Butter substitutes, and the one job oil cannot do
Stick margarine replaces butter 1:1, and oil replaces melted butter at about 85 percent. What works in cookies, cake and pastry, and which swaps cut saturated fat.
How they compare, per 100 g
Most substitute guides tell you what works and stop there. If you are choosing partly on macros, here are the numbers side by side.
Oil, shortening, ghee and coconut oil are almost pure fat, about a quarter more than butter by weight, which is why you use less of them. Yogurt and the fruit purées carry almost none, which is why they can only replace part of it.
| Per 100 g | kcal | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Butter | 717 | 0.9 g | 0.1 g | 81 g |
| Stick margarine, 80% fat | 717 | 0.2 g | 0.7 g | 81 g |
| Olive oil | 884 | 0 g | 0 g | 100 g |
| Canola oil | 884 | 0 g | 0 g | 100 g |
| Coconut oil | 892 | 0 g | 0 g | 99 g |
| Vegetable shortening | 884 | 0 g | 0 g | 100 g |
| Ghee | 876 | 0.3 g | 0 g | 99.5 g |
| Avocado | 160 | 2 g | 8.5 g | 14.7 g |
| Plain Greek yogurt, fat-free | 59 | 10 g | 3.6 g | 0.4 g |
| Unsweetened applesauce | 42 | 0.2 g | 11.3 g | 0.2 g |
| Mashed banana | 89 | 1.1 g | 22.8 g | 0.3 g |
| Canned pumpkin | 34 | 1.1 g | 8.1 g | 0.3 g |
Typical values, rounded. Brands vary, so treat these as estimates for comparing options rather than exact figures.
Every option, and when to use it
Which one works depends on what the ingredient is doing in the recipe, so here is the full list, with where each one fails.
| Use | How much | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Stick margarine, 80% fat | 1:1 | any baking, including creamed cookies and cakes, and pastry Watch out: tubs and spreads carry more water, so check for 80% fat or about 11 g of fat per tablespoon, and for milk if you avoid dairy |
| Plant butter sticks | 1:1, if the label shows about 11 g of fat per tablespoon | dairy-free and vegan baking, creamed or rubbed in Watch out: those made mostly from coconut or palm oil are high in saturated fat |
| Vegetable oil or light olive oil | 3/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tbsp per cup of butter, or 80 g per 100 g | brownies, muffins, quick breads, pancakes, oil cakes and all savoury cooking Watch out: it cannot be creamed, so cookies come out flatter and crisper and butter cakes denser, and it fails in pastry |
| Coconut oil, refined | about 185 g per cup of butter, weighed | dairy-free cookies and cakes, because it is solid below about 78F (25C) and creams like butter Watch out: more saturated fat than butter, and unrefined coconut oil tastes of coconut |
| Vegetable shortening | a little over 7/8 cup per cup of butter, plus about 2 tbsp milk or water | pie crust, and cookies you do not want to spread Watch out: no flavour of its own, and paler bakes |
| Ghee | a little over 7/8 cup per cup of butter, plus about 2 tbsp water in baking | frying and roasting, because the milk solids that burn in butter have been removed Watch out: still dairy, with more saturated fat than butter |
| Greek yogurt | up to half the butter, same volume | muffins and quick breads Watch out: adds tang, and fails in cookies and pastry |
| Unsweetened applesauce, mashed banana or canned pumpkin | up to half the butter, same volume | muffins, brownies and banana bread Watch out: bakes turn denser and more cake-like, and banana tastes of banana |
| Mashed avocado | up to half the butter in brownies; on toast, as much as you like | chocolate bakes and toast Watch out: can tint a pale bake green |
| Extra virgin olive oil | 1:1 in a pan, or a little less | savoury cooking, roasting, and bread for dipping Watch out: too strongly flavoured for most sweet baking |
Stick margarine at 80 percent fat replaces butter 1:1 in anything, and oil replaces melted butter at about 85 percent of the volume. What nothing liquid can do is the job butter does when it is creamed with sugar or rubbed into flour, which is why cookies and pastry are where butter substitutes fail.
The rest of this page is what butter is doing in each kind of recipe, how much of each substitute to use, and which swaps actually cut saturated fat, since two of the popular ones add it.
