this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2025
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Around the 1930s and 1940s, Arthur Imhausen developed and implemented an industrial process in Germany for producing edible fats by oxidizing synthetic paraffin wax made from coal.

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[–] tae_glas@slrpnk.net 21 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

that whole page is wild, i'd no idea margarine was outright banned in some places for nearly a century, resulting in bootleg margarine, or that there were so many bans on colouring it yellow to rival butter. 🤯

some places forcing margarine to be pink (to make it seem unpalatable) wouldn't have worked on me imo, foods need more whimsy

[–] ButteryMonkey@piefed.social 23 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

If you like colored food, I highly recommend adding pandan to your ingredients cabinet.

Pandan works in place of vanilla, tho much thicker, and it dyes your food a brilliant emerald green. Makes beautiful baked goods.

I used it to make what I called “teenage mutant ninja turtle cheesecake cookies” which were just turtle cheesecake cookies made with pandan so they were green filling with brown accents, and arranged to look like turtles.. and they were a wild success!

Example:

[–] tae_glas@slrpnk.net 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

that's incredible! 🤩💚 i'll keep an eye out for pandan for sure!

[–] ButteryMonkey@piefed.social 5 points 3 weeks ago

Check with Asian/Indian groceries; it originates in SE Asia, so that’s the most likely place to find it locally. I got mine online, which is also an option :)

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 16 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

The process required at least 60 kilograms of coal per kilogram of synthetic butter.

Now we know what the US will do with those coal mines if they ever get replaced. Rev up those friers.

[–] PlanterTree@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Some startups are already working on it lol.