Margarine

Margarine is a spread used for flavoring, baking and cooking, developed mainly as a substitute for butter, and is a water-in-fat emulsion of tiny water droplets dispersed through a stable solid fat phase; it was originally made from animal fats but today is predominantly made from vegetable oil. French chemist Hippolyte Mege-Mouries invented it in 1869 after Napoleon III called for a butter substitute made from beef tallow to feed the armed forces and the poor, and the name oleomargarine comes from the Latin oleum, olive oil, and the Greek margarite, pearl, describing its lustrous appearance; in parts of the American South it is sometimes still called oleo. Unlike butter, which is made by centrifuging cream, margarine requires more intensive processing of refined vegetable oil and water, and it is used in pastries, doughnuts, cakes, biscuits and cookies.