h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have to say that I would rather have dry bread than put margarine on it. Even the smell puts me off, let alone the alleged 'taste'.

Unfortunately, my medical history means that I actually have to put this into practice when I have a sandwich. I ration myself to one buttered slice of )fresh) bread per week. Haaa!!! Bliss!

Personally, I can't tell the difference.

Then there must be something wrong with your tastebuds because the difference is very noticeable when you put it on toast or fresh bread!!
I have a very fussy partner who moans like mad if I put margarine on his bread,I've tried buying the 'tastes like butter' type but he can still tell the difference. I personally compromise by using butter for my toast and margarine for sandwiches and cooking (unless I'm cooking fish which NEEDS butter...nothing else will do!! Butter is definately the best!!

Fresh bread? What is that like before it gets hard?

You have to forgive me, I was raised by a bachelor.

Hmmmm... agree about butter! Nothing better on boiled new potatoes! When I'm having a weight-watching moment, I find that putting a little butter on one side of my sandwich and leaving the other dry is a good alternative to resorting to margarine; you can spread it thin and not lose much flavour. I find letting it warm up a bit before you spread helps too, as you can spread it more thinly.... I'm possibly getting far too excited about this.

I grew up in a family where margarine was used on sandwiches and butter was used on everything else. That was back in the good old days when butter prices were subsidised to keep them low. When I left home and had to buy my own food, I dumped butter in favour of margarine, purely on cost. Not that I used much of either. My husband grew up in a family that mostly used margarine, so that is what we now do. I occasionally have butter on jacket potatoes or new potatoes. I recently tried butter thickly spread on toast, which I used to love. The taste was far too rich, as I'd got used to margarine.

i grew up on margerine, and i find that it tastes much better. Butter just tastes like your arteries are clogging with each bite. It is just too rich. I supose, all things else the same, that would make butter better, due to the fact that a little bit would go a long way, but it is impossible to spread it thin enough to reduce the strong cloying, flavor.

People who prefer the chemical taste of margarine to butter are insane.

Butter definitely has the taste of fat. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; just be prepared to get a big mouthful of fat when you bite into a piece of buttered toast. (Yum!)

What I think is odd is the use of butter or margarine as a sandwich spread. For me it's mustard usually, mayonnaise occasionally.

I agree whole-heartedly with my very good friend
Jewel Of The Nile....although I hadnt
realized that she had such firm & considered
ideas on the subject...Hmmmmmmm! Utterly Butterly!!

I'm not suprised to hear in this article about the possible dangers of eating margarine. I won't touch the stuff. It seems to me common sense that natural foods and a sensible diet are bound to be better for you than eating manufactured chemicals. After all people have been living on what comes from the land for eons, only recently has everyone started eating bucket-loads of force-marketed junkfood and even with people living to an older age, they are dying of all kinds of strange conditions beyond heart disease and cancer encouraged by poor diets.

For taste the supermarket butter in North America tastes less like butter than margarine (or not taste of much) unless you buy organic brands.

Why would one worry about the effects of eating butter over hydrogenated oils? Fat is required as part of a normal diet, just like anything else too much is bad. How many pounds of butter a week does someone have to eat to worry about this? I would imagine a sandwich made of two slices of bread and half a pound of butter would be a problem, but a little touch here and there? If you want to eat oil, use real unadulterated or processed oil - Olive oil is pretty good stuff.

A pound of butter lasts us a couple of weeks - it has a flavour so you use it for that purpose as a spread or ingredient rather than gobbling it in fist sized lumps.

I have the same opinion about artificial sweetners - How many coffees, teas would you have to drink to consume the same number of calories as eating one serving of junk hamburgers or packaged "cream" pies - The caffeine would kill you first. Sugar is a nutrient, those other chemicals at best do nothing.

Ideally,soft,white and light texured on the inside,and crusty and that lovely dark brown shade just before it starts to burn on the outside.And preferably still warm so the butter starts to melt when you spread it......mmmmmmmmmm
Nearly as good as sex!

A nice trick is to put it back in again - The toaster that is - to really melt the butter and cook it well.

I was raised on magarine, and my first taste of butter was visiting my grandmother's. It was unusual and uncommon to be there as she lived half a continent away. She would only make butter once, and then freeze it for the year. Defrosted butter is vile, so for many years, I never tried butter again, alas. Couldn't get me to eat margarine, now.

Currently, the Unitedstatian supermarkets are selling 'European-style' butter, which apparently is butter without as much water. It is definitely more delicately melting and richly flavored than the commonly available butters.