What butter is doing in the recipe
Butter is at least 80 percent milk fat by US law, and between 80 and 90 percent in Britain and the EU, where the water is capped at 16 percent. USDA figures put ordinary salted butter at 81 percent fat and 16 percent water, with the rest mostly milk solids and salt.
Each part has a job:
- The fat tenderises, and because butter is solid at room temperature it can be beaten with sugar to trap air, which is how creamed cakes and cookies rise.
- The water turns to steam in the oven. That lifts pastry into layers and helps cookies spread.
- The milk solids brown, which gives bakes much of their colour and flavour.
Stick margarine and plant butter sticks come closest, because they are built the same way: about 80 percent fat and most of the rest water. They cream and they steam. What they lack is the milk solids, so expect a little less browning and less butter flavour. Every other substitute does one or two of the jobs, which is fine as long as they are the ones your recipe needs.
How much to use instead of 1 cup of butter
A US cup of butter is two sticks, 227 g. It carries about 184 g of fat and about 2 1/2 tablespoons of water, so a fat that is pure fat needs less volume to match it.
| Substitute | For 1 cup (227 g) of butter | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Stick margarine, 80% fat | 1 cup | The only straight swap by the numbers |
| Plant butter sticks | 1 cup | If the label shows about 11 g of fat per tablespoon |
| Vegetable oil or light olive oil | 3/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tbsp (about 185 g) | Melted-butter recipes only |
| Coconut oil | About 185 g | Weigh it: solid to cream, melted to pour |
| Shortening or ghee | A little over 7/8 cup (about 185 g), plus about 2 tbsp milk or water | The liquid gives back the water butter had |
| Greek yogurt, applesauce, banana or pumpkin | Up to 1/2 cup, keeping 1/2 cup butter | They add moisture, not fat |
The common advice to use three quarters as much oil gives you about 11 percent less fat than the butter had. In a cake or a tray of brownies nobody notices. Serious Eats suggests about 15 percent less oil than butter, which is almost exactly the fat-matched amount above. By weight it is simpler: 80 g of oil for every 100 g of butter.
Going the other way, melted butter in a recipe that calls for oil, is covered on vegetable oil substitutes, along with the swaps that cut the fat.
Butter substitutes for baking
Look at what the recipe does with the butter before you choose a substitute.
| The recipe says | What the butter is doing | Use | Avoid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cream the butter and sugar | Trapping air | Stick margarine, plant butter sticks, shortening, solid coconut oil | Oil, yogurt, fruit purées |
| Melt the butter | Adding fat and moisture | Oil, or any solid fat melted | Nothing much: this is the easy case |
| Rub in or cut in cold butter | Making steam, and layers | Cold shortening, stick margarine or plant butter sticks | Oil, which soaks the flour |
Milk Street’s testing found the same split: oil is a reasonable swap where the butter is melted, and a poor one wherever it is creamed or cut in.
Butter substitute for cookies
King Arthur baked the same chocolate chip cookie with each fat, swapped by volume, and butter won on appearance, texture and flavour. Shortening baked pale, soft and tender. Olive oil spread the most and came out crunchy. Coconut oil spread little and turned cakey and slightly dry.
The missing water explains part of that. Shortening and coconut oil have none, so if you want the spread butter gives, add about 2 tablespoons of milk or water per cup of fat. That is the fix King Arthur suggests for its brown butter batch, which has lost its water the same way.
Butter substitute for cake
Oil makes a moister cake that stays soft for longer, because it stays liquid at room temperature. King Arthur now replaces 25 to 50 percent of the butter in several of its cakes with oil for exactly that reason. In a creamed butter cake, keep at least half the fat solid so the batter still traps air.
Pie crust, scones and biscuits
Use a fat that is solid and cold: shortening, stick margarine or a plant butter stick, cut in the way you would cut in butter. Shortening melts at 117 to 119F against butter’s 90 to 95F, by King Arthur’s figures, so it holds its shape in the oven at the cost of flavour, which is why some pie recipes use half of each. Oil does not work here at all.
Pancakes, bread and rice
- Pancake batter: swap melted butter for oil at about 85 percent, and grease the pan with oil.
- Enriched bread dough: oil works at 80 g for every 100 g of butter.
- Rice: a spoon of olive oil, or cook the rice in stock and skip the fat.
