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#116780 11/28/03 08:07 PM
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Everybody knows what butter is. You agitate cream sufficiently and the little globs of fat come out and stick together and then you spead that all over bread or fry in it. That's butter.

I have a jar of what I would call "preserves" which declares itself, on the label, to be "fruit butter." The hell you say!? In what sense can fruit make butter?

If the etymology of the word "butter" is all about cows and cheese (which I think it is), then how does one get from those word origins to a smear of mushed raspberries?




#116781 11/28/03 08:12 PM
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Dear F.S.--think peanut butter! This is one for Helen, I think.


#116782 11/28/03 08:27 PM
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... which is doubtless why other parts of the English-speaking world called whirled peanuts "peanut paste" rather than "peanut butter" -- 'cause it ain't butter, either.





#116783 11/28/03 08:55 PM
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I think folks are just trying to be consistent...





formerly known as etaoin...
#116784 11/28/03 10:01 PM
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I've also seen apple butter.


#116785 11/28/03 10:05 PM
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I've also seen apple butter.

... another quality food product brought to you by Steve Jobs and Steven Wozniak.





#116786 11/28/03 11:40 PM
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I was startled to learn (learn? if it's true I learnt, otherwise I merely read) that peanut butter was invented as a subsitute for... can I call it milk butter? As a spread, anyway. Black American biologist... Booker Washington, was it? So butter (of any kind) is long-chain fatty acids with things done to them to make them solidify. Therefore you can do it to peanuts (arachidonic acid)... so just maybe some fruits have fats in them that... oh wait, I've ventured into The Implausible. I don't know.


#116787 11/29/03 12:41 AM
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The Implausible

though we generally venture into The InClauseable around here, we occasionally get to the Implausible, as well. it's a fun place, as I recall...



formerly known as etaoin...
#116788 11/29/03 03:53 AM
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In reply to:


... which is doubtless why other parts of the English-speaking world called whirled peanuts "peanut paste" rather than "peanut butter" -



What other parts, pray tell? This little part of the English-speaking world has called it peanut butter for at least the last 33 years (as long as I can remember eating it)


#116789 11/29/03 06:33 AM
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It is those silly Aussies who call it peanut paste.




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