I use butter and only butter for all my baking. I use olive oil for most of my cooking, though I'll mix the two for a few cooking items. I do keep some vegetable oil around for the occasional pan of brownies, but my neighbor usually borrows it and uses it up before I do.

I don't even have any substitutes in the kitchen because they are all so full of trans fats. No Crisco, no margarine, nothing. I use unsalted butter, usually the organic house brand from the local grocery store, and keep a few pounds in the freezer, along with cream cheese for any Danish emergency that might come up.

I'm always a little surprised, these days, when someone posts a recipe using margarine. With all the recent information about how bad it is, I'm surprised people still use stick margerine.

I use unsalted butter for everything except when I make buttercrunch candy; I use salted butter for that. The recipe needs salt to keep the butter and sugar mixture stable as it cooks. Plugra is wonderful, but it's hard to find in the mainstream markets in my area.

I do use Crisco for my piecrusts, though. Have tried butter but can't seem to get the crust as flaky as a Crisco crust.

Butter.....never margerine. I do keep some margerine in the freezer for cooking for Kosher friends.
I often use olive oil for sauteing and browning meats.
I usually buy my supermarket brand butter because that's cheapest and I find it just fine.
Linda C

I use Butter in all my baking, I will not compromise what butter brings to baked goods. I use salted & unsalted; no margarine whatsoever.

If needed in cooking it would be butter in combination w/EVVO and/or Canola Oil. Then again if recipe requires oil in baking, I then would use the canola.

Land O' Lakes is the most often brand I'll pick when on sale, as well as the store brand, then I stock up & freeze in ziploc bags.

Lucy

Margarine is NOT allowed in my house! We use unsalted butter 99% of the time.

Butter is better when baking :) We don't buy plastic tub spreads.

Basically what everyone else has said. I detest margarine and just won't use it. I use olive oil for most of my sauteing (sp?). Sometimes I'll do a mixture of olive oil and butter.

I don't really use a lot of butter, except for baking. I buy whatever is on sale, usually, and prefer unsalted butter so I can control how much salt goes into a recipe. When I buy it on sale, I freeze most of it.

Grainlady, that's an interesting technique you use for pastry. Is it only for that one recipe, or for all your pastries?

I think the main reason people still use margarine is the cost - it's a lot cheaper to buy.

Does anyone remember making butter using whipping cream and a jar, in pre-school or Sunday School, or doing it with your own small children? That was one of my favorite things to do with my children.

Sally

Wow, this thread brings back memories. Is anyone old enough to remember those packets of white margarine with the little button of orange color that were broken and massaged into the white stuff to make it look more appetizing? That was during the war around the early '40's.

I am a 100% salted butter user for table use and was very discouraged when I moved to the South about 35 years ago and I could only purchase "real" butter at one store on a certain day of the week. No, not for religious reasons or anything like that; it's just that's when the limited shipment came in and you had to grab yours before the rest of the Yankees got it.

Pulgra reminds me of when Target opened here a few years ago. I was looking at all the foodstuffs I hadn't seen in a while and among the interesting cheeses was something Danish (I believe) called Pulgra, which I had never heard of before. I bought it thinking it was a cheese and got a surprise when I cut a hunk to put on a cracker.

It surprises me to read that so many of you can't find Pulgra in your stores. I've been able to find it at several chains here (Alabama)although I don't usually buy it because of the price. I generally use Land O Lakes or the store brand when it's on sale.

I do use Crisco shortening only for a particular cake frosting recipe. Whenever I'm asked to bring something to a meal, it's usually this cake, so I can't avoid using it then. Substituting butter just doesn't hold up. I've noticed that there are many older recipes for frosting that call for solid shortening. Do you all use butter and how does it hold up for you? I suppose when your diet-splurging on cake, it doesn't hurt to throw caution to the wind.

Guess I am the lone voice in the wilderness. I use margarine almost exclusively. I buy Becel which is recommended by the Canadian Heart Assoc and my cardiologist. It is non-hydrogenated, trans fat free, rich in omega-3, tastes pretty darn good and it ain't cheap!

Exceptions are olive oil for sauteing and butter for some baked goods and many of my sauces.

Here is a link that might be useful: Becel

I use butter for baking, sauteing, etc. There is sometimes some margarine around but not often. Mostly we use the spray butter for toast, pancakes, waffles. I have olive oil and cooking spray as well. No Crisco or lard.

