Cruises: Butter to Starch Ratio

[sengsational]

Certainly you can ask for more. You'll certainly get more. Maybe you have asked for more. Sure, you'll get more. I have, I have gotten more. Was it enough? Big tables or small, what's your butter meter telling you?

The question is: Do you use more or less butter at home than on a cruise?

I haven't written the poll questions yet, but the best of you will answer "more butter at home", "more butter on the cruise". The rest of the poll responses are for those of you who are like me (can never decide upon anything because there's a caveat or two, a proviso that you need to explain). Or you could be bold and vote up the two biggies and explain in the comments. But don't forget, we are talking about something important; we're talking butter* here!)


Early meal butter with crumby bread doesn't interest me. I don't eat the rolls. It's the baked potatoes that got me going on this. Personally, and not all will agree, that the potatoes are where the starch to butter ratio really takes on it's most pointed meaning. I'm serious. You must agree. That's and order. I'm working to make the world a better place....don't stand in my way.

The original scope of the question was dining room venue, where they bring you that dish with ice under it and some foil wrapped butter patties. There are also those of you who tend to do the buffet (you know who you are), and you can take as many damn foil wrapped patties 1) as your little heat desires 2) as your ticker can stand without cardiac arrest and 3) as you have the patience to unwrap**.

Do it now. Call before midnight tonight. Vote.

*If they give you anything but real butter, please shame that specific cruise company from the highest hill because, as we all know, butter can not be improved upon.



**Probably treading very close, if not over the line of Midpack's "Who has a good sense of humor, and those who just think they do?"

 

[Walt34]

The poll is flawed because one can only pick one option. I wanted to pick four.

 

[audreyh1]

The best butter is in the Netherlands.

We haven’t gone on cruises, so can’t speak to cruise butter.

 

[Clone]

Besause it is a ratio, we need to consider the size of the potatoes. In general, we do not eat those large potatoes at home. At home, the butter is not served in frozen patties, so it is easier to put more on. I think, however, that I practice more moderation in how much butter is put on the potato while at home. Thus, I voted that the ratio increases. In actual terms, the amount of butter is a significant increase because the potatoes are also larger.
The key to proper butter usage is to set a couple butter pats on the edge of your bread plate to allow them to warm up before the potato arrives. Staging is important!

 

[COcheesehead]

The best butter is in the Netherlands.
.

Having grown up in Wisconsin, I always considered myself a butter connoisseur. Now I am intrigued by your comment.

 

[MichaelB]

I eat lots of butter at home. Gonna have sweet potato with lots of butter for dinner tonight. Netherlands butter is mighty tasty, but I think Kerry Gold is up there as well. Not sure I've had butter from Wisconsin, but it clearly is something I need to try.

 

[JAGOTI]

I eat 8 ounces of Kerrygold Butter every day EXCEPT when I am on a cruise.

When I am on a cruise I switch to 16 ounces of bacon fat per meal.

PS- If you add a potato - double the amount of butter/bacon fat. If you don't add any potato- double the amount of butter/bacon fat.

 

[steelyman]

I liked the space cakes in the Netherlands. I didn’t think to add butter to them.

 

[audreyh1]

Having grown up in Wisconsin, I always considered myself a butter connoisseur. Now I am intrigued by your comment.

Oh, you have not seen dairy until you visit the Netherlands!!!

The Netherlands is very famous for its cheese, but really all the dairy products are outstanding. You get to sample the best when you visit. Locals buy the cheeses produced by small farmers (boerenkass) - something not imported into the US.

And as you drive or ride the train across the countryside, you see endless green pastures dotted with dairy cows - a perfect use for the wet fields (polders) and flat landscapes. You don’t see feedlots, etc.

 

[COcheesehead]

Oh, you have not seen dairy until you visit the Netherlands!!!

A new bucket list item for me!

 

[MRG]

I liked the space cakes in the Netherlands. I didn’t think to add butter to them.

Butter would be good with spacecakes for your head.

 

[USGrant1962]

My normal AA is the conventional 60/40 (butter/EVOO), but look out around Christmas when Costco has the 2.1 kilo tin of Walker's Shortbread. Makes me market time to a very aggressive 90/10 AA! DW bought two tins this year. DS ate a few sleeves and took some back to school, but the rest ... suffice to say I've lost 6 pounds since they were gone...

An Englishman I used to hang out with in Manchester told me there was nothing better than a bottle of Scotch Whisky (Famous Grouse for the English middle class dudes) and a sleeve of Walker's. It works!

 

[Aerides]

Not cruise related, and I don't know where I read/heard this, but basically, even chef's will admit, the reason restaurant food tastes so great is basically because +salt and +butter.

When I cook I use diamond kosher salt, it's just slightly less bitter than regular table salt. And unsalted butter because I have my own salt. But for most of my cooking I'd rather go with olive oil than butter, and I do not hold back there. Except breakfast stuff like eggs i'll go butter.

also do not buy garlic salt, it's a rip off. Just buy granulated garlic and then add salt if you need because salt is way way cheaper than garlic, yet garlic salt is almost the same price as garlic.

