leek wrote:
I don't know, I see a lot of families with kids buying lots of TP, OJ, Milk and Diapers there

Oh, yes, indeed they do. But compare the clientele and the items stocked at the Burbank (or is it Bedford Park? 7600 or so S. Cicero) location with those at the Clybourn location.

It's really a significant difference.

So thread bump

Generally, I buy butter with trips to the grocer and freeze so that I have plenty to hand once the holidaze start. Not because you can't find butter now, but it always seems way more expensive heading toward the fall holidaze and again at Easter.

Life got in the way and my freezer is super low on butter. As I look around my sense is the price has increased.

Anyone else experience this?

Costco is $9.99 for four pounds salted or unsalted regular butter.

Hmmm I always seem to notice that right before the major holidays - like the week of - I can find butter on sale pretty easily. Even the good stuff, like Irish grass fed.

Right now it does seem a bit high, but honestly I haven't paid close enough attention to remember what the prices were a month or two ago.

Also, Fresh Farms has about 20 different kinds and I can usually find some on sale there.

pairs4life wrote: it always seems way more expensive heading toward the fall holidaze and again at Easter.

I've also found the opposite to be true. Usually a week to 10 days before the holiday, butter goes on sale somewhere. We always stock up then.

Okay. Sounds like I don't need to panic.
It will just feel like more of a hit since I don't have my supply in the freezer already

This is another example of why I am glad not to have a particularly sensitive palate or nose. I have been freezing and refrigerating butter and keeping it on the counter all my life, and it never tastes or smells like anything but butter to me.

Katie wrote:This is another example of why I am glad not to have a particularly sensitive palate or nose. I have been freezing and refrigerating butter and keeping it on the counter all my life, and it never tastes or smells like anything but butter to me.

I think it was in some other thread here that I read that butter doesn't need refrigeration in order not to spoil. And I believe everything I read here.

stevez wrote:

pairs4life wrote: it always seems way more expensive heading toward the fall holidaze and again at Easter.

I've also found the opposite to be true. Usually a week to 10 days before the holiday, butter goes on sale somewhere. We always stock up then.

Indeed. In fact right now, walking down the baking aisle at Jewel, you will basically every component of a pumpkin pie is on sale, flour, sugar, condensed milk, pumpkin puree, etc.

We buy butter from the Amish either in Indiana or at the farmer's market. It comes frozen and is delicious. We keep it is the fridge. It must have a high fat content as it seems to soften much faster from the fridge than regular butter. For baking I wait until there is sale on butter-i.e. Land of Lakes, etc.-usually 2 for $4 or 5 as a lost leader. I find that the quarters are more user friendly for measuring than cutting in the roll of Amish butter (I don't have a scale and rely on the old water displacement method mom taught me.) Indeed, baking goods and butter go on sale around Thanksgiving time and that's when I stock up. In a pinch, when there is not a sale, Aldi's has the cheapest butter. Trader Joe's has eggs for around a buck.

Elfin wrote:We buy butter from the Amish either in Indiana or at the farmer's market. It comes frozen and is delicious. We keep it is the fridge. It must have a high fat content as it seems to soften much faster from the fridge than regular butter.

I wonder if that Amish butter of yours is cultured butter rather than sweet cream butter. Amish dairies are known for producing cultured butter. That may be why it softens faster. If it were only a matter of having a higher fat content, I would think that would make it soften more slowly rather than more quickly.

I had a coupon for Plum Market. #plugra was $6. I got 4lbs. Will go back with another coupon and get more.

pairs4life wrote:I had a coupon for Plum Market. #plugra was $6. I got 4lbs. Will go back with another coupon and get more.

I'm pretty sure Plugra is less than that at Fresh Farms all the time. I'll check when I go later.

stevez wrote:

pairs4life wrote:I had a coupon for Plum Market. #plugra was $6. I got 4lbs. Will go back with another coupon and get more.

I'm pretty sure Plugra is less than that at Fresh Farms all the time. I'll check when I go later.

Less than $3 for a pound (#)? I couldn't get a pound of anything for that price at Treasure Island even. And I want less water since it is for baking.

Thanks in advance Steve.

pairs4life wrote:

stevez wrote:

pairs4life wrote:I had a coupon for Plum Market. #plugra was $6. I got 4lbs. Will go back with another coupon and get more.

I'm pretty sure Plugra is less than that at Fresh Farms all the time. I'll check when I go later.

Less than $3 for a pound (#)? I couldn't get a pound of anything for that price at Treasure Island even. And I want less water since it is for baking.

Thanks in advance Steve.

Just looked online and saw $3/pound for an Amish Butter called Minerva (sale price perhaps) in the ad for Fresh Farms.

pairs4life wrote:

stevez wrote:

pairs4life wrote:I had a coupon for Plum Market. #plugra was $6. I got 4lbs. Will go back with another coupon and get more.

I'm pretty sure Plugra is less than that at Fresh Farms all the time. I'll check when I go later.

Less than $3 for a pound (#)? I couldn't get a pound of anything for that price at Treasure Island even. And I want less water since it is for baking.

Thanks in advance Steve.

No. Not less than $3/lb, but less than $6, which is what you wrote in your post.

Elfin, could you explain the "water displacement method",please. I'm just new to baking and I never heard of this. Thanks.

I watched my mom make her pie crusts and pastries and when it came time to measure the soft shortening, butter or lard (fat)she used a two cup Pyrex measuring cup. She partly filled it water and then plopped the soft fat into the water until the desired amount rose the level equal to the measurement. For example if she wanted a cup of fat, she would fill the measuring cup with one cup cold water. Then she would add the desired fat until the the water level rose to two cups. Next, she would remove the fat with a spoon and drain the water out. She said that it was much easier to clean out the cup than if it was measured in a separate cup. Is it accurate in terms of volume-weight-density? It worked well for her and has not let me down. I do not have a kitchen scale and I am old school -as such my recipes are in cups/spoons and not grams.

Elfin- in displacement, you're working strictly with volume. Since that's what your recipe uses for measurement, you will be fine.