This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...
To find out more...
Butter doesn't make you fat, unless you eat too much of it.
Whenever I'm discussing cooking and recipes, there is one idea which comes up frequently, like this: "Oh no! But that's got butter in it" (I should add, for the sake of accuracy, that this is something I hear more frequently from women, who are almost all concerned with keeping their figure).
This immediately gives me the impression that butter is THE ingredient that should be banished from the kitchen, and it has been banned in a lot of so-called "healthy cooking" or "slimming" recipes, often being replaced by oil, preferably olive.
This immediately gives me the impression that butter is THE ingredient that should be banished from the kitchen, and it has been banned in a lot of so-called "healthy cooking" or "slimming" recipes, often being replaced by oil, preferably olive.
46 K 4.5/5 (22 reviews)
Keywords for this post:ButterDietWeightFatHealthVitaminLast modified on: March 26th 2012
Butter doesn't make you fat, unless you eat too much of it.
Whenever I'm discussing cooking and recipes, there is one idea which comes up frequently, like this: "Oh no! But that's got butter in it" (I should add, for the sake of accuracy, that this is something I hear more frequently from women, who are almost all concerned with keeping their figure).
This immediately gives me the impression that butter is THE ingredient that should be banished from the kitchen, and it has been banned in a lot of so-called "healthy cooking" or "slimming" recipes, often being replaced by oil, preferably olive.
As I am a fan of olive oil – I use it every day – that suits me fine, but I'm not ready to abandon butter under the pretext that because it is fat, it makes you put on weight.
Allow me then to list a few of the benefits of butter, apart from its nutritional qualities (notably Vitamin A), as its disadvantages are well known:
- Butter contains around 80% fat ; if that seems like a huge amount and you prefer the idea of oil, remember that oil is 100% fat!
- Great chefs often say, quite rightly, that butter "fixes" flavours. So adding a small amount of butter, even if it is not the main type of fat in the dish, will improve the overall flavour. Think of fresh garden peas, boiled quickly in salted water, with a knob of butter melted over them before serving – delicious!
- Butter can provide the fat needed for cooking, but in the process it adds its own subtle flavour, and this is closely tied to the quality of butter you use. It is true that this is also the case for olive oil, but not at all for sunflower or groundnut oil, which are fats with a neutral flavour.
- You will not put on any more weight through eating butter than any other fat; it's an excess of butter/fat which leads to weight gain.
- Butter can be eaten cold and can be used hot in cooking, but with certain precautions. It only becomes indigestible when burnt (ah – that awful outmoded recipe for ray with black butter).
- Without butter, there would be no French pâtisserie (cakes and pastries), or hardly any. Replacing butter with margarine does not make a good shortcrust pastry or good french croissants (for example).
But it's not just because I live in Brittany that I owe it to myself to stay faithful to butter. It is certainly true that using too much butter is neither good for the cooking nor for health, but – as in all things – it is an excess that is bad, and only an excess. If you are worried about your figure, then eat less, or only a little, but do eat the good, proper stuff.
So there is no need to deprive yourself of using butter in cooking, or take an extreme anti-butter stance, but just use it wisely. To all lovers of good food and enthusiastic cooks (like us), it is a precious ally.
I will close with a quotation attributed (allegedly) to Paul Bocuse. He was talking to an American food critic, who remarked on the quantity of butter he used in his cooking. The chef replied, "If you don't like butter or cream, there's really no point coming to France".
This immediately gives me the impression that butter is THE ingredient that should be banished from the kitchen, and it has been banned in a lot of so-called "healthy cooking" or "slimming" recipes, often being replaced by oil, preferably olive.
As I am a fan of olive oil – I use it every day – that suits me fine, but I'm not ready to abandon butter under the pretext that because it is fat, it makes you put on weight.
Allow me then to list a few of the benefits of butter, apart from its nutritional qualities (notably Vitamin A), as its disadvantages are well known:
- Butter contains around 80% fat ; if that seems like a huge amount and you prefer the idea of oil, remember that oil is 100% fat!
- Great chefs often say, quite rightly, that butter "fixes" flavours. So adding a small amount of butter, even if it is not the main type of fat in the dish, will improve the overall flavour. Think of fresh garden peas, boiled quickly in salted water, with a knob of butter melted over them before serving – delicious!
