[Sca-cooks] Honey Butter

Susan Fox selene at earthlink.net
Wed Apr 1 09:16:33 PDT 2009


Terry Decker wrote:
>
>>   I would assume that there were additives to butter through out the 
>> ages
>> because my mom would talk about how they added coloring to the butter 
>> so it wasn't white during WWII Kay
>
> Not butter, I believe, but margarine.  During WWII, butter was truly 
> scarce and was replaced largely by white margarine.  It looked a lot 
> like lard and was considered a poor man's substitute for the real 
> thing.  Adding food coloring to the margarine to disguise it as butter 
> was considered a socially necessary lie in some circles.
>
> Bear 

We may be conflating two different phenomena here.  Certainly they 
started added coloring to margarine to make it look more buttery.  But 
annatto is added to butter seasonally even now, so it looks more buttery 
i.e. more yellow as well.  White butter doesn't bother me personally but 
you know how food corporations want to produce a "consistent" product, 
irrespective of the wheel of the seasons.  Sigh.

I put honey in butter because I like it.  When I serve it at a meal in 
the SCA, I ask people to cough first, then explain the period medicinal 
documentation, everybody laughs and we go on with our lives.  Education 
with a smile!

Selene


More information about the Sca-cooks mailing list