Olive Oil Butter: The Spreads, the Swap, and What Each Is For
Olive oil butter is one of those searches that returns two unrelated answers, and most articles pick one without telling you which. Some people typing it want a product: the tub of soft, pale spread in the chiller marked with an olive, which is not butter and is mostly not olive oil either. Others want a technique: how to use olive oil in a recipe that asks for butter, and whether the result will hold together. Those are genuinely different questions with different answers, and the fastest way to be useful is to separate them before saying anything else. This article does both — what is actually in the tub, and the ratios that work when you swap.
For our own oil, see our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil.
The Short Answer
- "Olive oil butter" means one of two things: an olive oil spread sold in a tub, or the practice of substituting olive oil for butter in cooking and baking.
- An olive oil spread is not butter, and it is mostly not olive oil. Bertolli's spread is labelled as a vegetable fat spread with 10% olive oil, with rapeseed and palm oils listed ahead of the olive oil; its butter-and-olive-oil variant lists olive oil at 17% and butter at 10%.
- The naming is not marketing sleight of hand — it is regulated. Under the retained EU spreadable fats rules, "butter" is reserved for a product with a milk-fat content of not less than 80% and less than 90%, no more than 16% water and no more than 2% non-fat milk solids.
- For substitution, the ratio depends entirely on the job. Sauteing, roasting and greasing are a straight one-for-one swap; cakes and muffins take about three-quarters the amount, because butter is part water and oil is not.
- Some things simply do not swap: laminated pastry, shortbread, buttercream, creamed sponge cakes and browned butter all depend on fat being solid, or on milk solids that olive oil does not contain.
- The compositions differ, which is a statement about fatty acids and nothing more. Butter is around 80% fat by weight, roughly two-thirds of it saturated; olive oil is essentially all fat, with monounsaturated oleic acid typically making up 55–83% of its fatty acids depending on origin and variety.
- Sidr & Stone does not make a spread. Our Marrakech olive oil is single-estate, rain-fed, organically grown and cold-pressed within hours of harvest — one ingredient, and no emulsion.
Two Different Things Are Called Olive Oil Butter
Olive oil butter refers either to a manufactured spread — an emulsion of blended vegetable oils and water, sold in a tub, in which olive oil is usually a minority ingredient — or to the everyday practice of using olive oil in place of butter when cooking. The first is a product you buy. The second is a decision you make. Confusing them is why so much advice on the subject reads oddly.
There is a third, smaller category worth naming: the block-form plant butters that list olive oil among their fats and are shaped and wrapped like a pack of butter. These sit closer to butter in behaviour than a tub spread does, because they are formulated to be firm at fridge temperature rather than scoopable.
| What people mean | What it actually is | Does it behave like butter? |
|---|---|---|
| A tub of olive oil spread | A water-in-oil emulsion of blended vegetable oils, with olive oil usually a minority ingredient, plus emulsifiers and salt | On toast, broadly yes. In baking and frying, not reliably — the water content changes everything |
| A block plant butter listing olive oil | A firmer plant-fat block formulated to stay solid at fridge temperature | The closest of the three, and usually the only one a pastry recipe will tolerate |
| Using olive oil instead of butter | Not a product at all — a substitution, made per recipe | Depends entirely on the job; see the ratio table below |
Olive Oil Spreads: What Is Actually in the Tub
The single most useful fact about olive oil spreads is that the olive oil is rarely the main event. Bertolli's spread is declared on pack as a vegetable fat spread with 10% olive oil; its ingredients list vegetable oils — rapeseed, palm and olive — followed by water, salt, buttermilk, emulsifiers, natural flavourings and added vitamins A and D. The butter-and-olive-oil variant lists olive oil at 17% and butter at 10%, alongside palm and rapeseed oils. Both are honest labels. They are simply not what the shelf-glance suggests.
Nor is the wording arbitrary. Spreadable fats in the UK and the EU are governed by the marketing standards in Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, which retain force in UK law, and they define the vocabulary precisely: a spreadable fat is a product with a fat content of at least 10% and less than 90% that remains solid at 20°C, and the words "butter" and "margarine" are reserved for products of at least 80% fat. Anything with less has to say so in its name.
| Designation | What the rules require | Fat source |
|---|---|---|
| Butter | Milk fat of not less than 80% and less than 90%; water no more than 16%; non-fat milk solids no more than 2% | Milk fat only |
| Margarine | Fat content of not less than 80% | Plant and/or animal fats other than milk fat |
| Dairy spread / fat spread | Reduced-fat versions of the above; the fat percentage must appear in the name | Milk fat, or other fats, respectively |
| Blend / blended spread | Products combining milk fat with other fats must be designated as a blend | Both |
| Spreadable fats generally | Fat content at least 10% and less than 90%, solid at 20°C | Any of the above |
So a tub can lawfully carry an olive on the front while listing olive oil third. The remedy is the same as it always is with olive oil: read the ingredients before the front label. Our guide to the olive oil blend goes into how a small proportion of olive oil ends up carrying a whole product's name, which is exactly the pattern at work here.