 

[sengsational]

Having grown up in Wisconsin, I always considered myself a butter connoisseur. Now I am intrigued by your comment.

My grandmother was the one everyone looked to for cooking advice. She was born and raised in Wisconsin and used plenty of butter. She never fell for the margarine debacle...always real butter. So I've had plenty of Wisconsin butter, Kerry Gold on occasion. I need to get on the ball with the Netherlands butter.

I eat lots of butter at home. Gonna have sweet potato with lots of butter for dinner tonight. Netherlands butter is mighty tasty, but I think Kerry Gold is up there as well. Not sure I've had butter from Wisconsin, but it clearly is something I need to try.

This is what I was getting at...I enjoy more butter at home because I can cut a bunch of wedges of chilled butter and push them down into the mushy sweat potato or baked potato. On the cruise they give me one potatoes worth for the entire table of 8. I ask for more and they bring me 2. After a while, I just give up.

Butter would be good with spacecakes for your head.

Spacecakes with butter, or spicecakes with CBD butter...your choice, same effect. I just made that up. I really don't know if there's such a thing as CBD butter, but if not, I think there should be.

 

[footenote]

Dad never fell for margarine and said he was "allergic" to sugar

We all made fun of him for this until realizing (well after his death) that he was... right

Go through 1.5 sticks of butter per week and zero starch

Sign us off as "Non-diabetes Class of 20xx"

 

[Dtail]

My normal AA is the conventional 60/40 (butter/EVOO), but look out around Christmas when Costco has the 2.1 kilo tin of Walker's Shortbread. Makes me market time to a very aggressive 90/10 AA! DW bought two tins this year. DS ate a few sleeves and took some back to school, but the rest ... suffice to say I've lost 6 pounds since they were gone...

An Englishman I used to hang out with in Manchester told me there was nothing better than a bottle of Scotch Whisky (Famous Grouse for the English middle class dudes) and a sleeve of Walker's. It works!

+1 on Walker Shortbread. Best of the bunch.

 

[DrRoy]

I do go on cruises, but you didn't have a choice for no difference!

 

[Dash man]

Not cruise related, and I don't know where I read/heard this, but basically, even chef's will admit, the reason restaurant food tastes so great is basically because +salt and +butter.

I agree. I sometimes think they soak everything in butter before it's served.

 

[Amethyst]

Where is the option for "Butter is for baking, not putting on food?" I have hated the taste of butter (except in cookies) since I was little.

 

[Amethyst]

We just got back from our first real cruise. I requested all our meals be prepared without salt (we add a smidgen of salt at the table). Everything was delicious. Not swimming in butter at all (there was always fresh whipped butter at the table). I have been crying ever since we got home and I had to go back to cooking.

 

[Amethyst]

I like potatoes, but didn't bother with them on a cruise. Potatoes are not cruise food. Cruises are for filets mignons, asparagus, haricots verts, interesting salads that nobody would ever fix at home, and dessert flights with 5 tiny versions of the 5 desserts on the menu, because the cruise chef knows some of us are unable to choose.

Elsewhere, I prefer my potatoes without butter. A little olive oil, a smidge of garlic and a few grains of salt are what a potato needs.

It's the baked potatoes that got me going on this.
?"

 

[athena53]

Where is the option for "Butter is for baking, not putting on food?" I have hated the taste of butter (except in cookies) since I was little.

Same here. I'm dating a guy who slathers tons of butter on bread; I never liked it very much. The predominant sensation, for me, is greasy. I do like it in baked goods; it's easy for me to pass up most of the processed cookies and cakes in the grocery store because I know they've used cheap substitutes and they won't taste as good.

As far as cruises: I'm headed out on my 4th with UnCruise this weekend- the Baja Peninsula and the Sea of Cortes. They're small ships, only one dining room and mostly buffet- but focused on fresh food, locally-sourced, always with a good vegetarian option. I've never seen them serve a baked potato. Butter will certainly be available but I'll leave it for someone else.

 

[garyt]

Funny true story we saw at breakfast on a cruise. A guy at the next table was eating a full pat of those wrapped butters with every bite of his pancakes. Yes he unwrapped them first. The guy must've eaten 10 pats of butter. It was making me queasy.

 

[Amethyst]

Ick. Who can face other passengers at that hour? (Unless they are your friends, I mean). We always ordered room service for breakfast; wind conditions permitting, brought the tray out on our balcony. Butter not included

Funny true story we saw at breakfast on a cruise. A guy at the next table was eating a full pat of those wrapped butters with every bite of his pancakes. Yes he unwrapped them first. The guy must've eaten 10 pats of butter. It was making me queasy.

 

[wmc1000]

We only use butter in baking. No cruises for us.