Butter to Oil Conversion

Oil is an important component of food storage. It improves the flavor and texture of the things you cook, and greatly increases the number of recipes you can make with your food storage. However, some of my favorite recipes call for butter, and I wanted to find a conversion ratio so that I could substitute oil when necessary.

Last week, I decided I wanted to use olive oil in my bread instead of butter. So, I used 1 cup of oil instead of 1 1/2 cups butter. (My recipe makes several very large loaves per batch.) I figured that was a good ratio, and it wasn't until that evening that I looked on the internet and was surprised by exactly how close I was to the proper ratio! Here is a chart I found. It is specific to olive oil, but should also work fairly well for canola and vegetables oils. Basically, when changing from butter to oil, it is a 4 to 3 conversion, meaning that for 4 parts of butter, you only need to use 3 parts of oil, ie: 1/4 cup butter (which is 4 tablespoons) is equal to 3 Tbsp. oil, 1 cup of butter is equal to 3/4 cup of oil; 1 1/2 cups of butter is equal to 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. oil.

Remember, though, that this is for things like breads and muffins that are not entirely dependent on the butter for texture. Cookie recipes wouldn't work with this substitution because you have to cream together the butter and sugar in order to achieve the proper lift and texture in the final product.