Changing lifestyles have always influenced the approach to nutrition. Values and/or intimacy associated with the foods we as a society eat, have largely been washed away by a desire for easier and less time consuming preparations. We have traded in our "larder" for refrigerators and keep foods for lengths of time unimaginable 75 years ago. What we eat these days is unfortunately based on convenience. Inherently, ready-to-eat foods are what we"ll reach for when we feel the need to "fill the gap". Aspartame, monosodium glutamate, synthesized vitamins, and a host of preservatives are present in these foods to extend shelf life, increase flavour, suggest healthfulness, and increase the saleability to the demographics. With the trend of local, organic, and natural foods, now is the time to get back to basics by incorporating a fundamental nutritional building block - a staple in every professional cook's kitchen at home and at work - butter.
Compared to margarine, butter serves more as an icon of a nation that sustains the family farm and the related values of this lifestyle. Certainly not as lucrative as margarine, butter is a simple natural product made from cream to which salt is often added for it's preservative qualities. The cream is pasteurized and churned or shaken until it becomes semi-solid, at which point the buttermilk is separated. Fifteen to twenty percent of butter is milk solids and salt, held in an emulsion by naturally present lecithin, which also assists in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins. Because of the presence of milk solids, butter has a refrigerated shelf life of up to one month, or at room temperature for a few hours. Slightly warmed butter is unmatched as a spread for flavour, but also for its naturally present unprocessed vitamins and other qualities. The most easily absorbed source of vitamin A (anti-oxidant essential to the thyroid and adrenal glands) is butter.