Not Touched By Hand

Frequently my grandmother will give me recipes that include "oleo" amongst its ingredients. While I inferred that this was some type of margarine-like substance, I always thought it was a particular brand that she favored. But I have just learned from Ann Vileisis's Kitchen Literacy, oleomargarine is what they originally called fake butter when it was first produced. It was initially developed in France as a cheap substitute for butter, but we started producing it in the U.S. in order to transform the waste fats (yum) of our growing meat industry into a profitable product. When oleo first came out, people were beginning to be concerned about germs, so advertisements for oleo boasted that it was "not touched by hand."