# 1899 crime: Serving Margarine that's not pink **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 12, 2010, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820 "2010-04-12T11:24:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/1 "2010-04-12T11:24:30Z")
column today from the Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader: > [@](#): > > John Clayton: The great butter caper > The date in question was Jan. 6, 1899, when 40 of the city’s most hardened criminals were, according to The Mirror, “Taken Unawares by the Supreme Court Authorities” and charged with the most heinous of crimes. > > The offense? The 40 defendants were accused of serving “butterine” to unsuspecting diners. > > In case you can’t find your dictionary, I’ll just tell you that “butterine” is what we know today as margarine, and back in that day and age, there were people in these parts who thought that butterine was on a culinary par with hemlock. > May 11, 2009 new clayton logo > > Yes, back in 1899 – when cows may well have outnumbered people in this dairy intensive state – New Hampshire had strict laws regarding butterine, which is why the Manchester crime wave was front-page news. [http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?articleId=b80b5558-4abb-41fe-946e-156de5074e12&headline=John+Clayton%3A+The+great+butter+caper](http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?articleId=b80b5558-4abb-41fe-946e-156de5074e12&headline=John+Clayton%3a+The+great+butter+caper) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/2 "2010-04-12T11:45:10Z")
And yet now there’s all the hulaboo about “transfats”- were they right about margarine all along? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/3 "2010-04-12T13:23:44Z")
You can always tell when journalists have been watching QI. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/4 "2010-04-12T13:26:42Z")
> [@](#): > > You can always tell when journalists have been watching QI. ??? AFAIK we don’t have QI in the States. > **[QI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QI)** > > QI (Quite Interesting) is a British comedy panel game quiz show for television created and co-produced by John Lloyd. The series currently airs on BBC Two and is presented by Sandi Toksvig. It features permanent panellist Alan Davies and three guest panellists per episode; the panellists are mostly comedians. The series was presented by Stephen Fry from its beginning in 2003 until 2016. > The format of the show focuses on the panellists answering questions that are extremely obscure, making it ... Was this featured on one of their shows? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/5 "2010-04-12T14:26:26Z")
Yeah, they did a fairly long bit on it a few weeks ago. At least I think it was QI… Hopefully someone can back me up on that. And just because QI’s in Britain and we’re in the US doesn’t mean it can’t be seen over here. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/6 "2010-04-12T14:32:18Z")
> [@](#): > > And just because QI’s in Britain and we’re in the US doesn’t mean it can’t be seen over here. Aside from someone copying the show and bringing it over – where? That was my point in linking to the article – it doesn’t list any US venues. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/7 "2010-04-12T15:26:52Z")
AFAIC, they weren’t wrong. Margarine is heinous no matter what color it is. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/8 "2010-04-12T15:28:59Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Aside from someone copying the show and bringing it over – where? That was my point in linking to the article – it doesn’t list any US venues. It’s all over the internet. You can find the vast majority of the episodes on youtube. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/9 "2010-04-12T16:51:33Z")
> [@](#): > > It’s all over the internet. You can find the vast majority of the episodes on youtube. Ahh. Many thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Beerman1963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2acd7d/32.png) [@Beerman1963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beerman1963)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/10 "2010-04-13T02:00:03Z")
So the Beef Council was in control even then?:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/11 "2010-04-13T13:52:23Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > And yet now there’s all the hulaboo about “transfats”- were they right about margarine all along? I believe it was in one of Pollans books which I recently read - either “The Omnivore’s Dilemna” or maybe “In Defense of Food”, that he discusses the history of oleo/butter as a negative example of western food processing/regulation/diets… The idea that “artificial”, processed food substances are legally considered the nutritional equivalent of their “natural” counterparts, and need not be labelled as “imitation.” An interesting theory which I believe has some merit. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/12 "2010-04-14T00:05:10Z")
My mother or grandmother told me once that she was in charge of mixing the coloring in with the margarine when she was a girl…margarine was sold as a white substance, with a yellow coloring agent packaged with it. Margarine could NOT be sold as an artificially colored substance. Interestingly, in _Little House in the Big Woods_, Wilder mentions how the winter butter was colorless, and Ma Ingalls simmered a grated carrot in milk, and added that to the cream before she started churning. So the concept of coloring butter and butterlike substances was known back then, though I don’t know how widespread the practice was. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/13 "2010-04-14T01:37:55Z")
Pink? Was it ever pink? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/14 "2010-04-14T01:59:27Z")
I think Quebec has a similar law, that says margarine can’t have colour added. I don’t know if it’s still on the books, but as of about 20 years ago it was. (IIRC) ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/15 "2010-04-14T02:14:03Z")
When we lived in New Brunswick in the late sixties and early seventies, margarine was sold with a yellow dye capsule for home mixing, as a way of (sorta) circumventing legislation against selling margarine coloured in such a way as to resemble butter. I used to think that this was a product of an the incomprehensible stupidity of the past which we are thankfully clear of now, except that currently you can not legally purchase “soy cheese,” ostensibly because this would be intolerably confusing for consumers – instead, we have “soy loaf.” I would not complain at all if all of the members the various dairy councils were churned until they reached homogeneous consistency and then spread on toast. ---
**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/16 "2010-04-14T02:38:40Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > I think Quebec has a similar law, that says margarine can’t have colour added. I don’t know if it’s still on the books, but as of about 20 years ago it was. (IIRC) Quebec’s law on margarine colour was repealed less than two years ago. [This CBC article](http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/07/09/f-margarine.html) gives a detailed discussion of the history of margarine laws in Canada. My grandmother grew up in Quebec, but lived in Ontario for the last several decades of her life. She refused to eat white margarine, and on one family trip to her home town in the Gaspe region (when the Quebec law on colours was still in effect), we had to make an excursion to New Brunswick in search of coloured margarine for her. This was no small matter; at my last check she had five tubs of margarine in her refrigerator. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/17 "2010-04-14T03:03:57Z")
> [@](#): > > In case you can’t find your dictionary, I’ll just tell you that “butterine” is what we know today as margarine, and back in that day and age, **there were people in these parts who thought that butterine was on a culinary par with hemlock**. Still are, actually 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/18 "2010-04-14T07:06:19Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > I used to think that this was a product of an the incomprehensible stupidity of the past which we are thankfully clear of now, except that currently you can not legally purchase “soy cheese,” ostensibly because this would be intolerably confusing for consumers – instead, we have “soy loaf.” I thought “cheese product” was an acceptable label for such a thing. My sister has a packet of the stuff, lemme go look. _Runs to fridge_ Ah, it appears the package says “cheese food alternative.” So I guess you CAN have the word “cheese” on the label, but it has to be cushioned with other words. “Soy loaf” sounds far more confusing than “soy cheese product” or “cheese food alternative.” ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1899-crime-serving-margarine-thats-not-pink/535820/19 "2010-04-14T07:11:26Z")
“butterine” is still a better name than “I can’t believe it’s not butter”.