Sunday, January 13, 2013

Replacing Butter with Olive Oil




I've often wondered in what ways butter, oil and shortening are interchangeable (this spelling always looks wrong to me, but it's right) in baking and recipes. The only time I have felt comfortable experimenting is in sauteeing. I still don't know all the answers, but last time I visited Oliveto to taste (any buy) some interesting oils and vinegars I was offered one piece of the puzzle:

Butter to Olive Oil Conversion Chart

Butter/Margarine =   Olive Oil
1 teaspoon               3/4 teaspoon
1 tablespoon            2 1/4 teaspoons
2 tablespoons           1 1/2 tablespoons
1/4 cup                    3 tablespoons
1/3 cup                     1/4 cup
1/2 cup                     1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons
2/3 cup                     1/2 cup
3/4 cup                     1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon
1 cup                           3/4 cup  

I plan to experiment with this a little. I also thought about replacing the vegetable oil in my Cranberry Pumpkin Bread with walnut oil to see how it changes the flavor. (My understanding is that any oil -nut, vegetable, olive, etc.- can be exchanged measure for measure.)

Has anyone tried replacing butter with oil in a recipe? How did it turn out?

1 comment:

  1. We replace butter regularly with Olive Oil. Sometimes you want the butter taste. It depends on the role of the butter in the recipe. Is it there as a fat or as a flavor or both. You may also want to check out the food science angle - as in what does the ingredient do in the baking process and will olive oil perform the same task. Here is a reasonable discussion thread - http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/379550

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for reading! Your thoughts are important to me because I am writing for you.