What Is Margarine and How Can I Use It?

If margarine has turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use it with confidence and how to choose it, cook it, store it, what to substitute, and 2,605 recipes to try it in.

What is margarine?

Modern margarines can be made from any of a wide variety of animal or vegetable fats, mixed with skimmed milk, salt, and emulsifiers. Like butter, margarine is about 80% fat, 20% water and solids, flavored, colored, and fortified with vitamin A, and sometimes D, to match butter's nutritional contribution to the human diet.

Margarines made from vegetable oils are especially important in today's market, as they are lower in saturated fat than butter and are generally promoted as the healthier option, although this view has been challenged.

Three main types of margarine are common:

Traditional margarines, which contain saturated fats, are mostly made from vegetable oils.
Blended margarines, high in mono- or polyunsaturated fats, which are made from safflower, sunflower, soybean, cottonseed, grapeseed, or olive oil.
Hard, generally uncolored margarine for cooking or baking. (Shortening)

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 cup (227g)

Amount per Serving

Calories 1625Calories from Fat 1642

% Daily Value *

Total Fat 182.5g 281%

Saturated Fat 29.4g 147%

Trans Fat ~

Cholesterol 0mg 0%

Sodium 2449mg 102%

Total Carbohydrate 1.4g 0%

Dietary Fiber 0g 0%

Sugars 0.0

Protein 1.8g

Vitamin A 162% Vitamin C 0%

Calcium 6% • Iron 0%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your caloric needs.

recipeland.com/nutrition

Where found

Margarine is usually found in the dairy section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

Food group

Margarine is a member of the Fats and Oils US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

How much does margarine weigh?

Amount	Weight
1 cup	227 grams
1 tbsp	14 grams

Fats and Oils

Lard 348 Mayonnaise 961 Salad dressing, mayonnaise style 49 Salad dressing, italian, low-fat 30 Peanut oil 594 Olive oil 6038 Olive oil, extra-virgin 1186 Sesame oil 1030 Sunflower oil 111 Salad dressing 65

In Chinese:	人造奶油
British (UK) term:
en français:	margarine
en español:	margarina

Recipes using margarine

There are 2605 recipes that contain this ingredient.

Chilled Green Pea Soup

Chilled green pea soup blends sweet frozen peas with thyme, onion, and minute tapioca for a velvety low-fat, low-calorie soup that works hot or cold. The tapioca thickens without flour or cream. Five minutes of standing time, twenty minutes total cook.

Blueberry French Toast Sandwiches

Golden French toast stuffed with warm blueberry-maple compote and dusted with powdered sugar. Make weekend brunch feel special with this sweet sandwich.

Graveyard Treat

Beneath a layer of ghostly whipped topping lies a chilling graveyard of cookie-crumb earth, with layers of creamy, eerie cheese filling and a tombstone of cookies marking the final resting place of your diet. Serve this spine-chilling dessert at your Halloween party, if you dare, and watch as your guests unearth the delicious secrets hidden within!