Swapping Olive Oil for Butter: The Ratios That Work
The arithmetic behind every ratio below is one fact: butter is roughly four-fifths fat and the rest is water and milk solids, while olive oil is fat all the way through. Where the water does not matter — a hot pan, a roasting tin — the swap is one for one. Where the water was doing structural work, you use less oil and sometimes put a little liquid back.
| Use | Ratio | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Sauteing and pan-frying | 1:1 by volume | A straight swap, and the pan is ready sooner — there are no milk solids to catch and burn |
| Roasting vegetables or meat | 1:1 | Oil coats more evenly and copes with oven temperatures better than butter alone |
| Greasing tins and dishes | 1:1 or less | A brush of oil goes further than a smear of butter |
| Cakes, muffins, brownies, quick breads | About three-quarters — roughly 75ml oil per 100g butter | Add a splash of milk or yoghurt if the batter looks dry |
| Bread, focaccia and enriched doughs | 1:1 | Olive oil's oldest baking partnership; no adjustment needed |
| Roux, bechamel and pan sauces | 1:1 by weight | It works, but the sauce sits looser and tastes of oil rather than dairy |
| On toast or bread | No ratio applies | Use the oil neat, or make the spreadable blend described below |
| Creamed sponge cakes | Does not swap | The lift comes from beating air into solid butter and sugar |
| Laminated pastry, shortbread, buttercream | Does not swap | All three depend on fat being solid at room temperature |
| Browned butter | Does not swap | The flavour comes from milk solids toasting; olive oil has none |
The baking row is the one that rewards more detail than a table can carry — which bakes suit the swap, what happens to the crumb, and why an olive oil cake stays tender for days. Our complete guide to olive oil for baking covers that properly, and there is no sense in repeating it here. For the pan rather than the oven, our piece on olive oil for frying deals with what actually happens at heat.
Where the Swap Genuinely Does Not Work
Most articles on this subject are enthusiastic to the point of uselessness, so it is worth being blunt about the failures. They all trace to the same two properties: olive oil is liquid at room temperature, and it contains no milk solids.
Laminated pastry — croissants, puff, rough puff — is built by folding sheets of solid butter between sheets of dough so that steam separates them in the oven. Liquid fat cannot be laminated; it soaks into the dough and the layers never form. Shortbread depends on solid fat too, for its short, snapping texture. Buttercream needs a fat that holds whipped air at room temperature. Creamed sponge cakes get much of their rise from air beaten into butter and sugar, which is a mechanical process oil cannot perform.
And beurre noisette — browned butter — is simply a different ingredient. Its nutty flavour comes from milk proteins and sugars toasting in the pan. There is no olive oil equivalent, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.
The pattern is easy to remember. If the recipe needs the fat to be solid, or needs it to brown, keep the butter. Everywhere else, the oil is at least as good and often better.
Making a Spreadable Olive Oil Butter at Home
If what you actually want is something that spreads straight from the fridge and tastes of olive oil rather than emulsifiers, the home version is trivial and takes five minutes. Soften butter to room temperature, then whip it with olive oil — start at two parts butter to one part oil and go towards equal parts if you want it softer — with a pinch of salt, until it is pale and light. It stays spreadable cold because the oil never fully solidifies.
Two honest notes. It contains dairy, so it keeps like butter rather than like oil: covered, refrigerated, and eaten within a week or so. And it is not butter in the regulated sense — a mixture of milk fat and vegetable fat is a blend, which is precisely the distinction the labelling rules above exist to make. Calling it olive oil butter at your own kitchen table is fine; it simply could not be sold under that name.
Use a good oil. The flavour of the finished thing is almost entirely the flavour of the oil you started with, which is not true of a manufactured spread and is the main reason to bother.
The Objections Worth Taking Seriously
The first objection is the obvious one: surely the point of an olive oil spread is that it is better for you? We are not going to make that argument, because it is a health claim and this is a food. What can be said accurately is compositional. Butter is around 80% fat by weight, of which roughly two-thirds is saturated. Olive oil is essentially all fat, and its dominant fatty acid is monounsaturated oleic acid, typically 55–83% of the profile depending on origin and variety. A spread is neither of those things — it is a formulated blend, and what is in it is on the back of the tub. Read that, and take any dietary decision with a qualified professional rather than a label.
The second objection is that everything will taste of olive oil. In chocolate, coffee and spiced bakes, essentially nothing comes through. In a roasting tin or a pan of onions, the flavour is an improvement rather than an intrusion. Where it does show — delicate sponges, vanilla-forward bakes — the answer is a milder, later-harvest oil rather than abandoning the swap. Choosing that oil well is the subject of our guide to choosing a quality olive oil.
The third is that oil cannot give the structure butter does, and that one is simply correct in the cases listed above. It is also irrelevant to most of what people actually cook. Weeknight cooking is pans, trays, doughs and tray-bakes, and olive oil is at home in all four.
