How to Make Vegan Butter

http://www.veganbaking.net/recipes/fats/vegan-butters/vegan-butter

by socksy • 11 years ago

77 55 11 years ago

beloch2• 11 years ago

Only some margarines contain trans fats and soy is not without its own health risks.

latch• 11 years ago

If you're referring to breast cancer, the evidence is sketchy, and both the Canadian and American Cancer Societies conclude that it's safe (with some studies suggesting that it might help, as well as a french-paradox type thing going on in Japan).

There have been other cancer-related concerns, but most of the studies have been very small and seem to conclude that there's either no risk, or that there are actually benefits.

The dairy industry is a huge advertising and lobbying machine.

What I find particularly troubling is that people avoid soy because of non-existent evidence. But they continue to drink alcohol which has been thoroughly linked to many forms of cancers. It makes me believe that, in the final analysis, people eat what they want and only pay lip service to healt (or the environment/sustainability/animal welfare); which I'd say that things like Atkins and paleo further confirms.

beloch2• 11 years ago

I was actually thinking of the studies that show soy products may cause harmful reductions in testosterone in men. I wouldn't say the data is overwhelming at present, but there is concern. The soy industry isn't exactly a feather weight when it comes to promoting its products either.

The reason I mentioned this is because this article went to significant effort to make margerine sound horrible for your health when the concerns about margerine aren't any more convincing than those about soy. Additionally, the "vegan butter" recipe is based on the same oils as are used in margerines anyways. When it comes to health, how do the chemical reactions done in the article compare to those performed when creating margerine? I have no idea. Just because a chemical reaction has not been performed on an industrial scale does not mean it produces healthier results.

The conflicts people get into about food are sometimes ridiculous in their intensity. Butter vs margerine is almost a religious issue! One thing that is truly ridiculous is how people can go on a pure magic-vegan-voodoo-uber-healthy diet and wind up horribly unhealthy because they're simply eating too much. Perhaps this vegan butter is far better for pie crusts than most margerines, but that doesn't change the fact that pie isn't terribly healthy regardless of what it's made of.

eropple• 11 years ago

YMMV, but I eat low-carb (I wouldn't call it either paleo or Atkins) because it's the most effective way I've discovered for me to lose weight. I do it 'cause it's the only thing that doesn't make me hungry and makes me lose weight.

xacaxulu• 11 years ago

Soy's main risk for men being feminization.

leobabauta• 11 years ago

Evidence?

rwolf• 11 years ago

For anyone (like me) who raised an eyebrow at the "trans fats are highly toxic" bit, wiki helpfully mentions some recent (2013) FDA guidance on the matter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fat

refurb• 11 years ago

Agreed. Same with the comment about using "chemicals".

pyre2• 11 years ago

Same with the comment about using "chemicals".

See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9126026

teach• 11 years ago

I'm honestly surprised there are people on Hacker News who hadn't yet gotten the message about trans fats. Trans fats are really, really bad. Far worse than the saturated fats they're attempting to replace.

lambda5• 11 years ago

"Wiki" does not make sense as an abbreviation of "Wikipedia". "Wiki" is a general term, of which "Wikipedia" is a single example.

Calling "Wikipedia" simply "wiki" is like saying "book mentions..." when talking about what a specific book discusses.

ubernostrum4• 11 years ago

Wikipedia is the only wiki most people knowingly interact with, and shortening it simply to "wiki" is in my experience common and causes no confusion.

SwellJoe4• 11 years ago

I've been doing a lot of vegan baking lately (I'm vegetarian, with vegan tendencies, but my girlfriend is strictly vegan). I tried vegan baking in the distant past, and was always disappointed, but the Internet has made it really easy to find good, proven, recipes and a lot more information about the science and behavior of foods when prepared in various ways.

I've been pleasantly surprised by how well my coconut oil-based cookies and biscuits come out. My current biscuit recipe (http://foodcite.org/recipe/amazing-vegan-southern-buttermilk... ) is as good as any I have ever made...and I'm from the south. I know biscuits, and have made and eaten a lot of biscuits in my life. Cakes and brownies are another story, thus far, and it's not the butter that's the problem ingredient; eggs are where the problems come in.

I'm really impressed with their experimental approach. I've done the same experiments with curdling non-dairy milks (to replace buttermilk in biscuits), and have done several experiments blending various oils and additional ingredients to replicate butter. Because I'm lazy I ended up simplifying back down to very easy to prepare ingredients, because if there are too many steps or ingredients, I end up cooking something simpler. But, in this case I could probably make myself mix up a big batch of this for the freezer.

notatoad• 11 years ago

Cakes and brownies are another story, thus far

I'm surprised at this. I'm not a vegan at all, and i find most of the time when i end up eating vegan variants of dishes that aren't normally vegan they're pretty terrible, but i've had some truly excellent vegan chocolate cakes and brownies. I don't know what the recipe was, but it's certainly possible to make a really good vegan chocolate cake.

SwellJoe4• 11 years ago

Yes, my favorite chocolate cake ever was vegan (from The Green Planet in Houston, an incredible but now defunct vegan restaurant). But, I've never been able to make one that good. I'm not saying it can't be done, just that I haven't gotten it right yet.

