Butter...

[minnesotasmith]

The question I have is where / how to get olive oil on the trail. The smallest sizes I've seen are just to big to carry the whole bottle/amount. Have you been able to split with other folks?????

I'm not a big fan of just finding small plastic bottles to pour olive oil into.
The reason is that those bottles may not be chemically compatible with OO, which being highly unsaturated (the reason you want it over, say, Parkay or butter) is a fair solvent. There is some nasty stuff in plastic (such as estrogen-analog phtalates, used to keep plastics flexible). Much better in my mind is to buy OO originally in 8-oz. plastic bottles, so you know they're chemically compatible. Stick one of those in each of your mail drops at 2 week or so intervals, and your OO needs are covered.

I've recently found walnut oil in small plastic bottles as well. It has similiar properties as olive oil WRT unsat/sat fat ratio, but likely won't keep as well once opened, due to lower antioxidant levels.

[JumpInTheLake]

squeeze Parkay

That stuff is not food.

[JumpInTheLake]

coconut oil is good for everything.

I agree, and it's food!

[sarbar]

I'm not a big fan of just finding small plastic bottles to pour olive oil into.
The reason is that those bottles may not be chemically compatible with OO, which being highly unsaturated (the reason you want it over, say, Parkay or butter) is a fair solvent. There is some nasty stuff in plastic (such as estrogen-analog phtalates, used to keep plastics flexible). Much better in my mind is to buy OO originally in 8-oz. plastic bottles, so you know they're chemically compatible.

Well....only issue with that line of reasoning is just how do you know exactly what type of plastic the oil company is using? My point? You don't.

I rarely see good EVOO in plastic bottles - it is almost always in glass jars. Makes it look prettier more than likely - helping justify the high cost. Plastic bottles makes it looks cheaper - not what the company is looking for.

[minnesotasmith]

Well....only issue with that line of reasoning is just how do you know exactly what type of plastic the oil company is using? My point? You don't.

I rarely see good EVOO in plastic bottles - it is almost always in glass jars. Makes it look prettier more than likely - helping justify the high cost. Plastic bottles makes it looks cheaper - not what the company is looking for.

Manufacturers normally go to considerable lengths to ensure compatibility between container and contents. I figure the odds of olive oil not reacting with its original container are much more acceptable than if the OO is just poured into a random plastic bottle that either wasn't intended to hold highly unsaturated oils, or even hold food at all. Lots of plastics aren't even food-grade...

[weary]

....a few people out there carried sticks of butter, especially in March, April, May...it seemed to keep well enough.

Sticks of butter will last through any thru hike that takes advantage of the multiple resupply opportunities available on the AT. Butter is good for a week or two -- probably longer, I've never thought to check -- without refrigeration.

Fresh things are always better -- even butter. But few will notice the difference between refrigerated butter, and pack butter on a typical long distance hike.

Weary

[Homer&Marje]

cooler temps you can carry butter, the salted kind (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/ck_c...702128,00.html), be sure its in its own baggie in case it gets smooshed

Butter in a bag???? Good luck. I just melt it down and put it into those camping tubes they sell. 8 0z plastic tube fits 2 sticks of melted down butter, should last WEEKS! Believe me, I work in restaurants and I have never seen butter go funk, I've seen a lot go funk too.

[Wise Old Owl]

Just take butter and put it in a new glad container. When you get to camp shake the sh** out of it & keep it near your water bladder and not you back. Butter does not need to be cold - just cool. Yes oils have less problems!

YES WHAT HOMER SAID !

[Homer&Marje]

Just take butter and put it in a new glad container. When you get to camp shake the sh** out of it & keep it near your water bladder and not you back. Butter does not need to be cold - just cool. Yes oils have less problems!

YES WHAT HOMER SAID !

It's like christmas, Someone agrees with me, maybe with a little satire, but who doesn't love satire

Butter is one of the only foods that you can cook it, freeze it, melt it, warm it, chill it, warm it up again, freeze it, melt it and then put into a container and take hiking. Do the same with chicken and your gonna have a bad day.

How would you melt chicken? Alcohol stove or triangia?

[Campsalot]

I usually go with packets of olive oil for cooking and butter powder for flavor. I’ve found a couple of places to get these things:

Enertia Trail Foods has butter powder

Minimus has olive oil packets

Packit Gourmet has both butter powder and olive oil

The Packit Gourmet butter has a really simple ingredient list which I like. Enertia doesn’t list their ingredient list so I’m not sure about that.

Packit Gourmet also has olive oil, canola oil and organic olive oil if you're interested in another type of oil.

[TD55]

I heard that you can trust plastic containers to be safe if they have the label "MADE IN CHINA" on them.

[sarbar]

The Packit Gourmet butter has a really simple ingredient list which I like. Enertia doesn’t list their ingredient list so I’m not sure about that.

One thing I really appreciate about PackitGourmet is that they will answer you if you ask what is in an item. The butter powder they carry is awesome added to instant potatoes. I used it so much the past 2 weeks developing new recipes that I ran out. Ah well!

[oldbear]

Butter is actually pretty indestructable stuff.Ghee and clarified butter are the same stuff
Butter is in emulsion that is made of about 25% pure fat 8 % milk solids and 17 5 water and no the numbers aren't exact But you can anticipate a 25% product loss when you change unsalted to clarified.
When butter burns it's the milk solids that burn and clarifying it raises it's smoking point by about 50 degrees
There are a lot of ways to make it >I just boil the butter over med heat in a pot that 3 x the volume of the butter
The boiling butter will look like being inside a cumulous cloud
When the water is gone the boiling stops and the effect is like breakkng out of the cloud layer and seeing the clear world below you
At that point turn off the heat and using a huge ladle work quickly and scoop out the clarified butter w/o disturbing the milk solids that are now toasting on the bottom of the pot
While a certain light and toasty flavor can be a desirable characteristic ,accidently making beurre noissete the first time out is not.

[squirrel bait]

That has to be the best description/explanation on how to not make brown butter that I hope in the future I can use to explain it to someone else. After a couple times making ghee some people like to let it adopt a nutty flavor. This is simply letting the now clear butter cook slightly longer. The concern for hikers is keeping moisture out of the finished product. Ghee's usable unrefrigerated capabilities are severly hindered by water. Keep your clarified butter dry. And if you accidently make beurre noisete, so much the better. Serve it over fish.

[Levlle]

Olive oil

What He said...

[Fiddleback]

coconut oil is good for everything.

I agree, and it's food!

For most, infrequent consumption of small amounts won't make much of a difference. But for those that have issues with cholesteral or otherwise care about saturated fats...coconut oil is over 70% saturated fat, butter is over 50% saturated fat and olive oil is around 14%.

But there is recent and growing agreement that coconut oil has health benefits that exceed some other oils including improvement in serum cholesterol levels. The key and very important consideration is that the coconut oil must not be processed, i.e., it must be non-hydrogenated.

FB

[Flush2wice]

Squeeze butter as several have already stated. It's hiker friendly right off the shelf. Don't worry too much about health issues if your on a LDH. Don't use it at home because we all know- there is no substitute for real butter.