You aren't alone Sharon. We use the same margarine, Becel, for everyday eating. For the same reason. Moe has it on his sandwiches and on toast and his veggies are "buttered" with Becel too. And I use it to saute some things along with olive oil. And Moe's cholesterol is down low enough now that the doctor just took him off lipitor.

But I never, ever, bake with anything but butter. Even my pie crusts have half butter half lard or crisco. Cream sauces are also made with butter.

Ann

Oh yeah. Unsalted only.

I've never used the Euro type but I'll have to try it for a butter intensive recipe soon.

IN a kosher kitchen one must find subs for the butter in many recipes. The butter of choice in my home is unsalted often either Hotel Bar or Breakstone, sometimes Land o Lakes. I am not much of a baker but my son is. Since he started baking we are going through a lot of butter!

I use gallons of Olive Oil, a practice I am trying to change since starting Weight Watchers recently. I now measure and have found it hard not to just pour in a 'little' more as I cook.

The Crisco can in my pantry since I had to come up with a 'butter' cream frosting for a very large batch of cupcakes a few years ago. It is less harmful than I had thought and I sometimes use it for crisply frying, although very rarely.

For cooking (sauteing, etc) I use either a PAM spray or a small amount of olive oil. I also use the Worchester sauce for chicken for sauteing. Gives a nice flavor without the fat. Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners are the exceptions; then it's butter, for everything.

For stir-fry, I use either a hot sesame oil or peanut oil.

To top toast, bread, etc we use I Cant Belive Its Not Butter.

I don't have hydrogenated shortening or margarine in the house.

I only use butter...butter is the choice in my home DH will not eat anything else. If you have watched Dr Oz on Oprah; he states butter is the better choice for the arteries.

Linda

Sally2 - That's the technique for all pastry recipes using solid fat, not just the 100% whole wheat one.

The science: The small particles coat the flour with fat to create a barrier so that the liquid won't activate the gluten - hence the name "shortcrust pastry" - the gluten strands are "shortened" by the fat. Each step in making pastry is geared to minimizing gluten development.

The large particles of fat form pockets. The fat melts and the steam from the melting lifts the layers of pastry to form the flakiness. You require larger bits of fat for that process.

-Grainlady

I also use butter for baking, there just aren't suitable substitutes. Pie crust is half butter, half lard. Yes, I know how bad that is for my arteries and my cholesterol and my heart. Fortunately I don't like pie crust, just the filling, LOL.

I use olive oil for a lot of things, including roasting vegetables and sauteeing. Sometimes I'll use half olive oil and half butter for the flavor.

I've learned to eat bread, vegetables, etc without any butter or margarine, I might use jam on toast but more often it's just dry. That was the hardest thing for me to give up when I decided to get "healthy", the butter on hot bread or a freshly toasted bagel. Even my eggs get cooked in a cast iron pan with a bit of cooking spray, then I put a lid on to cook the top because I like them sunny side up and soft.

I don't like any of the margarines, I grew up eating butter we churned ourselves so I'm spoiled, I'd rather do without completely than use margarine and I've tried several kinds.

I do like bread dipped or spread with a bit of olive oil and maybe a grating of parmesan or some mixed herbs.

Annie

Butter... sigh. A distant, beautiful memory. I don't eat it anymore but in my house, we just use butter. My partner eats it. If I was making something special, it would just be with butter but most often these days, it's cooking spray. Whatever. Can't argue with the results. 56 pounds down. But I did love me my butter. Sob.

1. If the recipe calls for butter as well as sugar and the quantities of both seem more that I'd want to use nowadays then I'd probably not bother with that recipe.

2. There are some recipes where I'd use a small amount of butter....definitely when making a roux or sauce.

3. I usually buy a local store brand of salted butter which is good and not expensive, (my DH uses butter on bread and that's what he likes.) Sometimes I buy Irish butter which is the best tasting available over here. We also get Dutch butter in tins.

4. Substitute depends for what use. I've drizzled olive oil instead of butter over vegetables for years.

5. Apart from olive oil which I use every day, I also use safflower and sunflower oil in cooking.

My favourite pastry uses lard and looking at the statistics in the Harvard link here, it seems that butter has five times more transfats than lard and one third more saturated fat than lard. The worst culprit in transfat there seems to be shortening at 18% to lard's 1% and butter's 5%. Still I've reduced my baking to almost nothing the past couple of years and although we love pies and pastry I might make only two per year now. Both DH and I are totally free of cholesterol, heart and artery problems.

