."_

Ditto here Chef, a good blended, (or mix it myself--just kind of guess) for heavy searing,

unsalted butter in the mix (for the flavour and solids) for veggie saute' n tingsa lika dat.

I NEVER use margarine in the pro kitchen, occasionally at home if I'm out of butter, but never for

sauces or flavour-saute', and it's always Imperial or it don't happen.


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## nebraskabeef (Nov 8, 2011)

That's what I'm saying - although, just as a meager line cook, I have no problems using it, I would feel much better about using actual butter. The restaurant I work in was recently rated in the top 10 fine dining experiences in my city, and I was just curious to see if other professional kitchens used this garbage.


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## chef1962 (Feb 28, 2012)

We do not unless it is cost related.One thing i did not see is protein fats like rendered chicken beef fats.This would be ideal.Real butter is black market butter from the farmer.ask one.The health dept. will not allow this be used in kitchens now because it is not pasteurized


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## deepsouthnyc (Mar 14, 2009)

We use pure olive oil or a mixture of pure olive oil and butter. We also use rice bran oil.

Our restaurant has stopped using canola oil because canola oil is produced from GMO seeds. As a restaurant, we don't support it.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

I've used everything from peanut oil to pomace olive oil (using evoo or a blend for sauteing is a waste of money) grape seed oil, to rendered veal kidney fat for high heat sauting; bacon and rendered bacon fat,  to rendered chicken schmalz (for soup mirepoix--can't be beat) to duck fat for sweating and light searing.  Butte rfat (ghee, clarified butter) can be used for quite a bit of medium to high heat sauting--for brief periods of time.

I don't eat tofurkey, and I don't don't sell it.  Nor do I advocate the use regurgitated/transformed chicken bacon, or any foods made to imitate the taste of other foods.  If you want the taste of butter, then for (deleted)'s  sakes, use butter.


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## chef1962 (Feb 28, 2012)

That is what i am talking about real fat yeh!


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## shaunmac (Nov 3, 2011)

The restaurant I previously worked at, seafood joint, used a mixture of melted butter and "butter blend". The did half and half for monetary reasons. I would personally not use it if/when I open my restaurant. They hardly used olive oil and when I tried to on the line i was borderline repremanded for doing so.

At home I use olive oil, canola oil, or butter depending on whats cooking.


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## petalsandcoco (Aug 25, 2009)

Using butter to finish a dish is the way to go.

Petals.


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## lomeinrain (May 2, 2012)

Divooooo!


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## curtispnw (Feb 16, 2012)

I use pure olive oil, not virgin, to much olive flavor, sometimes you have to try different brands of pure olive oil to get one with a mild flavor, or one you can afford, I also like to finish with butter, and have been called on it by some old Italian woman, who says you don't mix butter and olive oil, who care's what she says, I like the way it tastes


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## rbandu (Apr 30, 2012)

My selections vary greatly between work and home.  At the restaurant we mainly use canola for saute and frying.  That's a food cost thing.  Obviously if a pan sauce needs to be finished with butter, that is what we use; I'm not ever inclined to substitute margarine or a butter blend, even for table service.  If the people are told they're eating butter, they're eating just that.

At home it's different; I use light olive oil for saute and searing most things; sometimes peanut oil or sesame oil, depends what I'm making.  I've also grown quite fond of avocado oil recently, however it does add a (pleasant, nutty almost) flavor to whatever you're cooking.  

Canola oil originally wasn't meant to be consumed as food, it was designed to be a lubricant for machine parts.  If I had my way I'd be using safflower oil or something equivalent at work, however the owner insists upon certain things and as long as it's not outright detrimental to my customers' health, that's fine.


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## layjo (Oct 12, 1999)

We use Pomace olive oil, canola oil for searing and combo with whole butter for saute and flavor.  We do however use the butter flavored vegetable oil on occasion when browning, searing as well ex.(cheese blintz)


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## curtispnw (Feb 16, 2012)

nebraskabeef

My comment to your employer would be, assuming your serve Mid west corn fed beef, some of the best tasting, highest quality beef in the world, why would you want to serve it with any thing made with liquid margarine, possibly one of the lowest quality fats you could use?

A comment about canola oil, I used to use in the fryers, because I thought it was good for you until reading about it on line, search it and read about it, you may want to never use it again, Someone at some point they did some very convincing marketing to make us believe it was good for you.


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## ldc08 (May 7, 2012)

Were I work at we us butter-it and divo, we rarely use olive oil.


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## michaelga (Jan 30, 2012)

this is completely incorrect


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## michaelga (Jan 30, 2012)

RBandu said:


> Canola oil originally wasn't meant to be consumed as food, it was designed to be a lubricant for machine parts.


this is also completely incorrect...


