In America today we are asking what is to
become of us if we cannot have butter to eat! Such are the fashions in
food. "June butter" is one of our gastronomic traditions. The sample in
the restaurant may have none of the firm creamy texture and delicate
aromatic flavor of the product of the old spring house; but as long as it
is labeled butter we try to bring our sensations into line with our
imaginations. For the real butter flavor there is no more a substitute
than there is for the aroma of coffee. But these are matters of esthetic
pleasure rather than of nutrition. They depend largely upon habit. Whale
blubber and seal oil are as much appreciated in some quarters as butter is
by us. An American going inland from the Atlantic coast is often surprised
to find that olive oil, instead, of being served on every table, is
exceedingly disliked.
For the sustenance of the body we must recognize that fat is fat, whatever
its flavor. A calorie from butter yields neither more nor less energy than
a calorie from lard or bacon, olive oil or cottonseed oil. The common food
fats are all very well digested if judiciously used--not in too large
quantities, nor over-heated in cooking, and not "cooked into" things too
much as in pastries, rich sauces, and fried foods.
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