Why Sidr & Stone
We do not make a spread, and we are not going to. A spread is an emulsion built to a specification; our argument is a single ingredient pressed once a season. If you are going to swap butter for oil, the swap is only as good as the bottle you swap in.
- Single-estate — one family-owned grove on the plains outside Marrakech, Morocco, with no blending across origins.
- Rain-fed — no irrigation; the trees take what the season gives them.
- Organically grown — no synthetic fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides.
- Single harvest — a small, limited batch pressed once a season; when it is gone, it is gone until the next one.
- Cold-pressed within hours of harvest — flavour, aroma and polyphenols preserved.
- Unfiltered extra virgin — minimally processed, so it may show a little natural sediment.
- 100% natural — one ingredient, olive oil, and nothing added.
- Dark glass with a gold label — packaging that protects the oil from light.
- Halal certified.
- 10% of profits to charity — a commitment that applies across every Sidr & Stone product.
- Fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
We will not tell you Sidr & Stone is the best olive oil — that would be the very kind of claim this article warns against. What we will say is that our oil is single-estate Moroccan, rain-fed, organically grown and cold-pressed within hours of harvest, and that the evidence of that care is in the taste, the colour and the size of the season's small batch. Our piece on single-estate olive oil explains why we press from one grove rather than several.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is olive oil butter?
The phrase covers two different things. One is an olive oil spread — a tub of blended vegetable oils emulsified with water, in which olive oil is usually a minority ingredient. The other is the practice of substituting olive oil for butter when cooking or baking. They are separate questions with separate answers.
Is olive oil spread the same as butter?
No, and it cannot legally be sold as butter. Under the retained EU spreadable fats rules, "butter" is reserved for a product with a milk-fat content of not less than 80% and less than 90%, no more than 16% water and no more than 2% non-fat milk solids. An olive oil spread is a different designation with a different composition.
How much olive oil replaces butter?
It depends on the job. For sauteing, roasting, greasing tins and most bread doughs, swap one for one. For cakes, muffins and brownies use about three-quarters the amount — roughly 75ml of oil per 100g of butter — because butter is part water and olive oil is not.
Can you spread olive oil on toast?
Yes, and across the Mediterranean it is the older habit. Pour it on warm bread rather than cold, with salt if you like. If you want something that behaves more like a spread, whip softened butter with olive oil at about two to one and keep it refrigerated.
Does Sidr & Stone make an olive oil spread?
No. Sidr & Stone sells a single-estate Moroccan olive oil from one family-owned grove outside Marrakech — rain-fed, organically grown, unfiltered and cold-pressed within hours of harvest, with one ingredient in the bottle. We would rather sell the oil than an emulsion built around it.
Is olive oil butter better than butter?
They are tools for different jobs rather than rivals. Olive oil is the better choice for pans, roasting trays, bread doughs and most tray-bakes; butter is the right and only choice for laminated pastry, shortbread, buttercream and browned butter. Most kitchens are better off keeping both than choosing between them.
How do you make olive oil butter at home?
Soften butter to room temperature and whip it with olive oil — two parts butter to one part oil, moving towards equal parts if you want it softer — with a pinch of salt, until pale and light. Keep it covered in the refrigerator and use it within about a week, as you would any dairy product.
Is olive oil a medicine?
No. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine. It has a long traditional history — including being honoured in the Prophetic Sunnah — and a substantial body of modern research, particularly around polyphenols, cardiovascular health, and the Mediterranean diet pattern. It can be a worthwhile part of a healthy routine, but it does not cure diseases and is not a substitute for medical care. Be cautious of any olive oil marketed with specific disease-cure claims.
Final Thoughts
The most useful thing anyone can do with the phrase "olive oil butter" is take it apart. If you are standing in front of a chiller cabinet, you are looking at a spread, and the only question that matters is what the ingredients list says — the olive on the front tells you nothing about how much olive oil is inside. If you are standing in front of a recipe, you are making a substitution, and the question is what the butter was doing: lubricating, moistening, or holding a structure together.
That last distinction is the whole article in a sentence. Butter that lubricates or moistens can be replaced by olive oil, with a small adjustment where water content mattered. Butter that has to stay solid, or has to brown, cannot be replaced at all. Everything in the ratio table is downstream of that one idea, which is why the table is worth learning once rather than looked up every time.
And whichever half of the question brought you here, the oil itself is the variable that decides the result. Our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil — single-estate, rain-fed, organically grown and pressed within hours of harvest — is open for pre-order now on its limited first harvest, with fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
Pre-Order Sidr & Stone Organic Marrakech Olive Oil — Limited First Harvest →
Disclaimer: This article describes product categories, labelling rules and general cooking practice at the time of writing; formulations, regulations and recipes change, and readers should check current sources and product labels. Comparisons with named products are drawn from those products' own published pack wording and are made in good faith and in fair terms. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine, and is not a substitute for medical treatment of any condition. For any health concern or personal dietary guidance, consult a qualified medical professional.