I had a friend whose favorite expression was "well, butter my buns and call me a biscuit." It sounds dirty, but when you think about it, it isn’t. Not too dirty, anyway.
In our much-younger days, I used to buy margarine instead of butter, and discovered (a) it tastes worse and (b) butter isn’t that much more expensive. And when I learned that margarine was all trans fats, I decided that, in the long run, we were better off having butter.
Mom was seven when World War II broke out, and she said you couldn’t buy butter, which they were told was all being sent overseas for the troops fighting. She said that margarine was white and came with a packet of what was essentially food coloring that you could blend into the margarine to make it look like butter. Sounds even more gross than margarine already is.
They had to substitute for coffee then, too, usually with chicory. I’ve never tasted it, but it’s supposedly a reasonable facsimile of the real thing. When all the men came home from overseas, I guess they preferred instant coffee to ground coffee, because that’s what they had in their rations. If that’s the case, why did they advertise that a brand of instant was more like fresh-brewed, if instant was superior, at least to their taste buds?
Stream of Consciousness Saturday is brought to you each week by Linda Hill and this station. Now here are Señor Wences and Johnny for Parkay margarine.
You’re absolutely right – butter is better for you! And that photo looks like it’s of the best brand we’ve found – Kerry Gold Pure Irish Grassfed Butter!! Yummmmmm.
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Another thing is sugar: it’s better for you than corn syrup or any of the sugar substitutes, except maybe Stevia. The real stuff is always better than the fake stuff.
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There are 60 some words for added sugar, it’s the hidden toxic enemy in our food that causes diabetes, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, etc. Naturally occurring fructose in fruits, veggies, and honey is good for us. The processed white stuff, not so much, the less we consume of it the better we’ll all be. (IMHO) ;-).
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I love butter and slather it on! I used to have margarine when it was the fad to say butter was not good for you but then, after a while, and being told by my naturalist, I realized butter is better. I cook with it and every morning, I have toast with butter and honey..yummy!!Oh how I remember that commercial and loved the Senor. I loved the other bits people posted. The Vicar one is funny and my dad bought the cafe o’Lait tins.
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Interesting info. I remember reading about about yellow food coloring for margarine and thinking those people were really eating shortening … something like Crisco. Yuck anyway you slice it. Nothing beats the taste of real butter. I remember getting the fresh churned stuff when we visited my Grandma.
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Now that you mention it, yeah, they were. I’ve never had the fresh-churned stuff.
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LOL those commercials.
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They were clever, I must say.
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Thanks for sharing the Parkay commercial. Butter’s where it’s at!
That’s interesting about the coffee rations. Is that what brought instant coffee to Americans? When I was a teacher I drank those instant coffees all day every day, the International ones, can’t recall the names, but a small tin and I loved Vienna. I wouldn’t choose it over fresh brewed, but I loved it anyway.
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Instant coffee has been around since the Civil War, but got really popular during the World Wars because it was included in the GI’s meal packages, and a lot of guys just preferred it when they got home.
You’re thinking of General Foods International Coffee, of course. Suisse Mocha, Cafe Vienna, and Cafe Francais (originally Cafe au Lait). It looks like they added capuccino after a while. Carol Lawrence used to do the commercials…
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Thank you! Yes, Cafe Vienna, that was my jam 😛
Since the Civil War! Wow, I would never have guessed that!
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I don’t like butter or margarine and my hubby doesn’t understand why I don’t like it. Frankly, neither do I. Oh, well.
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I don’t really use it on everything. Rolls from O’Charley’s and the Pillsbury rolls (crescents and biscuits).
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😉
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My dad was from Wisconsin and had a thing for butter. They did use “I Cant Believe it’s Not Butter” for a while, because it seemed like it was supposed to be healthier, lower in fat maybe? He always enjoyed real butter.
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I think it’s lower in fat and that it spreads a little more smoothly.
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You do know there is a book, “Butter My Butt and Call Me a Biscuit, and other Country Sayings, Say-Sos, Hoots, and Hollers,” by Allan Zullo and Gene Cheek ❤ Happy Saturday, Mr. John ❤ Hope you are well 😉
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Sounds like a name of a book by Lewis Grizzard or Ludlow Porch…
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I used to love watching that commercial, John. It’s funny how there are some commercials (mostly in the past) that I enjoyed watching and some today where I can’t hit the mute button fast enough. We have always been a butter family.
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Butter is really much better than margarine for a lot of reasons.
I can’t get enough of the old commercials. That’s one reason I add them to some posts: I just like seeing them again.
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I’m glad you do. You find done great ones.
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The margarine and food color sounds a bit repulsive. We churned out own butter at my grandmother’s when we had fresh milk from the cows.
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I bet a lot of people just threw the packet away. I take it you used one of the old-fashioned butter churns?
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Very old fashioned.
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Hi John
Nice memory with that funny “nuts” phrase
And grass fed butter is a gift!
And my husband does health coaching part time and he had three things he calls the unholy trinity – the first two are sugars and grains and the third are the industrial oils! And right now vegetable oils and canola oils are puking from people’s health and years ago it was more the fake butter and margarines – and still sadly used a lot because there is still lies about butter and other good fats!
Anyhow / liked the brief history with WWII tidbits too / and I remember the Parkay commercials so well
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Rich Little had a TV show back in the ’70’s and they would do sketches. There was one where they had a Spanish funeral home, and the director shows a woman her husband’s casket. She starts crying and saying, “Antonio, por que? Por que?” and the lid of the casket opens up and it says “butter.” Needless to say, I found that more than a little amusing. Then, not long after that, they did an actual Spanish-language commercial….
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🙂
hahahah
that sounds like a very clever commercial –
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I knew about the butter/ dairy scarcity during WW2 but not about the yellow food colouring to be added to the white margarine. Quite bizarre really, but no more bizarre than eating ready made yellow margarine aka exactly what we buy off the shelves these days
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I didn’t know that either. OMG the food color, really and white margarine. It really was like eating a mouthful of fat. ewwwww…Another bit of trivia to store away in my useless bank of trivia 😉 Happy weekend…
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The color didn’t improve the taste at all, but (allegedly) made it look better and more like the real thing.
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I’m a big fan of butter, and love that phrase
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There is also a title of book using that phrase…”Butter My Butt and Call Me a Biscuit, And other Country Sayings, Say-Sos, Hoots, and Hollers.” Allan Zullo and Gene Cheek, Authors 😉
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That’s great!
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Butter on homemade bread is one of life’s greatest simple pleasures.
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My grandma’s signature recipe called for Oleo, and I never did get it to taste right with butter. But I’m happy to be back to butter.
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What’s it a recipe for? You might be able to replace it with vegetable oil, which is what margarine is, basically.
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Lace cookies. I never thought of vegetable oil. I might have to make a test batch
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