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## michaelga (Jan 30, 2012)

CurtisPNW said:


> A comment about canola oil, I used to use in the fryers, because I thought it was good for you until reading about it on line, search it and read about it, you may want to never use it again, Someone at some point they did some very convincing marketing to make us believe it was good for you.


Seriously you read about these evils online? The marketers wanted to get away from "Rape Seed Oil". Honestly would you even try to sell an oil named like that to the food industry?

Maybe the marketing that you read was done by the people selling you subsidized and heavily GMO'd corn oil... by the way don't plant any corn down wind of a Monsanto farm... you might end up owing them royalties!


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## michaelga (Jan 30, 2012)

As to the original post - sorry for the derail.

We use different fats for different jobs.

liquid marg - absent

most toasted and quick griddled items - spreadable marg

saute mushrooms - butter

saute onions - marg

saute mixed vegge (pre-blanched) - marg

saute mixed veggies raw - butter 

pan sauces - butter

quick blender sauces - marg

baked items - marg unless it's a pastry

pastry items - full on lard!!!

 some specials the protein gets a different fat... 

(oh marg is butter flavoured... at least here - hope it helps)


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

Since most margarines are 60% water it is very dificult to really saute with them.


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## duckfat (Aug 7, 2008)

RBandu said:


> Canola oil originally wasn't meant to be consumed as food, it was designed to be a lubricant for machine parts.





MichaelGA said:


> this is also completely incorrect...


MichaelGa maybe you could offer some helpful historical insight instead of just admonishing?

I think RBandu may be a lot closer to correct in this case than you might think. Rapeseed oil was used as lamp fuel in a historical sense but that's a rather moot point since the first application of "canola oil" was not for cooking and it was used for machinery before it was marketed as food product.

Dave


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

100% correct . The reason it is called Canola is because 99 % of it in the offset was imported from Canada under an agreement our government made with them . TheCanadian government also paid us millions for this right. It was originally used in oil base paint and was then geneticaly altered for human consumption.


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## deepsouthnyc (Mar 14, 2009)

MichaelGA said:


> this is completely incorrect


Canola was developed using traditional plant breeding techniques, so it was not developed using biotechnology. However, about 80% of the canola grown in Canada has now been modified using biotechnology to make it tolerant to some herbicides. Using these specific herbicides has reduced the amount of chemical needed for weed control in the fields.

Remember - the canola plant has been modified, not the oil. So canola oil from the herbicide tolerant plant is exactly the same safe and healthy oil as canola oil from conventional plants. The modification has been made to only one canola gene and it is a protein. Processing removes all proteins from canola oil. That means canola oil made from GM seed is conventional canola oil.

http://www.canolacouncil.org/canola_oil_the_truth.aspx

Directly from the canola council. The truth is, regardless of whether it still contains the proteins from the genetically modified product. It is still coming from a GMO seed.

You are completely incorrect.


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## deepsouthnyc (Mar 14, 2009)

MichaelGA said:


> this is completely incorrect


Canola was developed using traditional plant breeding techniques, so it was not developed using biotechnology. However, about 80% of the canola grown in Canada has now been modified using biotechnology to make it tolerant to some herbicides. Using these specific herbicides has reduced the amount of chemical needed for weed control in the fields.

Remember - the canola plant has been modified, not the oil. So canola oil from the herbicide tolerant plant is exactly the same safe and healthy oil as canola oil from conventional plants. The modification has been made to only one canola gene and it is a protein. Processing removes all proteins from canola oil. That means canola oil made from GM seed is conventional canola oil.

This is directly from the Canola Council website.

The canola oil product is made from genetically modified seeds. Regardless of protein removal, the original product is still GM seed based.


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## zoebisch (Apr 9, 2012)

In the not too distant past the conversation would have asked: Olive Oil, Clarified, Tallow, Lard, Schmaltz? Ironically avoiding the Trans fat issue fairly much altogether....(except for modern hydrogenated Lard/etc)


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## chefhow (Oct 16, 2008)

Most butters sold in the US are over 20% water and some as high as 30% which is what the govt allows.  European butters on the other hand are only allowed to be 12% water and have a higher fat content and more flavor.  I used Euroblend when I had my restaurant, 85% European Butter with a 12% water content and 15% Canola oil.  Smooth, full flavored, cheaper than whole water filled butter and clarified BEAUTIFULLY with little loss.  I did keep whole butter on the line for finishing pan sauces, but it was usually a European butter which had better emulsifying capabilities and deeper flavor.


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