In discussing recipes with my sister-in-law, she related a phone call she once received. After having served one of her favorite dishes at a church affair, a newlywed asked for the recipe. When the young woman started to gather ingredients for the dish, she was stymied. So, she called my sister-in-law and asked, “What IS oleo?”
Of course, so many of the recipes that my generation dubs as “favorites” list “oleo” as an ingredient. Now that butter is no longer out of favor, I have returned to using the true dairy product even if a recipe calls for oleo or margarine.
But, I have vivid memories of oleo. As a child during WWII, I remember well when my mother would open a package of a white commodity resembling a glob of Crisco. In a bowl, adding the accompanying yellow tablet to the substance, she mixed the two until the white turned the color of butter. To a child, it was magic. To my mother, it probably was a messy nuisance that didn’t, in the least, taste like butter or even a good substitute.
According to National Geographic Magazine, French chemist Hippolyte Mege-Mouries, in 1869, patented a low price spread made from beef tallow (a rendered form of beef fat) in hopes of winning Napoleon’s prize for creating a butter substitute. The chemist dubbed it “oleomargarine,” a blend of Latin and Greek roots meaning beef fat pearl. Unfortunately, neither the soldiers in Napoleon’s army, nor the French citizenry, appreciated this cheaper substitute. The chemist sold his formula to a Dutch butter-making company which became Unilever, still one of the world’s major producers of margarine.
Oleo made its way to the States in 1870. Within a year, 37 companies were manufacturing margarine. In 1886, prodded by the dairy lobbyists, the federal Margarine Act imposed a tax on margarine. Six states, rich in dairy farming, banned margarine outright within their borders. A lone holdout, Wisconsin, did not repeal its last law against margarine until 1967. As of 2014, butter had once again surpassed margarine as America’s favorite spread. With health experts questioning the transfat content in margarine, even those made from vegetable oils, and the public’s ever growing preference for natural food, butter has made a comeback.
A number of fake news stories about oleomargarine have surfaced on social media. One states that oleo was first invented to fatten turkeys. When the turkeys died from eating the substance, manufacturers sold it for human consumption. Really? Are we that gullible?
On the same day my sister-in-law and I talked, my son asked about a coffee cake with cinnamon that I used to make. I told him that St. James Coffee Cake was one of many of his grandmother Denty’s recipes in my collection. Years ago, I made it on occasion for women’s meetings, showers and teas. My husband didn’t like it because it called for raisins. When I pulled out the recipe, sure enough, there was that ingredient - oleo. I made it, substituting butter for oleo, dried cranberries for raisins and chopped almonds for pecans. Everyone in the family liked the changes. I cut this single layer cake into small rectangular pieces, appropriate as finger food, just as I had done those many times years ago. It’s slightly crumbly, but very tasty.
St. James Coffee Cake
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts
3/4 cup butter (or oleo)
2 cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon soda
1 cup plumped raisins (or dried cranberries) (To plump, pour boiling water over dried fruit and let stand for about 15 minutes. Pour off water; dry with paper towels.)
Sift first six dry ingredients into mixing bowl. Cut in butter until it resembles corn meal. Reserve 1/2 cup of mixture for topping.
Add soda to buttermilk and add to crumbled mixture, one half at a time. Beat well after each addition. Fold in plumped dried fruit and nuts. Spread into a greased and floured 10x15-inch jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately one hour. This recipe makes a large cake and it’s better if not thick. (There are no eggs in the batter.)
Comments