Butter, Eggs, and Holiday Baking

[catapault]

I'm about to order the candied fruit for fruitcake, which gets baked the weekend after Thanksgiving. As I'm sure everyone is aware the price of butter and eggs has climbed astronomically. Each batch of fruitcake requires 3/4 pound of butter (I only use unsalted) and 6 eggs. I make 5 or 6.

Costco has a 4 pound package of butter at a somewhat more reasonable price than the by-the-pound price at the supermarket. Do you think the quality is comparable or will it affect my holiday baking?

Any comments, thoughts, suggestions gratefully appreciated.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi
The Costco butter will be fine I've used it and didn't detect any difference.

 

[Kat0121]

I've only heard good things about the Kirkland brand. I don't have a Costco around here. I wish I did. The closest one is almost 70 miles one way. If I did I probably would buy their house brand for most stuff.

 

[lizzie]

I never buy the name brands of butter.Usually I buy Aldi's brand by the pound and I've never noticed anything off or different in my cooking or baking.

 

[nurseangel]

I think it would be fine. Most "off-brand" items are made by name brand companies anyway. I bet it will be every bit as good.

 

[denice]

I haven't used Costco brands, but I did a lot of baking when the kids were still at home. I always used the store brands for baking and things turned out fine. I only get the more expensive butter for table use; I can tell the difference there but a little goes a long way.

 

[Winchester]

I wish we had a Costco close by. I'd join in a heartbeat. I've heard nothing but good things about the Kirkland brands for pretty much everything.

We have a Sam's Club and joined a couple months ago (I got in for $5, so Rick wanted to try it out). Not sure about their Members' Mark butter lately, but I think I'm going to try it again. Years (decades) ago we went to Sam's and the MM butter did not do well with my cookies; they were very flat and I blamed it on the butter. I'm willing to try it again. At our Giant, Land O Lakes and Keller's unsalted butter is now over $5 a pound. Ridiculous. I bought 3 dozen large eggs the last time we were at Sam's and haven't had any trouble with them.

Holiday baking is going to be interesting with these prices!

 

[catapault]

Thank you, everyone, for your positive reports re Costco butter. I will get three 4-lb packages which will be sufficient for 4 batches of fruitcake.

Ordered the candied fruit yesterday - diced orange peel, diced lemon peel, diced citron, diced pineapple, whole red cherries. Prices for some is the same as last year, a couple have gone up by a dollar a pound (most are $6.99/pound, others are $8.99/pound.) Need to buy raisins, yellow raisins, dried currants (which are really just small raisins) and brandy to soak them in.

Sing tra la la!

 

[catapault]

All three batches of fruitcake are baked. Periodically baptized with brandy. I was mislead about the price of the candied fruit. They were $9.99 for the candied pineapple, $8.99 for everything else. That's about 20% more than last year, which was about 20% more than in 2020. I used to buy 2 pounds of each. Now down to 3/4 pound each. Add in the fact that these dense and heavy little cakes are getting more and more expensive to mail (thank you Postmaster DeJoy!) and it's getting to me an expensive operation.

BTW Winchester I was in Costco and there was a woman loading two 25 pound bags of KA flour into her cart. I mentioned something about holiday baking. She agreed, said this was the good flour. And that the little girl (her granddaughter) sitting in the cart's seat was her helper. Taste tester, I asked? And we both smiled while the little girl looked serious.

 

[Winchester]

If anybody is close to a Trader Joe's, their butter is $3.99 a pound. I tried it in my cookies and they were fine. I'd recommend their butter. If we get back to TJ's, I'll be buying more.

 

[Furballsmom]

Wow, thanks for the tip! I have someone headed over that way today, excellent timing