My family members have been Becel users for years, as recommended by their doctors. However I prefer not to use it as I don't like the taste. I also tried using Becel in something baked with bad results and afterwards saw the notice in small print that it wasn't suitable for baking. Soft tub margarine gets the highest rating now on heart health reports but as I don't like margarine on toast or hot food, I spread some sugarless jam on it. If I have a sandwich I spread a low sugar mustard, a low fat mayonnaise or a few drops of olive oil on the bread.

This is an interesting read.....especially the chart halfway down the page entitled ....
"Percentage of Specific Types of Fat in Common Oils and Fats" where they are compared for their percentage of trans fats and saturated fats.

SharonCb

Here is a link that might be useful: Harvard Study on Fats

Butter(unsalted) for baking ,whatever brand's on sale--& very occasionally lard from the Mennonite market.

Cooking I use olive or canola oil, as little as can be used, often just a spritz of those-- same used in salad drsgs.

For spread we us Brommel & Browns ( yogurt based).Tho when fresh corn's first in it has to be salted butter .

We use mostly butter here, and I have switched from Crisco to Spectrum for pie crusts or other shortening uses. Spectrum has no trans fats, although it is saturated, like butter.

I haven't used margarine in over 30 years. I always hated the stuff. I only use unsalted butter for everything except where you use olive oil, canola oil or other vegetable oils. And I must have butter on my toast or there is (blank) to pay!

I do use part butter, part Crisco for pie crusts. I use to use all Crisco then one day I was out of it and made one out of all butter and DH went nuts. Thought it was the best crust I had ever made and still talks about it and that was about 10 years ago. I haven't done it again because of the cost and fat content, but it was good.
Clare

When it comes to baking I will use butter instead of shortening because I refuse to make anything with hydrogenated oils. But if I can get away with it I will use oil instead (olive or canola, usually olive). And I always use salted butter.

I find the unsalted butter around here is not fresh, perhaps because it doesn't have the turnover regular butter has.

As for other recipes, I take a look at the usage and decide. If it seems superfluous (like the stick of butter called for in Party Potato Casserole) I just leave it out. If it is there for a reason I check the amount. Some sauce recipes call for up to a stick of butter when really a tablespoon or two is enough.

For sauteeing, I like to use a bit of butter and some olive oil instead of all butter. That way I get the taste and properties of the butter but fewer unhealthy fats and the added benefits of the olive oil.

I use butter flavoured cooking spray when I can. And for hot veggies I use "Molly McButter" seasoning which sort of melts.

I am also not above using butter flavouring in my mashed potatoes (which are made with skim milk as well) to keep my mother from wanted to add her usual pound of butter to those LOL.

Now for popcorn? I cut my losses. I use an air popper then top with real butter.

Thanks, Grainlady. Next time I make pastry, I'll try that method. All I've ever read about mixing the fat into the flour mixture has you mixing it until it has a pea-like texture, which I guess is supposed to be a compromise between the tender and the flakey.

Sharon, I've never heard anywhere that butter has trans-fats. It's the hydrongenation process that produces the trans-fats. Now saturated fats, definately, but it's news to me that butter has trans fats. Please say it ain't so!

Sally

Sally...You asked about trans fats in butter....I was quoting that from the article I linked to in my above post. I also didn't know myself that butter has natural trans fats.

Now I've found another comment on a CBC News (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) article which says trans fats also occur naturally in animal based foods such as butter, milk products, cheese, beef and lamb. That paragraph is halfway down the page on this link, just above the small yellow picture of french fries and doughnuts.

However now I see that some of this natural trans fat in the form of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) may be good for you. It also states there that at present the research on CLA is still very limited. The story goes on.

SharonCb

Here is a link that might be useful: Trans fats in Butter and Animal Products

I use the Brommel and Brown yogurt based light spread as well, but Jim likes the (not light) Smart Balance, which doesn't taste good to me at all.

But otherwise, it's butter butter butter for cooking and veggies.

After reading Dr. Malcolm Kendricks book called The Great Cholesterol Con, I've brought real butter and whole milk back into our household.

Diane, When I lived in Dunkirk, NY I used the Brummel and Brown spread too for Moe's sandwiches, toast, etc. and we were able to bring his cholestrol down to normal then too. Unfortunately, they don't sell it in Canada. What I really liked about Brummel and Brown is that it only has 45 calories per tablespoon where Becel has 35 calories per teaspoon. Big difference.

