The Lemon Fool

This has been puzzling me for a while.

I've assumed that the fat removed to make skimmed milk is a feedstock for butter, so it's essentially a free ingredient for the producer.

I still have in my mind the price point of about £0.75 for a pat of butter not the £1.50 it currently sells for.

Regards,

B.

PrincessB wrote:This has been puzzling me for a while.

It puzzles me as well. There has been no parallel increase in the price or milk or other milk based products such as yoghurt or cheese. Whilst no so long ago, "premium" brands of butter sold for £ 1.40 or £ 1.50, with the own label brands at around £ 1.00 or less, it's now £ 2.00 for brands and £ 1.50 for supermarket labelled.

Perhaps because the EU butter mountain has melted.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -to-linger
(behind a paywall but you get the idea)

Wine Lake next?

--kiloran

PrincessB wrote:This has been puzzling me for a while.

I've assumed that the fat removed to make skimmed milk is a feedstock for butter, so it's essentially a free ingredient for the producer.

I still have in my mind the price point of about £0.75 for a pat of butter not the £1.50 it currently sells for.

Regards,

B.

I don't know why the price of butter has risen but the fat required to make butter certainly isn't a free by-product. From the farmer's point of view producing fat is expensive because of the food the cow consumes to produce it. Many modern cattle breeds are produced to make a low butterfat milk for that reason.

RC

I haven't bought any butter for several decades so I have never noticed the price, but I have been wondering for some time, why cheese is so dear.

dp

scottnsilky wrote:I haven't bought any butter for several decades so I have never noticed the price, but I have been wondering for some time, why cheese is so dear.

dp

Apart from other production costs, it takes about 10 litres of milk to produce 1kg of a hard cheese like cheddar.

RC

ReformedCharacter wrote:

scottnsilky wrote:I haven't bought any butter for several decades so I have never noticed the price, but I have been wondering for some time, why cheese is so dear.

dp

Apart from other production costs, it takes about 10 litres of milk to produce 1kg of a hard cheese like cheddar.

RC

and then it needs to sit and mature - so its a long ROI in effect.

There was a recent R4 food program, or kitchen cupboard, that talked about cheese in depth - it may still be available on iplayer?

didds

We use an Olive spread, in the hope that it is healthier. I think it costs about 85p for a 500g tub.

richfool wrote:We use an Olive spread, in the hope that it is healthier. I think it costs about 85p for a 500g tub.

Is it healthier?

If so, we should switch.

neversay wrote:

richfool wrote:We use an Olive spread, in the hope that it is healthier. I think it costs about 85p for a 500g tub.

Is it healthier?

If so, we should switch.

I am still not sure on the answer to that. It sounds like butter is healthier than margarine, but I am not clear on whether the Olive Oil spreads are margarines with olive oil, or something else.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitn ... healthier/

It seems that Olive Oil is better for cooking, but you can't really spread neat olive oil on your bread.

https://ancestral-nutrition.com/which-i ... ive-oil-2/

The high price of butter was predicted 3 years ago ,due to fewer dairy herds as farmers quit as a result of a fall in milk prices, although wholesale prices rose around Europe due to a shortage of milk and cream.

We don't buy butter but perhaps the higher cost is due to the hot summer and supermarkets have protected us from a rise in the cost of milk?

richfool wrote:It seems that Olive Oil is better for cooking, but you can't really spread neat olive oil on your bread.

You don't spread it, you dip the bread in the oil!

UncleEbenezer wrote:

richfool wrote:It seems that Olive Oil is better for cooking, but you can't really spread neat olive oil on your bread.

You don't spread it, you dip the bread in the oil!

With some balsamic vinegar.

jfgw wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:

richfool wrote:It seems that Olive Oil is better for cooking, but you can't really spread neat olive oil on your bread.

You don't spread it, you dip the bread in the oil!

With some balsamic vinegar.

Can I still then use marmalade?

jfgw wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:

richfool wrote:It seems that Olive Oil is better for cooking, but you can't really spread neat olive oil on your bread.

You don't spread it, you dip the bread in the oil!

With some balsamic vinegar.

Erm, are you confusing bread with salad there?

richfool wrote:

jfgw wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:You don't spread it, you dip the bread in the oil!

With some balsamic vinegar.

Can I still then use marmalade?

Feel free to do what you want. Don't let anyone try to stop you if that is what you want to do.