To my mind, it already does. That’s right; you’ll never find me pitching my tent in the margarine camp. I will never use “You can Tell It’s Not Butter” when cooking scrambled eggs or baking cinnamon buns. I even like butter with my peanut butter and if that’s not diehard fan, what is? To be fair, I have given the opposition a fair shake. I have tested the relative merits of avocado versus olive oil margarine (can’t tell the difference) and just to be perverse, prefer mayo on my baked potatoes but welcoming any butter substitute into my life on a long term basis is just not going to happen. My debate is more along the lines of which butter rules them all.
I grew up in Ireland, well versed in and fattened by the outstanding grass fed butter that is, as far as I’m concerned, the Holy Grail of butter. Canadian butter, while tasty, is but a pale shadow in comparison and, rumour has it, also contains its fair share of antibiotics and other unmentionables. American butter, subject to different regulations, is supposedly even worse.
What is the real difference? Grass as opposed to grain feeding. You know those fifty shades of green that represent the fields of Eire, well they add up to create one heck of a cow. One heck of a cow produces a European-style butter with a higher butterfat content which translates into stronger flavoured, richer and creamier butter. Richer and creamier can’t be all bad, now can it?
Except from certain stand points, and I’m not talking arteries here, it can. The doyenne of Irish butter is Kerrygold and as a result of curmudgeonly Canadian dairy farmers and an aggressive dairy marketing board, it is not available in Canada. While it is possible to bribe friends to smuggle it across the border, a quick check on Amazon reveals that it retails for $35 a pound plus shipping and is currently out of stock. It’s also true that a trip down south to purchase it cheaper will end up costing a whole lot more than the already over blown $35. As a result, richer and creamier butter no longer lives on my fridge shelves.
Don’t get me wrong. I support Canadian dairy farmers despite their blockage of my favourite butter. I don’t take it personally that their marketing board charges more for milk in impoverished but dairy-rich Nova Scotia than they do in wealthy Beef Rules Alberta. They charge what the market will bear, the local rep informs me, happily cheating milk buying Nova Scotians out of every last dime. For that reason I am not a supporter of NAFTA, believing that any trade deal signed with the US screws Canada sideways but this time around, with negotiations having handed the dairy farmers another bum deal, I can’t help hoping that the borders will be opened a crack wider. Is it possible that the occasional block of Kerrygold richer and creamier butter will filter through and rule my world again? Sure do hope so.
Clo Carey 09/11/18
Photo credit: Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
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Teetering on the Edge 