- Butter can provide the fat needed for cooking, but in the process it adds its own subtle flavour, and this is closely tied to the quality of butter you use. It is true that this is also the case for olive oil, but not at all for sunflower or groundnut oil, which are fats with a neutral flavour.
- You will not put on any more weight through eating butter than any other fat; it's an excess of butter/fat which leads to weight gain.
- Butter can be eaten cold and can be used hot in cooking, but with certain precautions. It only becomes indigestible when burnt (ah – that awful outmoded recipe for ray with black butter).
- Without butter, there would be no French pâtisserie (cakes and pastries), or hardly any. Replacing butter with margarine does not make a good shortcrust pastry or good french croissants (for example).
But it's not just because I live in Brittany that I owe it to myself to stay faithful to butter. It is certainly true that using too much butter is neither good for the cooking nor for health, but – as in all things – it is an excess that is bad, and only an excess. If you are worried about your figure, then eat less, or only a little, but do eat the good, proper stuff.
So there is no need to deprive yourself of using butter in cooking, or take an extreme anti-butter stance, but just use it wisely. To all lovers of good food and enthusiastic cooks (like us), it is a precious ally.
I will close with a quotation attributed (allegedly) to Paul Bocuse. He was talking to an American food critic, who remarked on the quantity of butter he used in his cooking. The chef replied, "If you don't like butter or cream, there's really no point coming to France".
Lasts posts
A tablet holder
Perhaps you too cook by consulting your recipe on a tablet or phone, and putting it down on your worktop? It's practical, but not the best solution. Here's a look at how you can make an inexpensive, almost universal stand.March 14th 20266105
Pre-calibrated pastry dough
When making pie dough (shortbread, shortcrust, sweet...), it's always a good idea to make a lot at once, and then divide it into pieces, which you can freeze. I've already pointed out the mistake not to make, which is to form a ball before freezing. It's difficult to roll out afterwards because...March 9th 20268845
Butter vs. grease
We often read in a recipe where a pastry is put into a mould that, just before pouring, the mould should be buttered or greased. But what's the difference between these 2 terms?December 1st 20252,9655
Getting out of the fridge early
Very often when you're cooking, you need to take food or preparations out of the fridge, to use them in the recipe in progress. There's nothing tricky about this: you just take them out of the fridge and use them, usually immediately, in the recipe. But is this really a good method?November 24th 20251,9225
Who's making the croissants?
When you look at a bakery from the outside, you naturally think that in the bakery, the bakers make the bread, and in the laboratory, the pastry chefs make the cakes. It's very often like that, with each of these professions having quite different ways of working, but sometimes there's also one...November 23th 20251,749
Other pages you may also like
Should I believe my oven?
Can you really trust your oven? This is an important question as we are always tempted to take the temperature indicated as gospel truth and, unfortunately, this is rarely very precise. .July 4th 201133 K4.6
How to zest a fruit?
You will have no doubt noticed that many recipes call for the zest of citrus fruit. The zest is that outer layer of the skin which adds so much flavour to a dish. There are many different ways to peel off the zest and various tools are available. Here is a summary of the “dos and don'ts” of...November 5th 201348 K3.8
The golden-brown finish on puff pastry
Let's take a look at the tricky matter of producing puff pastry with an attractive, golden-brown finish. French pastry chefs call this "dorure" (literally, "gilding"). Behind this quirky term there lurks a real problem (and the solution): when using puff pastry (pâte feuilletée) for a pie, or...February 8th 201849 K 24.6
Cleaning endives
If you buy your endives elsewhere than in supermarkets, and in this case the best is of course from a market gardener, he or she is the one who planted and harvested them, in this case you will have endives full of earth or sand, depending on where they were grown, which is normal and reassuring, we...March 24th 202027 K4.6
Thermal inertia or "out of the fire"
When you're cooking, you need a lot of heat to cook, and most of the time it's on the fire, literally if you're on gas, more indirectly if you're not. An expression that comes up quite often is "Off the heat", but what does it really mean?December 12th 202011 K4.6
Post a comment or question
Follow this page
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.