Cook’s Illustrated did a butter taste test a few years ago and Land O’ Lakes was the best US-based unsalted butter. The best overall was Plugra.
There are a fair number of butter reviews out there. Land O’Lakes usually does well but not usually top 5 from what I’ve seen.
I wonder if butter from the same brand tastes different over the years, sort of like wine? LOL is so big that their butter is probably stable due to mixing of so many sources but maybe the smaller brands have ups and downs.
In the other thread, I did mention my first orgasmic experience with butter at a no-frills cheap-ass French inn’s complimentary continental breakfast spread. So, yes, given my choice of words I’m sure you can tell I feel some butters are better than others.
Now whether you care or not or can tell the difference or the price difference is worth it to you, that’s up to you. It’s the same with cheese, beers, wines, coffees, etc. I’m not snobbish about these things, but I do have definite preferences. Waking up in the morning to some toast buttered with Land O’ Lakes is night-and-day different to me than many of the mid-range, but still mass market, butters like Finlandia, President, Kerrygold, etc. Finlandia is my favorite of that bunch, but they’re all a market step up from regular American butter. One big difference is those are all cultured butters, so they are different not only by feed of animal or quality of milk or breed of cow, but that they also have cultures in them (well, not all forumulations of Kerrygold do), like cheese or yogurt or buttermilk, so they have a different flavor. Some butters also have “natural flavors” in them to mimic these taste (like Plugra, for instance.) That doesn’t necessarily make them “better” – you might not like that cultured flavor, but I love it. A good cultured butter to me has a nutty, cheesy kind of taste to it, and even the unsalted ones give me what I would describe as a salty finish. Maybe it’s umami, but my taste buds interpret it as a bit of salt.
Right now, in the fridge, I have President, Aldi’s French butter, and some Amish Minerva Dairy grass-fed butter. I’m actually not impressed by the last one, but I like the other two just fine. Plus I have normal butter for most routine cooking applications. I’ve personally not had luck, so far, with the various Amish butters I’ve tried. Those to me have been minimally indistinguishable from regular Land O Lakes, but “Amish” butter covers a lot of ground.
I’ll put my vote in for Kerrygold for eating - taste is considerably better to my palate, and it becomes much more spreadable at room temperature than any other I’ve tried, possibly due to a higher butterfat content, though that’s conjecture on my part. For cooking something in which the butter will be featured, I use Tillamook butter, where it doesn’t come through so boldly I’ll use Kroger or Darigold.
I’ve tried a lot of ordinary butters, and land o lakes is the best, imo. Mostly, it’s freshest, with the fewest off flavors. That’s for ordinary unsalted sticks.
I’ve had Kerrygold, and it was very tasty. I made an awesome piecrust out of it. But i don’t usually buy it.
I’m now curious to try president and finlandia, but neither is typically available where i shop.
I like cultured butter to spread on toast, but I’m not sure it’s what I’m looking for to cook.
But if you are making cookies, please spring for real butter. It makes a world of difference.
Where I’m at, those are cheaper than Kerrygold. I can often find them at $2.50 for a 200g (about 7 oz) package – I think that’s the same size as Kerrygold and Finlandia. They all look about the same. These are all just mid-level butters. I haven’t gotten around to trying the really fancy stuff, but they’re a clear step up, in my opinion, from Land O Lakes (which is fine.) President is the best-selling French butter, so it’s definitely a mass-produced, workhorse kind of European butter.
Bordier butter is the one I’ve always wanted to try – some call it the best butter in the world, but I haven’t seen it around (but I haven’t look hard around for it.) Vermont Creamery’s cultured butter is also supposed to be really good and distinct tasting. That I’m pretty sure is around here and not too pricey (I think it’s the same price point as Kerrygold) but it’s not at the shops I usually go to. Hmm… now I’m contemplating making a special trip to a store their product locator says stocks it.
Kerrygold is sold in 8 oz blocks. It’s usually about $4-5/each. It’s all I ever keep around.
It looks like the Vermont Creamery cultured is available at most Jewel’s, Mariano’s and Whole Foods in Chicagoland. I don’t regularly shop any of those but I bet I pick some up soon.