Brownies, on the other hand, are a nightmare to veganize, for me. It may have to do with the kind of brownies I like, and it may just be that I've had enough bad luck that now my baking mojo is broken for making brownies. I've tried three batches in pretty quick succession, using quite different seeming recipes, and they all turned out awful; and awful in roughly the same way in all cases. Kinda like overly oily fudge, with some flour mixed in just to make it even more gross. I'm not sure, honestly. I've not tried it again lately, but will eventually. I love a good brownie. But, I was so disheartened by the first several attempts, that I've been avoiding it.

And, I can't think of a really good vegan brownie that I've ever eaten, and I know some quite good vegan cooks, and tend to frequent vegan restaurants and bakeries while traveling.

celticninja2• 11 years ago

Blood can be an alternative to eggs as they have similar attributes.

dEnigma• 11 years ago

You just told a vegetarian, who is tending towards veganism, to use blood instead of butter. Or did you mean his own blood? (which I guess would be okay for some vegans)

rpenm• 11 years ago

In terms of sustainability, coconut oil is not necessarily better than palm oil. It is probably worse since it has lower yield per hectare and more energy (drying + pressing) per liter output.

stellar678• 11 years ago

It's awesome to read his analysis of and experiments with the components that make up butter!

But, in the end his recipe is essentially just Earth Balance: http://earthbalancenatural.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/nu...

Pro_bity• 11 years ago

Good article, although his use of the word "chemicals" as a negative is pretty silly. Particularly, in this sentence "Fermentation and curdling involve hundreds of chemical reactions that produce a multitude of complex flavor compounds with a depth that can't be replicated by chemicals."

abeppu• 11 years ago

Given that the paragraph you've quoted from is followed with a description of how acids denature proteins, I think the author probably understands that all the other stuff he's working with are "chemicals" too.

However, I think this works as a reasonable shorthand for non-specific synthetic food additives in this context. Laypeople like myself understand that butter substitutes include artificial flavors to attempt to recreate some of the flavor of butter, but they fall short. The author can favorably compare his curdling approach to the fake butter flavors of those familiar commercially available products without stopping to specify them, because it doesn't matter which specific chemical additives he's comparing to. If he instead said " ... a depth of flavor that can't be replicated by adding acetoin or diacetyl" (which wikipedia says are the common fake butter additives) what would that really add for his readers?

ubernostrum4• 11 years ago

Well, obviously chemicals can't replicate the chemicals produced by the chemical reactions among the chemicals in butter. I don't see what's so hard to understand about it.

tessierashpool• 11 years ago

as a vegan, I hate stuff like this. I'm vegan for my health. I see nothing but insanity in recreating high-fat foods from different materials, so that I can keep the obesity but get rid of the good taste.

venomsnake3• 11 years ago

Sorry to disappoint you but obesity is caused primary by overeating.

I lost 2 kg since starting baking pies myself. And I am using pate sablee, lots of heavy cream for the custards, dozens of yolks and so on. You just need to eat smaller sizes of the finished product. My roommate put on couple of pounds though.

elementai• 11 years ago

Ok, but what's causing overeating? Viewing human behaviour as a sole function of free will is reductionist at least.

kevb• 11 years ago

I really like the science in his write ups, there's obviously a lot of science in baking but so many write ups focus on story building and act as if there is some magic behind the steps or ingredients that obfuscates their true purpose.

Mattie also has another site (foodcraftlab.com) that has even more involved recipes, including a good read about cream cheese, I love the idea of, though I'll likely never find the time to make: http://www.foodcraftlab.com/food/fermentation/vegan-cashew-c... .

languagehacker• 11 years ago

What the hell is this doing on Hacker News?

Saying that as someone who was vegan for five years and who is presently on a high-fat, low-carb diet, by the way. I don't come here for stuff like this.

socksy• 11 years ago

I posted it because it was an interesting kind of reverse engineering of a food substance, which was done in a way that I figured HN would appreciate.

dschiptsov6• 11 years ago

I am stupid, of course, but what is the point in switching from dairy fat sources for a mammal species who breastfeed their offsprings?

I, probably, know the answer - "look, I am sophisticated vegan hipster!"

Another point is, of course, evolutionary biology - what were our traditional sources of nourishment? For a hunting-gathering tribes? Hunting and domestication of animals were, certainly, adaptations, which allowed a tribe to survive and rise more healthy children in harsh and quickly changing conditions.

This is why Tibetans or Mongolians are still using dairy butter as the main source of nourishment. We, probably, should enlighten them about veganism to eliminate their deep ignorance about using dairy butter.

venomsnake3• 11 years ago

The ironic thing - the lactose tolerance mutation is one of the most important survival mechanisms for humanity. So humanity survived because we were able to drink and eat milk, cheese and cream and butter.

dschiptsov6• 11 years ago

As far as I know, there are some enzymes, synthesis of which could be triggered by presence of lactic sugars, so a cell could convert them into ATPs, and those enzymes are encoded in the DNA.

My bet is that they are "switched off" after the period of breastfeeding is passed, but could be "re-activated", and this ability to reactivate them is the survival factor.

lambda5• 11 years ago

Most people I know who are vegan are so for ethical reasons.

I may not share their ethical objections, but to simply dismiss them as "sophisticated vegan hipster" is rather rude.

dschiptsov6• 11 years ago

Why? Moral vegetarians is a quite different topic, and there is an answer for this too. Current rates of population growth are unsustainable without animal food sources. So, the price would be lives of children and weak adults of poorest communities.

How to Make Vegan Butter

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