Qu’est-ce que l’oléo et pourquoi ma grand-mère l’utilisait-elle plus que le beurre ?

Nearly every page of my grandmother’s butter-stained

recipe notebook

has the word « oleo » written in her thin, slanting cursive. Almost every recipe—from her mama’s homemade yeast rolls to her back-pocket chocolate cake—called for oleo. But what is oleo and why is it in so many recipes? I remember asking my mom what oleo was, and she said it was like butter. Turns out she was right on target. Here’s the story behind oleo.

What Is Oleo?

You may know oleo by its more modern (and original) name—margarine. Surely you’ve seen tubs of Country Crock or Fleischmann’s in the grocery store (or your grandmother sent you home with leftovers in one of their repurposed plastic tubs). Simply put, modern-day oleo/margarine is a

butter substitute

often made from plant-based oils.

Where Did Oleo Come From?

Ironically, we have the butter-loving French to thank for the creation of oleo. In the 1860s, French Emperor Napoleon III charged his country’s scientists with creating a cheap butter substitute for his armed forces. The resulting invention by Hippolyte Mèges-Mouries was originally named oleomargarine, from the Latin word

oleum

(olive oil) and the Greek word

margarite

(pearl), because early margarine was almost white in color (yellow dye was added by later entrepreneurs to make the spread look more like butter). When it came to the U.S., the Oleo-Margarine Manufacturing Company was born in New York. Oleo went in and out of style over the next 100 years, but it gained popularity during the Great Depression and later during World War II because it was cheaper than butter, which is probably why it made its way into so many of our grandmothers’ recipes.

What’s The Difference Between Oleo And Butter?

While

butter and margarine

, or oleo, have similar flavors and uses, they have different ingredients. Butter is a dairy product made from cream or milk. To make it, the cream is churned until it separates the fat from the milk. The separated fat is the spread we know as butter. It also contains water and milk proteins. Butter is sold in sticks.

Margarine has very little dairy. It’s typically made with vegetable, soybean, olive, or safflower oil; water; and butter flavoring. For completely dairy-free margarine, look for vegan versions. This comes in spreadable tub form or in sticks like butter.

Can You Buy Oleo Today?

While there’s not an actual oleo brand you can buy today, there are plenty of margarines available in most grocery stores. It’s sold in both sticks and in tubs (which as I mentioned earlier make great single-serving containers for

leftover food

).

What’s Better: Oleo Or Butter?

When it comes to baking and cooking, the

Southern Living

Test Kitchen will

pick butter

every time. We think it helps baked goods brown better, and we find the flavor to be superior to margarine. Spreadable margarine is also not recommended for baking because the texture and ingredients are different. It has more water than butter and can affect the moisture of your finished cake. But there’s no reason you can’t top a

warm biscuit

with a pat of margarine.

Healthwise, margarine is a better choice. Because they are made with plant-based ingredients, some margarines can be lower in fat than butter, which can be a wonderful option for folks who are watching unhealthy trans and saturated fats for health reasons.

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What Can Be Substituted For Oleo?

Si la recette de votre grand-mère prévoit de l’oléo, vous pouvez la préparer à la manière de votre grand-mère, avec de la margarine. Vous pouvez aussi la remplacer par du beurre ou du shortening. N’oubliez pas que le beurre et la margarine ont des textures et des ingrédients différents qui peuvent affecter le résultat de vos

produits de boulangerie

si vous vous écartez de la recette originale.

Le résultat final

Je ne me lasserai jamais de voir le mot « oleo » écrit de la main de ma grand-mère, et j’apprécie et honore les raisons pour lesquelles elle l’a utilisé – c’était logique à son époque. Mais tant que mon cœur est fort et que mon portefeuille est en mesure de le faire, je m’en tiendrai au beurre.