Margarine in the old days
Until about the late forties or early fifties if you bought a pound of margarine it was pure white. Inside the package was a little packet of yellow food coloring that you had to mix in the margarine to make it the familiar yellow color. It all had to do with the food laws about what could be put into foods. But they were allowed to include the coloring along with the margarine--just not already mixed in. How crazy!
It was quite a chore , not to mention messy, to get the coloring mixed in evenly so that the margarine was all one color without streaks in it. Many times I just used the margarine as it was and didn't bother with the color. It was not as pleasant to eat white spread on your bread instead of yellow. It didn't matter if you used it white to cook with.
I guess people complained so much that soon the law was changed so that the coloring was mixed in before the sale of the margarine . What a nice change! It was nice to see yellow spread when you opened the package. The white margarine made you think you were using shortening!
I think that is why my Mother always had real butter on her table when I was a kid. Also, we usually had a cow so we had our own milk and butter. In later years she didn't have a cow and she did switch to margarine because it was cheaper than butter. It was all a matter of what your eyes tell you about a food when you eat it and the white spread told you it was shortening--not butter!
posted by kyra lafain @ 8/03/2008 12:30:00 PM
2 Comments:
Kyra,
I am to young to remember that stuff from the old days!
Kyra...you have taught me yet another thing I did not know! I love the internet...your posts are like getting to visit with you a little each day. Keep 'em comin!
Love ya...nh
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