Healthy butter substitutes, and what cardiologists recommend
On saturated fat, which is what heart guidance is about, the swaps split in two.
| Per 100 g | Saturated fat |
|---|---|
| Coconut oil | 82.5 g |
| Ghee | 61.9 g |
| Butter | 51.4 g |
| Vegetable shortening | 25.0 g |
| Stick margarine, 80% fat | 15.2 g |
| Olive oil | 13.8 g |
| Canola oil | 7.4 g |
| Avocado | 2.1 g |
Figures from USDA FoodData Central. Coconut oil and ghee both carry more saturated fat than the butter they replace. The American Heart Association’s 2017 advisory on dietary fats advises against coconut oil for that reason, and its advice is to replace saturated fats like butter with unsaturated oils such as canola, soybean and olive oil. Its target is under 6 percent of calories from saturated fat, about 13 g a day on 2,000 calories. A tablespoon of butter carries about 7 g.
The fruit purées and yogurt are the only swaps that cut calories as well as fat. Half a cup of unsweetened applesauce in place of half a cup of butter takes about 760 calories out of the batch, by USDA values. The honest cost is texture: the bake turns denser and more cake-like, and the swap only works in muffins, quick breads and brownies.
Dairy-free and vegan butter substitutes
Plant butter sticks are the closest, and they cream and rub in like butter. Oil, shortening and coconut oil are dairy free too.
Check margarine before assuming it is. US rules for margarine allow milk, whey and casein in it, so read the label. And if saturated fat is part of why you are swapping, compare labels on plant butters too, because those built on coconut or palm oil can carry a lot of it.
Butter and shortening, in both directions
Shortening for butter: a little over 7/8 cup of shortening per cup of butter, about 185 g, plus about 2 tablespoons of milk or water to replace butter’s water.
Butter for shortening: 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of butter per cup of shortening, which matches the fat, and take about 2 tablespoons of liquid out of the recipe if it has any. Butter melts at a much lower temperature, so cookies spread more and pie crust needs to go into the oven properly cold.
In Britain, shortening is sold as white vegetable fat.
On toast, and where butter is the sauce
On toast, olive oil, mashed avocado, a nut butter, or a spread of ricotta or cream cheese all do the job, and none of them is trying to be butter.
Where butter is the sauce, as in a proper alfredo or a butter-basted steak, there is no substitute, only a different dish. Olive oil, parmesan and starchy pasta water make a good one; it just is not alfredo. The alfredo without cream on this site is built on butter for that reason.
Butter in Britain
The same product, measured differently. A US stick is 113 g, half a cup. British butter comes in 250 g blocks, and British recipes weigh it, which makes every conversion on this page simpler: 80 g of oil or 80 g of shortening for every 100 g of butter.
Buttermilk is a different ingredient
If you were looking for a buttermilk substitute, that is soured milk rather than butter, and the fix is different: buttermilk substitutes has the 10-minute version.
Macro and saturated fat figures are per 100 g from USDA FoodData Central, rounded, and brands vary. Treat them as estimates for comparing options rather than exact figures.
Common questions
Liquid plant oils. The American Heart Association advises replacing saturated fats such as butter with unsaturated oils like canola, soybean and olive oil, and advises against coconut oil, which is about 82% saturated fat. Its target is under 6% of calories from saturated fat, about 13 g a day on 2,000 calories, and one tablespoon of butter carries about 7 g.
Nothing without milk fat tastes quite like butter. Brown butter and ghee are still butter, but browning the milk solids gets more flavour out of the same amount. Without dairy, plant butters are built to imitate it, and in savoury cooking a good olive oil with a pinch of salt gives you richness rather than a butter flavour.
Olive oil, in much of Italian cooking, and even in cakes: torta all'olio is an olive oil cake. Butter is traditional in the north, where it finishes risotto, so the honest answer depends on the region.
Nothing tastes exactly like butter without being mostly milk fat. The closest with far less saturated fat is a margarine or plant butter made from liquid oils: USDA figures put an 80% stick margarine at about 15 g of saturated fat per 100 g, against about 51 g for butter. Check the label, because plant butters made mostly from coconut or palm oil are much higher.
About 3/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons, roughly 185 g, which matches the fat in a cup of butter. The common rule of 3/4 cup gives you a little less fat, which most cakes and brownies do not mind. Only use oil where the recipe melts the butter. Where it creams butter with sugar, oil cannot hold the air and the result is denser.