The 4 Best Butters To Buy for Every Situation (2024)

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You voted on your favorites and we put the top 11 to the test to find the only ones worth buying.

By

Breana Lai Killeen, M.P.H., RD

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Breana Lai Killeen, MPH, RD is a Chinese and Jewish chef and dietitian that has worked in all facets of the food world. She is a recipe developer, culinary nutritionist, and marketing specialist with 15-plus years of experience creating editorial and digital content for top food and kitchen brands. For 10 years, Breana was a food editor turned test kitchen and editorial operations manager for EatingWell Magazine where she oversaw the development, production, and nutrition analysis of 500-plus recipes per year and helped manage day-to-day operations to keep everything running smoothly.

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Published on January 25, 2023

Before going to culinary school, I barely used butter when cooking. But after a full year and mounds of mounds of butter in pastries and sauces, I quickly learned that not all butter is created equal. In Europe, where I went to school, butter is at least 82 percent butterfat, which is a result of churning the butter for longer to remove more water. Whereas butter in the U.S. has a lower minimum of 80 percent butterfat. But which is better and when do you use each?

You voted for which butter is your favorite to buy and it was a tight race. So we took the top 11 picks from our Community Choice Awards and put them to the test both in eating plain and using in baking. Here's what we found.

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How We Tested

To keep it as fair and unbiased as possible, each butter was tasted plain and also used to make pie dough. All butters were unsalted and room temperature when the tasters tried them, and tasting was completed blind, meaning the taster didn't know which butter was which when trying it. Each butter was judged on texture, flavor, color, and ease of use.

Best Budget Butter: Land o' Lakes

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The Land o' Lakes butter was the lightest in color compared to the other butters but had a very pleasant, consistent, and mild taste that made it the best affordable everyday butter. After the labels were unveiled, several testers said they think they liked it because it tasted like their childhood, which would make sense since it's the most widely known of all the butter producers (and the winner of our Community Choice Awards!). I will say that the Kirkland Organic from Costco was a very close second but the nostalgia shone through for the Land o' Lakes, even with a blind tasting.

Best Butter for Standard Baking: Cabot

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I separated standard and specialty baking into two categories because if you're simply baking a quick bread or brownies in which case butter isn't the prominent flavor, it's not necessary to spend more money on a higher-fat butter. In those cases, Cabot is the best affordable and slightly more premium butter that's good for spreading on toast and ideal for elevating basic baked goods without breaking the bank.

Best Butter for Specialty Baking: Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter

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The higher fat percentage in European butters, like Kerrygold and Plugra, is ideal if you're working with pastries where the quality of your dough is directly effected by the quality of your butter. Both Kerrygold and Plugra scored high when making pie dough and had a luscious mouthfeel when tasted solo. But overall, the flavor and creaminess of Kerrygold won because of it's (very) slight grassy taste. Chalk it up to the grass-fed cows but the Kerrygold butter's golden hue even made the pie dough look more appealing.

Best Butter for Spreading: Vermont Creamery Cultured Butter

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I'll admit that I never use unsalted when spreading butter on bread so buying the unsalted version of the Vermont Creamery Cultured Butter was a first. But even unsalted, the additional flavor provided by culturing the milk prior to churning into butter is distinct. Much like yogurt is made, cultured butter is made when live bacteria is added to milk, then allowed to sit overnight to ferment and thicken. The resulting butter made from the cultured milk is complex, nutty, and tangy—but not so much that it overwhelms your bread. It doesn't hurt that this butter is also 82% butterfat, meaning it spreads on bread like a dream. Sprinkle a little salt on it before serving or grab the salted version for a real treat.

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The 4 Best Butters To Buy for Every Situation (2024)

FAQs

The 4 Best Butters To Buy for Every Situation? ›

Nutritionally, grass-fed butter contains less saturated fats, more PUFAs, and more of the heart-healthy omega-3 and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) fatty acids than regular butter.

What is the best butter to buy for your health? ›

Nutritionally, grass-fed butter contains less saturated fats, more PUFAs, and more of the heart-healthy omega-3 and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) fatty acids than regular butter.