Ann

Yes, the calorie count is one of my favorite things about the B&B, because I can really slather it on! A very big difference, indeed.

That's interesting, Sharon. I admit I didn't read the entire artical you linked to in your earlier post, but I did this time. Since I really don't eat a lot of butter, anyway, I'm not going to worry about it that much. Now cheese is another matter. That's where I get most of my animal fat calories.

Sally

I must say I never expected this much response, so thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts. I'll try and summarize a little here.

First, the health issues and info continue to evolve, but its clear the use of margarine has greatly declined. Butter and other dairy products do have some transfat (some of it may actually be OK for you), so we can't go hog wild with it yet. Like many others I use olive oil as a substitute for butter in cooking. There are a few recipes where I do use butter, but in a reduced amount.

Second, for baking there is no real substitute for butter. Since we don't bake that often, we use the amount the recipe specifies.

Third, most people seem to use unsalted in cooking and baking unless otherwise called for in a recipe and use salted for spreads.

Fourth, there doesn't seem to be a lot of brand loyalty and most think there is little difference in supermarket brands versus name brands.

Fifth, European butters seem to be well liked by everyone, if you can find it. When we're in Europe, we always comment about how good the butter is. I guess I need to look for it in the local market.

Finally, there are some that are being very good about their diets by using substitutes such as Brommel and Brown. My hat's off to you for sticking to your diet and finding something you like as a substitute.

Thanks again for all your comments.

Cheers,

Larry

I didn't see this before but find it an interesting survey. Here are my answers:

1. Depends on the recipe. Normally I use butter, but if sautéing, I generally use half butter and half olive oil. If it is a roux, I might use all olive oil in place of butter.

2. Absolutely. can only be made successfully with unsalted butter, and my chocolate turtles recipe uses a caramel filling that must have butter. Likewise, my Danish butter cookies require unsalted butter, since butter is the main flavor. Also, croissants, cinnamon rolls, Napoleons, and many other desserts require butter. When I was a pastry chef, I went through huge amounts of butter. I would only use butter in puff paste and pâte à choux.

3. Unsalted only - don't have a favorite brand. I've been buying the cheap supermarket brand, but the French market down the street has expensive French butter.

4. When I do substitute, I tend to use olive oil, and so I substitute only in recipes where that is appropriate, frequently when a roux is involved.

5. I sometimes substitute melted butter for oil in recipes - particularly in pancakes and waffles. I have to watch my cholesterol levels also, but I really use very little butter, since I seldom make recipes that absolutely require it.

Lars

BUTTER!

I stopped using margarine the day I moved out on my own at 17. It just never made any sense to me that margarine would be better for human consumption than the animal fats we were originally designed to eat.

I use butter when butter is called for, and bacon grease, chicken fat and olive oil when they are called for. The only thing I use vegetable oil for is to deep fry...something I don't do often anyway.

People may cringe at the thought of using chicken fat or bacon grease in cooking, but small amounts of these fats add a great deal of flavor, as well as a bit of nutritional value. Eaten in responsible amounts, in combination with a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, meat and meat fats supply vital enzymes, minerals and micro nutrients. Vegetable oil gives you nothing but calories.

So, on the occasion that I really want to make a gumbo, and must use some form of fat for my roux, I will use chicken fat or bacon grease (depending on what sort of gumbo it is) and have a nice salad or veggie stir fry for dinner the next night to even things out.

I like Danish Creamery Butter for anything where the flavor of butter will really shine, and when it goes on sale I will buy pounds of it to freeze. But it is quite expensive normally, and so I buy the local bargain butter for other things, which is actually quite good, and I can't really discern much difference in flavor between it and the more popular (and expensive) brand, which around here is Challenge.

I'm not usually bothered about salted or unsalted, unless a recipe specifies. Neither my husband nor I have issues with blood pressure or cholesterol or anything like that, so it doesn't matter much that way.

One thing I do buy unsalted butter for is if I'm making shortbread cookies or open those faced sandwiches with good, crusty, French bread spread with butter and topped with radishes, sun dried tomatoes, olives, sardines, pickled vegetables or slightly bitter, home made marmalade.

I'm a big butter user, but like Lars I use half butter & half olive oil for sauting. I will follow what the recipe tells me to use. I'm moving a little more towards using unsalted butter, but use what I can find in the grocery store. I use margarine primarily for greasing baking pans. I don't usually substitute.

And people wonder why I'm going crazy... Who do you believe?

