Margarine
Margarine (/ˈmɑːrdʒəriːn/, also UK: /ˈmɑːrɡə-,ˌmɑːrɡəˈriːn,ˌmɑːrdʒə-/ , US: /ˈmɑːrdʒərɪn/ (listen)
)[1] is a spread used for flavoring, baking and cooking. It is most often used as a substitute for butter. Although originally made from animal fats, most margarine consumed today is made from vegetable oil. The foodstuff was originally named oleomargarine from Latin for oleum (olive oil) and Greek margarite (pearl indicating luster). The name was later shortened to margarine.[2]
Margarine may be chosen for a number of reasons including lower cost, ease of availability, a perception (primarily relevant for vegetable-based margarines) that it is healthier than butter, a desire to avoid consuming animal-based products (of particular concern for vegans and also based on the assumption that the margarine is vegetable-based) and/or a simple personal preference to butter and/or other spreads on account of taste.
Butter is made from the butterfat of milk, whereas modern margarine is made mainly of refined vegetable oil and water.[citation needed] In some places in the United States, it is colloquially referred to as oleo, short for oleomargarine.[3] In Britain and Australia, it can be referred to colloquially as marge.[4] Margarine consists of a water-in-fat emulsion, with tiny droplets of water dispersed uniformly throughout a fat phase in a stable solid form.[5] In some US jurisdictions, margarine must have a minimum fat content of 80 percent (with a maximum of 16% water) to be labelled as such, the same as butter.[6] Colloquially in the United States, the term margarine is used to describe "non-dairy spreads" with varying fat contents.[6][7]
Due to its versatility, margarine can be used as an ingredient in other food products, such as pastries, doughnuts, cakes and cookies.[8]
First made in France in 1869, it was created by Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès in response to a challenge by Emperor Napoleon III to create a butter substitute from beef tallow for the armed forces and lower classes.[2]
Margarine originated with the discovery by French chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul in 1813 of margaric acid (itself named after the pearly deposits of the fatty acid from Greek μαργαρίτης or μάργαρον (margaritēs / márgaron), meaning pearl-oyster or pearl,[9] or μαργαρίς (margarís), meaning palm-tree, hence the relevance to palmitic acid).[10] Scientists at the time regarded margaric acid, like oleic acid and stearic acid, as one of the three fatty acids that, in combination, form most animal fats. In 1853, the German structural chemist Wilhelm Heinrich Heintz analyzed margaric acid as simply a combination of stearic acid and the previously unknown palmitic acid.[11]
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