So I did end up going to Jewel to buy the Vermont Creamery butter. It wasn’t badly prices: $3.49 for the full 8 oz (some of the Euro butters at this size are actually 200g, or about 7 oz.) Verdict? It’s good but it didn’t seem that much better to me than the other butters at this price point. I would buy it again, but I think I like my Finlandia better. This was an 82% butterfat butter; apparently, they have or at least had an 86% version that was ranked as the #2 butter in this butter-off:
The Amazon reviews for the 82% Vermont Creamery one are quite good, too, so maybe I’ll have to sit with this one a little more and see if it grows on me more. Once again, it was very good, but maybe I was expecting something a little more. I was prepared for something a little more aggressive-tasting, I guess, based on some of the reviews I had read.
Well, someone had to mention the “I make it better myself” trope.
Yep, I guess I read over the direct reference to Land O’ Lakes and missed it. Thanks for pointing that out.
You realize that it was only the envy speaking. Of course I would love my own cow in the middle of the city to make my own better butter so I could make my bitter batter better too, just like Betty:
I could rent her to my neighbours so they would no longer have to mown the grass. Better Moo! than Wrummmmmmmm!
I couldn’t see enough difference in the Kerrygold to warrant the almost double price. I usually buy either Tillamook or Darigold, both of which are local in my state.
Tillamook is good for a regular butter. My local Safeway carries a 2-lb roll of (salted) Amish butter. I buy it when it’s on sale. First time I tried it, it was on fresh baked bread, and I thought it was outstanding. I cut up the roll and freeze it in smaller portions.
I also like Kerrygold and other cultured butters better than regular butter.
Butter is another one of those products, like ketchup, peanut butter, milk, gasoline, etc, that I consider one about the same as the other and couldn’t care less about brand and just buy the cheapest.
There is one exception. When I am in certain parts of the state I will buy a couple of pounds of Amish made butter. Maybe they use milk with higher fat or cream content or whatever. But it’s excellent and better than any other butter I have ever had by far.
In honor of this thread, I bought some Kerrygold today. What’s the best way to try it out? Let it get to room temp and spread it on some toast?
Funny thing is Ketchup & Peanut Butter are two items where I do care about brand. Heinz Ketchup, especially the one with actual cane sugar. Skippy’s Extra Crunchy and Gulden’s Spicy Brown Mustard are a few where I look for Brand specific.
I’m also choosy on my crushed tomatoes for making sauce, but that is because Cento is one of the only ones with only 1% RDA of salt and is a fairly inexpensive New Jersey brand. If someone else was 1% on the salt and cheaper, I would absolutely try them.
@Grrr, that is an excellent way to try it.
Here’s the breakdown on butter as I understand it:
The big divide is really between cultured butter and what is called “sweet cream” butter. Cultured butter is basically cream that’s been fermented (i.e. cultured) a little bit before churning. Sweet cream butter is unfermented cream that’s been processed into butter.
Cultured butter has a somewhat different taste- a bit more tangy, a bit more funky, and for lack of a better word, more savory. Maybe “more buttery” is applicable, but I hesitate to describe it that way. It’s FANTASTIC on things where butter is a finishing ingredient, like say… fresh bread, boiled potatoes, etc… A lot of its nuance is lost in baked goods, especially sweet ones. Brands like President, Celles sur Belle, and Isingy Ste. Mere are all good examples of cultured butters.
Sweet cream butter is what is most common in the US- brands like Land o’Lakes, Falfurrias, Challenge, etc… are all sweet cream butters. So are Kerrygold and Somerdale (from Ireland and England respectively).
The other big divide is the butterfat percentage. US butter is generally right around 80% butterfat, because that’s the USDA minimum. European butter is usually higher- the EU standards are between 82-90%. This makes it more creamy and richer- less water.
In practice, this means there are really 3 basic types of butter available - US standard 80% butterfat sweet cream butter, European/European-style (82-90% buttterfat) sweet cream butter, and European/European style cultured butter.
Personally, I’d save the cultured stuff for stuff like fresh bread, and use the US standard for most cooking, and maybe get the Euro-style sweet cream for baking if it’s not too much more expensive.
Emphatically, yes. Butter I’ve learned is probably the single grocery item where spending a little extra has the greatest payoff. I’ll pretty much only use the cheapo-standard butter in baking where the butter is really just a fat and not a principle flavor component. For everything else it’s Kerrygold or comparable. On bread, pancakes or mashed potatoes…Kerrygold is essential.
I’m guessing we’re both getting the same stuff here in Chicago. I had the same experience. $10 for a big ass roll of Amish butter seemed like a amazing bargain when it popped up in Jewel. But after trying it I was wildly unimpressed. Basically Land O Lakes unsalted in a less convenient wrapper. Go figure.
Haven’t had any Amish butter from straight off the farm so maybe it’s just this brand that’s the problem.