The Harvard site says there's trans fats in butter and Crisco, my box of butter says it does not contain it, the Land-O-Lakes site says no trans fats in a single serving... My can of Crisco says no trans fats...

The Harvard site lists the percentages of the different fats, everything else in this world lists fats in grams... How do you convert it????

Another question about the list... If all oils, butter, lard and so on are 100% fat why is it that none of them add up to 100%???

According to the FDA all trans fats MUST be listed on the packaging BUT if it's less than one gram it doesn't have to be listed... So does that mean there COULD be 38 grams of trans fat in a 1 # can of Crisco ( 38 servings ) and 32 grams in a pound of butter???

How am I supposed to figure out to make sure hubby doesn't get more than 2 grams a trans fats a day?

I quit!

I do not allow margarine in the house and never substitute anything for butter in baking. I will occasionally use part olive oil in some cooking.

I use unsalted for everything except table (spreading) butter. I prefer salted for that.

First time I've used margerine since the early 70's was this year making Lindas Caramel Covered Cheetos. I figured, since i ventured that far into the darkside it didn't matter anymore.

I shared this before but years ago I heard about a demonstration showing the artery clogging properties of margarine over butter. They smeared margarine all over one leg of a pair of pantyhose and coated the other with butter. They then poured water into both legs like some big sick water ballon. The water poured through the buttered side but stayed put in the margarine side. I never saw the demonstration but I was quite influenced by the story. I havn't knowingly eaten margarine since- until the cheetos...

michaelp

Other than for butter in baking I use very little fat in my cooking. We use butter on toast, dinner rolls or vegetables but only on special occasions. Otherwise we use the spray margarine. For sauteeing I use the cooking sprays for the most part. Maybe a tiny bit of olive oil. I have to watch calories very carefully. There is sometimes margarine in the house but I've noticed a tub of margarine lasts so long I toss it after a few months. Not sure why I buy it! We don't like the taste. Note to self: leave the margarine at the store. I might try Brommel and Brown.

Butter for baking is a given. I don't own a can of Crisco. I had one once that I kept in the frig and used just for greasing baking pans but I've switched to Baker's Joy or parchment.

I posted this before, but I thought it was applicable here too. I make a take off on Adele Davis' recipe called "Better Butter." She was a nutritionist from the 60s & 70s -- one of the first health food advocates. I make it for several reasons: First of all, it helps me regulate the salt content. Although butter is no longer the cholesterol culprit it once was, cutting it with a "heart healthy" oil is a good idea. This recipe allows you to spread the butter when you take it out of the fridge. And, the combo of butter & oil makes it good for cooking & light sauteing. Finally, nothing beats the taste of butter, so this satisfies without having any guilt.

Better Butter Spread

1 pound butter
1 cup light flavored oil

Let butter come to room temperature & whip. Slowly add oil until all is incorporated. Pack into container & refrigerate.

Notes: For salt free spread, use unsalted butter. For lightly salted spread, use 2 cubes unsalted butter & 2 cubes salted butter. For barely salted spread, use 3 cubes unsalted butter & 1 cube salted butter.

I usually put the butter in the microwave for a few seconds until softened, not melted. Then I whip with a fork & add the oil gradually. My son uses his KitchenAid mixer.

That chart is useful...the %-tages are useful, it puts the fats into perspective. For example, the fat in stick butter is 60% saturated, 26% monounsaturated, and 5% polyunsaturated and then 5% naturally occuring trans fat. Basically, the recommendation is to eat as little trans fat as possible, and then of the 30-35% of yout total calories that you can eat from fats each day, no more than 7% should be saturated. Basically, you want to choose your saturated fats wisely.

So, in 1 TBSP of stick butter, there are 11 grams of fat, 7 of it are saturated (bad fat), and the remaining 3 grams (27 calories) are largely monounsaturated (good fat), and very tiny amounts will be trans (worst kind of fat) and polyunsat. fats (good fat).

The key is portion control and personal choice. If you like the taste of butter, use small amounts of butter. A TBSP is really a large serving of butter to put on toast, 1 tsp is fine.

Use butter in baking, but bake less often, or eat less of what you make and give some away!

Use canola and olive oils for cooking and eating (salad dressing, etc.)

I love the recipe for Adele Davis's "better butter", it's like the Land O' Lakes spreadable butter with canola oil that we use for spreading & eating in my family. It's still all fat, but better fat -- of the 11 grams of fat per TBSP, 4.5 are saturated, 5 are monounsaturated, 1.5 is polyunsaturated, and there is just a tiny trace of trans fat, way less than .5 grams per serving but I don't have a calculator on me right now! This product tastes great and is always soft. There is even a light version, but I don't like that one as much.

