New Year's Eve 2009 - Margarine Earth Balance vs. Nucoa

New Year’s Eve 2009 was a very good day. Good friends, games, a little wine and dun, dun, dun….Dinner Impossible (or so it seemed)! One of my friends is lactose intolerant and her husband is diabetic - wow, what a combination to cook for! The biggest concern was the lactose intolerance though. Dinner - brown sugar, garlic glazed ham steaks, piquant sweet potatoes and garlic, lemon sautéed mushrooms. The sweet potatoes and mushrooms weren’t a problem we just replaced the normal butter in the recipes with olive oil. The ham glaze was made by sautéing finely minced garlic in a little Nucoa (no lactose margarine that my friend uses),  brown sugar and a little more Nucoa. The sugar and the Nucoa melted.  The Nucoa then foamed (just like butter would) but just sat on top of the sugar. Hum. Now I have never used Nucoa, never heard of Nucoa until then, so I wasn’t really sure what was happening at this point. I did know though that the sugar had caramelized and if we didn’t pull it off of the heat soon, it would be burnt sugar. So we pulled the pan from the heat and spooned the now liquid Nucoa off of the top of the caramelized brown sugar/garlic glaze. Glazed the ham steaks and back in the oven. They turned out fine.

Now I'm really curious about the Nucoa. I was able to locate Nucoa at a local grocery store and also picked up another brand Earth Balance (“vegan buttery sticks”). The first thing I notice is the “NO BURN” statement right on the front of the Nucoa box. Well that explains how we had almost burnt sugar with little to no change in the Nucoa. Nucoa is completely soy based giving it a very high smoke point  (about 450 degrees F). Under normal cooking circumstances it will not burn. I have read many articles about both of these products and how well they bake up. Being a culinarian, I personally would chose to use neither of these. I would use butter. But because the whole point of me looking into this was because of my friend who is lactose intolerant, I would chose the Earth Balance (EB) from a nutritional stand point. (Nutritional information at end of this entry). It is made up of expeller pressed natural oils not partially hydorgentated oils. The EB also has lower poly- and mono-unsaturated fats and no trans fats and is slightly lower in sodium and no artificial flavors. According to the box the EB also contains NO Dairy, NO MSG, NO Alcohol and NO gluten. Which makes EB a good choice for those who are gluten sensitive/allergic or who have Celiac disease, as well as dairy or casein allergies. I decided since I’m here I might as well compare how the two work in different cooking methods. These are my opinions and observations.  Both products are owned and distributed by GFA Brands, Inc.

Earth Balance vs. Nucoa

Appearance: Nucoa is yellow like a lot of margarines (artificial color) while EB is lighter than supermarket butter and about the same color as my home churned butter.
Straight taste: Because both are oil based they both have a solid, oily mouth feel (not pleasant or melty like butter). The Nucoa is definitely saltier. On toast they both melt similar to butter. The Nucoa has an only slightly better “flavor” on bread than the EB again artificially enhanced like the color. The EB tastes more like oil. Neither would I use for a spread on toast, biscuits etc.
Melting: both melted quickly in a moderately hot stainless sauté pan. The Earth Balance didn’t let foods stick though.
Baking: why not something that relies heavily on BUTTER - brioche. I used the same recipe for both loaves changing the milk to soy milk as well to stick to the lactose free theme.
Both doughs were very similar in texture and feel when working with them raw and surprisingly (or not so) not as difficult to work with as a real butter brioche dough. The EB dough came together better though and raised better.
Nucoa “brioche” - baked up in the expected amount of time and browned nicely on the top as well as the sides. Flaky more like a canned biscuit than brioche. Tasted like it was made with oil.
EB “brioche” - took an extra 7 minutes to bake but browned nicely on top and sides. Fluffy more cake like texture. Both internally were more like cake than brioche. Tastewise though the Earth Balance is by far better, still slightly oily in flavor but much better than the Nucoa.

Nucoa
GFA Brands, Inc.
Paramus, NJ 07652-1432
201-568-9300

Nutritional Information (from box)
Serving size 1 Tbsp (14g)
Liquid Soybean oil Calories 100 calories (from fat)
Partially hydrogenated soybean oil Total Fat 11g
Water Saturated fat 2g
Salt Trans Fat 1.5g
Emulsifiers(vegetable monoglycerides, soy lecithin) Polyunsaturated Fat 3.5g
Artificial flavors Monounsaturated Fat 3.5g
Calcium disodium EDTA Sodium 160mg
Citric acid Cholesterol 0mg
Vitamin A Palmitate Total Carbohydrate 0g
Colored with beta carotene (Provitamin A) Protein 0g
Contains no milk

Earth Balance
GFA Brands, Inc.
Paramus, NJ 07652-1432
201-568-9300

Nutritional Information (from box)
Serving Size 1Tbsp (14g)
Expeller-pressed natural oil blend (soybean, palm fruit, canola and olive oils) Calories 100 (from fat)
Filtered water Total Fat 11g
Pure salt Saturated Fat 4.5g
Natural flavor (derived from corn) Trans Fat 0g
Soy protein Polyunsaturated Fat 3g
Soy lecithin Monounsaturated Fat 3g
Lactic acid (non-dairy, derived from sugar beets) Cholesterol 0mg
Colored with beta carotene from natural sources Sodium 120mg
No MSG, no alcohol, no gluten Total Carbohydrate 0g
Protein 0g