A sliding pin consistometer (SPC) has been shown to be particularly suitable for the assessment of hardness and spreadability of butter and margarine. It appears advantageous over other methods in that it is portable, self‐compensating for wear, and is convenient and rapid to use on undamaged samples in their original packaging. Four products, hard and soft butter, and hard and soft margarine, with product temperatures in the range 0.8 to 20.0deg;C, were used. The hardness and spreadability of these products at these temperatures were also scored by a panel of 21 adults using a 9‐point scoring scale. SPC measurements explained 96% of the variation in panel scores for both hardness and spreadability. The maximum panel score for spreadability was at an SPC value of 5.5 × 10−2N for all four products. The SPC should prove useful to manufacturers of butter and margarine in assessing consumer preference for their pr