For baking, I always use Land O' Lakes unsalted stick butter. I think it has the freshest butter taste.

Some of the plant stanol ester spreads, like Benecol, are useful for people who want to do everything they can, diet-wise, to lower their LDL (bad) cholesterol and raise their HDL (good cholesterol) through use of plant sterols.

Here is a link that might be useful: Benecol spread

When I make Christmas cookies, I buy Plugra (Danish butter) because it's got a higher fat content. Heck,it's only once a year. I have a bread recipe that calls for "Fleishman's margarine, no substitutes."

For me dealing with butter or buttery spreads is a no-win situation. My husband needs to limit cholesterol AND salt intake. After so many years of warnings about butter, it's hard to just go ahead and use it guilt-free. But using low fat spreads or even the "heart healthy" spreads like Smart Balance & Benecol are problematic because of the high salt content. I suspect all the low fat spreads are super salty in order to disguise the many added chemicals. That's why I make up my own low salt buttery spread. Saffola sells unsalted stick margarine, but it's beyond blah tasting. Since margarine is no longer considered healthier than butter, I'd rather use unsalted butter sticks. Luckily, I don't bake much, just oatmeal scones & bran muffins, and only the scone recipe calls for butter.

I've never overreacted to the warnings about animal fats. Haven't people eaten these for centuries. It's all this modern plastic food that we don't know anything about and a lot of propaganda without proof anywhere. Now the pendulum is swinging the other way. We've always preferred butter at our house, didn't care what anyone said. When the recipes call for margarine, I just skip that word and use butter or olive oil.

I use unsalted butter for baking and cooking. Unless a recipe specifically asks for salted... I keep one pound of salted on hand and two of unsalted as a general rule. I usually get the store brand. I use I Can't Believe for spreading because it's so much easier than regular butter.

Until my husband's heart attack of a month ago, we had both butter and margarine in the house. Margarine was mostly for spreading on bread; butter was for baking and cooking. AAMOF, my mother found real butter on sale in Phoenix for $1/lb before Christmas and brought us 5 lbs of it. Now it's still in the freezer. Hubby has been told to limit the butter.

Thank you to the person who posted the spread containing butter and oil. I will give that a try for DH. He prefers butter to the yucky greasy stuff that Country Crock and Blue Bonnet in the tub has become. We hadn't yet crossed over to the AHA recommended stuff yet.

DonnaR/CA

Oh, yes. It's always unsalted butter that I use.

1. When the recipe calls for butter, do you use butter, a reduced amount, a substitute, just leave it out or not use the recipe at all?
A-I use butter where it's called for.

2. Do you have certain recipes where you absolutely, positively would never leave the butter out such as pies, alfredo sauce or whatever?
A-Not really. I use butter when it's called for.

3. If you're using butter, what is your favorite brand? Do you use salted or unsalted?
A-I buy the store brand butter...or whichever is cheaper/on sale. Unsalted only.

4. If you're using a substitute, what do you use?
A-I don't use substitutes in general. Unnsalted butter is what I buy and use 99% of the time. I will use margarine for some cookie recipes...only if I want to keep the cookie softer. That's the only thing I'll use margarine for.

5. Add any comments you like regarding your use of butter in cooking.
A- Not really. See #4 for my exception. Otherwise, it's unsalted butter.

I'll frequently substitute olive oil for the butter.

I always buy salted butter.

My advice?

As Julia Child says...

If you're afraid of butter, use heavy cream!

I just read this thread for the first time since I posted, and I noticed that I accidentally cut part of my response off. What I meant to say, in response to question #2, was that my toffee recipe requires unsalted butter and there can be no substitutes. There are quite a few candy recipe that require butter and would be disasters if anything is substituted. I think candy and some cookies are the most sensitive to butter substitutions, but especially candy that is cooked with sugar to a specific temperature.

Lars

DonnaR/CA, the taste of Smart Balance ( regular not Lite ), in my opinion, is very close to the taste of butter... ( could be the salt in it )... Although I haven't tried Shambos 'recipe' of half oil and half butter yet...

gayle0000, for softer cookies, when using butter, add a little water... For a full batch of chocolate chip cookies I use a tablespoon of water... (Well, WHEN I could make cookies. )

Rita