Buttery Goodness: A “Spread" Out Review

Earth Balance, Smart Balance, Fleischmann’s, oh my!

I figured in a world without milk, butter would be a nightmare from hell.  You’d pick up something made from the wool of a sullen yak and have to use that to wave magically over your food containers hoping that a flying unicorn would come by, spitting magical no-dairy butter at your foods.  But, alas, I’m still awaiting on the dairy-spitting, Skittles powered unicorn to come my way...

Instead, we have picked out and used three non-dairy butter alternatives.  I suppose, at this point, I’d have to start referring to non-dairy butter truly as a margarine, seeing as it’s all alternatives.  But, I digress (you usually do.  -Chrissy).

The very first non-dairy butter that we tried was from the Smart Balance company.

I suppose the smartest way to do this review is going to be follow the format of texture, flavor and usefulness in cooking.

Smart Balance Light

Texture: Smart Balance light’s texture is pretty soft right out of the refrigerator, but not so soft as to be runny.  As for mouth feel, it’s a very smooth product, but seems to leave almost a “film” feeling inside your mouth after you eat it.  As for flavor, this is where we start to have issues.  It has this strange backend taste that I just can’t quite put my finger on.  I suppose it’s the oils that make up the product, seeing as it has a number of different oils that make up the spread.  The BIGGEST issue, by far, with this particular product is that it is absolutely NOT TO BE USED in baking of any sort.  Even worse than that, when it melts, it has this awful tendency to have its flavors become even more pungent than when not melted and it leaves everything with this strange paper/metal/“I’ve just licked concrete" flavor.  Use as a last resort if the store doesn’t have anything else.

My Moo Rating: 2/5

Fleischmann’s Light Spread

Fleischmann’s Light Spread was actually the last of the spreads that we tried in conjunction with this article.  We were relatively pleased with the texture of the product, though it is incredibly soft.  You remove it from the refrigerator and it already has the solidity of “softened butter.” You can basically put a finger right through the entire tub contents, though I wouldn’t suggest that unless you’ve done a surgical scrub down of your digits as no one will want to touch the product afterwards.  Although, I suppose, if you are claiming it for yourself (“I do hereby claim this buttery spread in the name of _______!”) it’s not a problem.  The flavor is very good, nice and salty with just that hint of sweetness that you expect from a buttermilk product.  Cooking with it works well, too.  Though, if you are needing a very solid product, this is not the place to look.  It doesn’t turn colors when cooked or give off a horrible smell or flavor after it is heated, and that is a huge plus in the non-dairy spread area.
My Moo Rating: 4/5

Earth Balance Soy-Free
Even though we didn’t try this product last, I’m reviewing it last because it’s my favorite of the three, and momma always said, “save the best for last.”  This spread has a texture more firm than the other two products, which seems to make it a more natural candidate when you are needing to work with unsoftened butter for a recipe.  The flavor is very nice.  Though there is a slight aftertaste, it is not at all objectionable and actually has a nutty quality about it.  It’s as useful in cooking as the Fleischmann’s, too.  It melts beautifully and doesn’t seem to separate into its constituent parts, retains its buttery flavor and just seems to work well.  We chose the soy free as I’m still researching the overall effects of soy’s natural estrogen on children and adults.  This is definitely our favorite, in case you missed me saying that before.
My Moo Rating: 5/5

So, overall, you can do it!  You can go butter free and not feel like you have to wave a yak.  Happy eating!

(UPDATED) I'm Feeling Cheesy: A Review

So, we've been at this no-dairy thing for just over a week and, it's "special."  Some days, it's really easy, other days, not so much.  But through it all, we've been searching for alternatives to foods that our family LOVES.  Out and out loves.  And one of the foods that we have had a long standing love affair with is cheese.

Needless to say, when we found out there was to be no more cheese in the Ervin household, the breakup was hard.  We sat on the couch with all of our cheese friends, laughed about the memories, cried--I think someone even broke a glass at some point.  There was some yelling, and then we just screamed at the cheese, "get out!  Just get OUT!"  Very sad.  Tragic really.  There's a Lifetime special coming out about it, I think.

Moving on

We've bought several kinds of "cheese" this week, one made of rice, one made of soy and a new-to-market brand, Daiya.  So... on with the show.

Rice Cheese
First, we'll cover the rice cheese.  Shaped like American cheese, tastes like American cheese gone bad.  Is that an accurate enough description?  To say that this is my least favorite cheese of all of the new kinds is an understatement.  It doesn't feel right in your mouth.  It's got this... I don't know, grainy consistency that doesn't show up until halfway through eating the bite.  The initial flavor is okay, but then you get that rice-y flavor toward that same spot... halfway through, and you just KNOW that something isn't right.  Your brain tells you it looks like cheese, it sort of tastes a little like cheese right at the beginning, but then it's all downhill from there.

My Moo Rating: 1/5





Daiya
We knew that rice-based wasn't a good fit, so we tried another cheese, this time by a new company called Daiya.  This one is a cheese style shred, with ingredients that you can actually, mostly, pronounce.  Here's the list:

Filtered water, tapioca and /or arrowroot flours, non-GMO expeller pressed canola and /or non-GMO expeller pressed safflower oil, coconut oil, pea protein, salt, inactive yeast, vegan natural flavors, vegetable glycerin, xanthan gum, citric acid (for flavor), annatto, titanium dioxide (a naturally occurring mineral).

GMO=Genetically Modified Organism

Looking at it, it is shaped mostly like a normal shredded cheese you would find in any supermarket, but it's edges are wrong.  Instead of being smooth, they almost have this torn look to them, but it's not a turn-off, and the color is almost exactly right.  Let's give it a taste... 

Mmmm, it's really good.  Give me another bite, honey.  What do you think?  Oh, Chrissy agrees, this is a very good cheese substitute.  

That was two days ago.  Today, I actually melted some on some bread, as I was dying for a cheese fix.  And it totally does the job.  It's soft, like American cheese, and the flavor is subtly different than what you would get in a standard milk-based cheese, but this, this I could get used to.  I understand that a company called ZPizza actually offers a gluten and dairy-free pizza that is made with Daiya.  After trying it, I understand why.  This, of the three cheeses, actually made me really excited to eat it again.

My Moo Rating: 4/5

Soy-Based Veggie Slices

The third cheese (conspicuously absent from the picture above) is by the same company as the rice-based cheese, but has a soy base instead.  It, too, is an American-style individually wrapped slice, but this one doesn't test my gag reflex.  When you eat it, it's a little too soft for your brain to say that it's American cheese, but it's so close that after the first few bites you don't notice the difference anymore.  The flavor is good, though, so we will probably buy it again.

UPDATE: While the flavor may have been nice, I found out that soy-based slices have casein, a milk protein in them, which removes any possibility of us eating them again.  I’ve amended my moo rating below to reflect that.

My Moo Rating: 1/5

Coconut Milk Chocolate Mousse

I told you I was going to do a review of the chocolate mousse today, but that's going to have to wait, as I don't think it came out the way it should have and I'd hate to do a review of a recipe that just didn't work.  I will say this, though... the flavor is FANTASTIC.  The subtlety of the coconut behind the cocoa in the recipe is ridiculous.  As the initial creator of the recipe said, I want to dive into this head first.  I'll keep plugging away and hopefully we'll get it right here, shortly.

Happy eating.