What is the world's best butter? ›

Why Cabot Creamy Won Best Butter. At the World Championship, all entries are evaluated by a panel of skilled experts from around the world. They examine the taste, look, texture, saltiness, and more before awarding a score out of a possible 100 total points.

What brand of butter is real butter? ›

Challenge Butter has been a quality staple in kitchens since 1911. It's churned daily from two natural ingredients: the freshest 100% real pasteurized sweet cream and salt. That's it. Nothing artificial or synthetic.

What brands of butter are 100% grass-fed? ›

In alphabetical order, here are the 15 best grass fed butters:
  • Clover Sonoma.
  • Kalona SuperNatural.
  • Ivy's Reserve.
  • Kerrygold.
  • Lewis Road Creamery.
  • Maple Hill.
  • Minerva Dairy.
  • Nellie's.

What is the best butter to lower blood pressure? ›

We found an association of shea butter consumption with lower BP, which provides the rationale for investigation through rigorous study designs to evaluate the benefits of shea butter consumption for prevention of hypertension and improved cardiovascular health.

What's the healthiest butter alternative? ›

"However, we need to step back and decide if there's something even better." Nut and seed butters, such as almond or sunflower, are naturally rich in heart-healthy fats and also contain fiber and protein, which are not found in butter substitutes. You can also try mashed avocado, hummus, or extra virgin olive oil.

What is the number one selling butter? ›

Land Lakes

What is the most unhealthy butter? ›

Margarine is the worst of all butters and spreads, as it is highly processed and loaded with pro-inflammatory Omega-6 fats and trans fats, which is considered the worst type of fat you can eat.” Gioffre says, “Trans fats raise your 'bad' cholesterol but also lowers your 'good' cholesterol, ultimately stressing your ...

Is Land O Lakes real butter? ›

It's the very first sweet cream butter. Melted, browned, creamed or clarified, Land O Lakes® Salted Butter is the all-purpose butter that improves the taste of everything it touches. It's the original that never lets you, or your taste buds, down.

What butter do chefs use? ›

European-style butter

European butters have a higher butterfat percentage than American butters, and have become the butters of choice for many chefs, bakers, and passionate home cooks.

What is 100% pure butter? ›

The Cheese Baron Pure 100% Butter is made from fresh cream and naturally fermented with Active Probiotics Cultures.

Is it okay to freeze butter? ›

Properly stored butter can be frozen for up to four months if frozen prior to the USE BY date on the package. Butter may begin to lose its fresh butter taste and pick up flavors and odors from the freezer if stored for longer than four months. Once the butter is removed from the freezer, use it within 30 days.

What is the healthiest butter brand? ›

Vital Farms Pasture-Raised Butter With Avocado Oil

Vital Farms created a solution to this dilemma—a spreadable butter made with high-quality avocado oil. Also made with cream that comes from pasture-raised cows and sea salt, this three-ingredient butter is a dream come true for butter spreaders everywhere.

Is Nellie's butter 100% grass-fed? ›

Luckily, these values have always been ingrained in what we do here at Nellie's. For our butter, the term grass-fed means that grass makes up the majority of our cows' diet. And in the butter industry, this is a high bar!

Where does Costco grass-fed butter come from? ›

Then, it takes a skilled manufacturer to turn—or churn—that milk into a high-quality, flavorful butter. That's what Costco buyer Mark Klauber and his team were searching for when they collaborated with Westland Milk Products in Hokitika, New Zealand, to create Kirkland Signature™ Grass-Fed Butter, launched in 2021.

Is I can't believe it's butter healthy? ›

The fact is, just because something is “real” does not necessarily make it good for you. The “real” ingredients that “I Can't Believe It's Not Butter” is touting are oils and salt. The ingredient list of “I Can't Believe It's Not Butter” reveals unhealthy ingredients like tropical oils and salt.

Which but butter is healthiest? ›

"Of all the nut butters, walnut butter has the most omega-3 fatty acids," Andrea says. The healthful fat ratio helps lower LDL cholesterol, increase HDL cholesterol, and reduce inflammation.

Is country crock healthier than butter? ›

Country Crock® products are all made of plant-based oils – a source of good fats. Because we use plant-based oils, all our Country Crock® products contain less saturated fat than dairy butter, as well as zero cholesterol.

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