In the pantry of many families it appears regularly, often flanked by butter, usually used to replace it. “If it is not butter, what is it?” It is a question that always jumps out, because Margarina does not have the sixth fame of other ingredients, at least so far. Behind a name that evokes lightness and practicality there is a product resulting from a long technological, food and cultural evolution.
The invention of Margarina: a product born from a necessity
Margarina was born in France in the 19th century, from a concrete need: to find an economic alternative to butter. It was Napoleon III who launched a public challenge to scientists of the time, eager to provide its soldiers with a stable, cheap and easily conservable fat. In 1869 the chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès patented the first version of the Margarina, obtained from Sego Bovino-a type of animal fat-worked with skimmed milk and water.
A product certainly raw and far away from the creamy consistency and a neutral flavor to which we are used to today.
With the passage of time, the animal raw material was gradually replaced with vegetable fats, cheaper and available. The advent of hydrogenation, a chemical process introduced in the early decades of the twentieth century, marked a fundamental turning point in the production of modern margarine.
How margarine is composed
Margarine is an emulsified mixture of water and fats, generally vegetable, with variable percentages. And in general, it presents itself as an “water in oil” emulsion, in which the water is dispersed in a continuous fat phase.
The fat content can vary from 35% to 80%, depending on the type of product. , since there are light margarines, with less lipid content, and others richer, designed for professional use in pastry and/or bakery.
The most common lipid sources include sunflower, corn, rapeseed and palm oil, often subjected to severe refining and splitting processes. In the past, the use of hydrogenated fats was common, which however introduced the so -called trans acid acids, artificial molecules that increase the risk of cardiovascular problems. The growing scientific awareness on the topic has prompted the food industries to reformulate the products, reducing or eliminating trans acids trans, today severely regulated, if not even prohibited, in many European countries.
To give stability, consistency and a pleasant flavor, the margarines contain different emulsifiers (such as soy lecithin), thickeners, natural dyes (typically beta-carotene, which gives the classic yellowish shade), and in some cases added vitamins, such as the D and A, to improve its nutritional profile.
Differences with butter
The comparison with the butter is inevitable, because as mentioned in the opening there are often overlapping ingredients. The butter is an animal product, derived from the processing of the cream, and contains about 82% of fat, mainly saturated.
Instead margarine is of vegetable origin, it can contain a lesser quantity of saturated fats, in favor of the unsaturated ones, considered healthier. Its composition can be modified according to nutritional needs, and precisely this versatility constitutes one of its main advantages.
It must be said that while the butter naturally contains cholesterol, margarine is free of it. However, we must underline how much the final nutritional profile of Margarina depends a lot on the quality of the oils used and the industrial processes used.
Use in the kitchen
From a culinary point of view, Margarina lends itself to multiple uses. It can be spread on bread, used to fry, used in the preparation of desserts, shortbreads, cakes and creams (some types of margarine, where there are more stable fats, are suitable for high temperatures). The food industry makes extensive use of it because it is cheap, lends itself to long conservation and maintains, over time, a good consistency.
In the industrial pastry sector, margarine can help obtain a crunchy and crumbly sheet, thanks to the most plastic structure than the butter, and to the lower sensitivity to thermal variations. On the other hand, the organoleptic results are not identical: the rich flavor of butter remains difficult to replicate, which is why many chefs and pastry chefs still prefer the traditional product for the most refined preparations.
Nutritional aspects and health considerations
From the point of view of health, the evaluation of margarine should be conducted on a case -by -case basis. Modern formulations, without trans fats and based on vegetable oils rich in mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids, can represent a balanced choice, especially for those who follow a diet poor in saturated fats or without animal derivatives. In some variants enriched with phytosterols, a favorable action on the control of LDL cholesterol is observed.
The reading of the label remains fundamental: to know the type of fat used, the total lipid content and the presence of any additives allows a more precise evaluation of the product. The absence of hydrogenated fats is an important quality indicator. It is also good to pay attention to the presence of palm or coconut oil, which, despite being of vegetable origin, contain high quantities of saturated fats.
We conclude by underlining how much margarine is a complex food, the result of an industrial evolution that has tried to respond to a practical and nutritional need. Margarina is not a simple surrogate of butter, but a product with certain characteristics, which finds different applications in the food field.
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