Today we have margarine and spreads that are substitutes for butter. A hundred years ago there was a spread (or oleomargarine – not sure why it wasn’t just called margarine back then) called Nucoa that was made using a mixture of coconut and milk. I did a search on the name, and it looks like it may be still available in some areas (though I don’t think that it contains milk anymore), but I never heard of it.
Sure never heard of that. It seems very different.
I was really surprised that it contained coconut.
When I was a child in TN in the 40’s, we shortened the name of oleomargarine to oleo. It was much easier to say. I can’t remember when I began calling it margarine. It was probably when I married and lived in NY.
Similarly to you, I think that my family called oleomargarine “oleo” when I was a child, but that somehow I started calling it margarine after I was an adult.
Never heard of this either. My mom always referred to margarine as oleo.
“Oleo” almost seems like an archaic term. Can a word that was commonly used when we were children now be archaic?
I haven’t heard anyone use it for years! But I still see it in old recipe cards and it gives me a chuckle.
I gave up margarine and “spreads” in the 1990s and have never looked back. Wikipedia gives an interesting history of the development of margarine and spreads and how the name oleomargarine was selected. I would rather trust the cow who produced the milk which produced the butter. 😊
Similarly to you I shifted from margarine to butter years ago – though recently I began to sometimes use a “spread” again for health considerations.
I don’t like margine. Family recipes passed down from the generations don’t work right with it.