Possibly this is the butter made from sweet cream; I suspect the butter that we get in supermarkets is of the second variety - renovated butter.

Guess something like that - Just like cheese it makes a huge difference what milk you use - The type of cow, what it eats and the time when the milk is taken.

I remember when we moved to Canada from Britain first trying supermarket "Cheddar". Rather than tasting like Cheddar it was a rubbery sort of thing with next to no taste and coloured orangish. Cheddar is a bit crumbly and has a distinctive strong taste. Much the way "butter" and "butter" seem to be different.

I've found when I'm buying cheese that I prefer the Kraft 'sharp' cheddar. Most cheese in the States (and probably Canada too, although I've never been there) is of the mild longhorn cheddar variety. This comes in various grades, from moderately tolerable to my God, this is disgusting.

Hmmm... favorite kinds of cheese:
• mozzarella
• sharp cheddar
• swiss cheese

That Kraft stuff is what I would call the supermarket variety, not to say it is bad - I like it too. Mozzarella - this is a fresh, soft cheese it is sold kind of like feta cheese - ie. a lump you take out of the water and use - It is delicious with a slice of it on top of a slice of fresh tomato topped with a basil leaf and dribble of olive oil. Supermarket Mozzarella I think is the same stuff as the cheddar with less orange colouring and less flavouring ingredients.

I love Swiss cheese too. There are many types. I like Gruyere as a staple - good for toasting. Again this comes from Switzerland, and the local factory chain will not produce a reasonable facsimile. Emmental is sold here - there are brands from Hungary that are not bad and the Canadian brand found in cheese shops is pretty good here too.

As you can tell I like cheese - I should write an entry if it has not been overdone. My favourite cheeses, varying on mood are: Epoisses, Camembert, Gruyere, Roquefort, Stilton, Ste. Maure, Pont Levesque, Wensleydale and the Bulgarian Sheep's milk Feta that the local Lebanese bakery sells. I hover around cheese shops like a vulture buying cheeses I haven't tried - Sometime you love 'em sometimes you don't.

It is heaven to have a nice aged (ie a bit moldy) soft goat cheese or a really ripe runny French Epoisses or a mature Camembert with a fresh baguete and a bottle of wine. Or as an Englishman, some crackers with cheddar or stilton make a perfect supper with pickles and beer of course.

And.. yogourt. Get good milk and it's great. It is also really easy to make if you have a good starter, ie a spoonful of genuine yogourt that isn't thickened with gelatine, seaweed jelly or whatever.
Remember when you have a good cheese, let it warm up to room temperature before eating it.

Yum... you're making me hungry!

Yes, you should definitely write an article on cheese - sound like you're an authority. I've never had Stilton, and I've always been curious - is it like cream cheese, or more like blue cheese?

Stilton is delicious. The kind usually sold is "Blue Stilton" - ie blue cheese. It is a little like Roquefort I suppose, but is is made of cow rather than sheep milk. It is kind of creamy and tangy, not as harsh as Danish blue cheese. It is the thing to eat with a glass of vintage port - These two things were made for each other - believe me.

Stilton is imported to N. America from England. It is easy to find here in Ottawa, Canada. I would think in the US most places should have it.

I once bought an orange and stilton cheese. A company in England makes it as a sweet desert cheese. It would be good for cocktails (like mini cheesecakes) - I didn't really like it - it is made of white stilton and oranges. I would rather stick to a good chunk of blue stilton and a glass of good port - to hell with the oranges.

Another good Northern English cheese is Wensleydale (from the Yorkshire Dales - ie Wensleydale). This is the cheese that Wallace and Gromit (ref. Nick Park - Chicken Run movie) seeme to have the soft spot for. The best is the real farm variety left to age in a Yorkshire farm, but you won't get it so easily outside of the Dales. They import the UK supermarket varieties here, and it's ok but a little bland. A very crumbly white tangy cheese - it is very similar to supermarket Caerphilly if you find that instead.

Cheese heaven is France, everywhere has a special cheese. Some of my French friends think that the English can't make cheese - they are rather different styles usually. This is like I heard from a German friend who think Belgians can't make beer - such words would mean war or certain death as Belgium is also beer heaven.

In the south of France they have some really nice goat cheeses. I bought one on a trip around Europe. It sat in my luggage for a few days, and even with 5 plastic bags around it stunk up the plane through the overhead bin. It was good.