Why you won’t find margarine in our Pies!

Butter 🧈 vs Margarine. This happens to be one of Director, Simon’s favourite topics. If you get him started on processed nonsense then you absolutely won’t be able to get him to stop!

One of the Chunk t-shirts you’ll catch him wearing occasionally in the office says “we back cows over chemists” and this is what it’s all about. Margarine was invented in the mid 1800s surprisingly in France (a land often known for simple homecooked nosh) but it wasn't until after the war and rationing that it really took off! It was then some folks where able to do some clever marketing and make it … well, look like butter!

The trouble is margarine is made from oil and water. No, they do not stick together all that easily so we end up using some chemical ‘dyglicerides’ to glue these two components together … and that’s where all the nasty stuff is!

And, when (poor quality) oil and water are mixed, they’re pretty tasteless so then we need to add some flavouring to make it taste … well, like butter (ish) … once again, it’s back to the lab to concoct some nice tasting additives packed with all sorts of chemicals and unpronounceable names (E numbers as they’re known!).

There is one other little issue with combining oil and water – they look pretty anemic and unpalatable. So now, we need some colourings to make it look … well, like butter! Have a guess where we head for that … it’s straight back to those chemists who concoct some other nasties to achieve a yellow colour!

Sounds like a real fag, doesn’t it!? It’s probably best on all counts just to have the real thing – BUTTER! But the problem is once we make margarine on an industrial scale its really dirt cheap so gets used left, right and center in the food industry.

Additionally, there are a number of health benefits of eating butter. One brilliant advantage of using butter is that it’s a great source of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid). The synthesised supplement all the keenest gym goers take which claims to fight fat are naturally occurring in butter! It has various health benefits, including protecting against certain types of cancer. There are also a whole host of vitamins found in butter – A, D, E and B12.

This attitude forms part of our mantra here at Chunk HQ. We opt to use natural ingredients and avoid nasties wherever we can in our pies, pasties and sausage rolls so you know you're getting good honest bakes like the ones you'd make at home (just less of the work!!).

 go on - take a Chunk!