Why do we spread butter/margerine on our bread?

Question

It may be a tradition, so why did the FIRST people to do it, do it? Was it to stop jam running through the bread, or was it to stop it becoming too soggy? Perhaps it was to add flavour to the combination.... any actual facts or some educated guesswork?

Answer 1

apart from adding flavour..i reckon its because dry toast is hard to digest - adding butter moistens & makes this a bit easier...just a guess though!

Answer 2

Butter was around long before people discovered Mahon in Menorca (and, of course, mayonnaise)
Beef dripping (plus lots of the bits out of the roasting dish), with added salt and pepper, on hot toast was wonderful when we were only allowed 2oz (?) butter per week during the War years. Margarine then was dreaful - a bit like eating candle grease, with a very harsh flavour. No different varieties so it was take it or leave it.
I always understood that the practice of spreading bread with some fat made it more palatable, when home-made country bread, made with village ground grains, was nothing like the
bread made with refined grains and better yeast varieties, developed specifically for bread making we have today. Yeast used in the past for breadmaking was usually brewers yeast.
Bread was usually baked in the black oven range which was part of the fireplace, in my granny's house. It came out brown and as hard as a rock (plus bits of black soot!). Not too bad if you broke it into milk to use as a breakfast cereal.

Answer 3

I believe it goes back to the times when food was more scarce and having the spread, which was originally animal fat - dripping was given as additional calories. Butter obviously tasted far nicer to most people than butter, but at one time this was only for the upper classes. Not sure when margarine came into the picture, but it was a tastier alternative to dripping and less expensive than butter. The fat content does provide a barrier for the filling, although you can use mayonnaise or salad cream to the same effect, not so nice with jam though.

Answer 4

I think it's because, people used to be really poor, so a lot of people had either butter or jam. In other words the question at tea time would be would you like butter on your bread, or would you prefer jam? only posh people could afford both, so using both was a sign of affluence. Then again, I could be wrong....

Answer 5

We put butter on a bread because it is a tradition from Europe and we do not want to dis respect the queen

Answer 6

As said before its probably to stop food which goes in between the bread making it soggy although mayonnaise works just as well

Answer 7

Yes you are right, butter or margarine adds that extra flavour to the bread, however, it also keeps the bread moist and easy to eat.

Answer 8

Not 100% sure but it was probably done originally to help add moisture to stale bread as there didn't used to be the level of preservative in bread as there is now.

Answer 9

I think also bread is too dry without butter or oil, it also adds more flavour.

Answer 10

well i think it is because on its own it is dry. also in the old days nothing was thrown away and wasted like today so when the bread got stale it was still eaten and to make it taste better they used butter/marg. these are just my opinions.