Kerrygold is my top choice, but only because it's the best tasting of the grass fed butter in my area. However, there are non-grass fed butters that taste better. I use Kerrygold when a recipe calls for a lot of butter, but when I'm putting small amounts on bread, etc., I prefer the non-grass fed options.
I'll have to see if I can find it at a store. I'm always down to improve my butter experience. I will say that I was very let down by Kerrygold. It's noticeably better if you are having just plain buttered toast, but otherwise I can't taste any difference between it and the normal butter one sees at the store.
The best butter I've ever had is Smjor from Iceland. It's incredible. Even compared to Kerrygold. Whole Foods sometimes had it. When available we usually buy very large quantities of it.
Kerrygold is great for strong savory foods, but I am too American to enjoy itin some cases. Frying eggs, grilled cheese, some cookies all suffer from the grassy taste overriding weaker flavors. American butter doesn't really taste like anything but cream/fat to me.
And I'll third it! As an Irishman living abroad I find most local butters extremely tasteless. Luckily it's not too hard to find Kerrygold in most supermarkets in the UK.
At this point I use Kerrygold every time I want to taste the butter. I sacrifice a pound to the garlic gods every few months, making clarified garlic butter which is amazing if you use garden garlic.
The remnant gets mixed with a quarter cup of butter and garlic bread is made. Now I’m hungry.
I'm definitely not as much a butter aficionado as the author of the article is, just wanted to add that for me one of the best choices when it comes to European butter is the Irish Kerrygold. It's absolutely great butter, imo it's better even compared to more expensive French butters.
Related, one of my best memories related to butter, and a genuine good memory all around, was when my grandma was asking me to make butter while she was busy doing some other stuff around the house. It was easy enough and she knew that even city-boy me couldn't mess that simple thing up. It was very similar to what this guy is doing in this video [1]
In the USA, it's usually available at 100% markup over domestic commodity butter. Not terribly expensive, honestly, but the most expensive butter available in many supermarkets, and it's only been widely available in the last 3-5 years. And sadly I suspect the US-market Kerrygold is a slightly different formulation/recipe than I remember getting in the UK.
I also use (silver) Kerrygold for direct consumption and random organic brands for cooking.
Kerrygold is somewhat decent product but far from the best. Availability (and price at Costco) are probably the main reason.
One of the best butters I had lately is Vermont Creamery. Hands down, the flavor was just amazing. If you enjoy good butter and haven’t had this one then consider giving it a try.
Vital Farms gained lot of popularity because of their pasture raised eggs and now butter. I tried it and it is good. What scares me is that they are in the Houston area. There’s a reason why the cancer rates are high there. Unfortunately “organic” doesn’t mean product is free of crap. It only means crap was not used to make it grow. (Reason why organic psyllium from India can legally contain lead and still be organic).
Being from Northern Ireland, I always find it fascinating that American's think kerrygold butter is fancy. It's just our standard butter here and down south.
Kate's of Maine is an excellent American butter. I buy it over Kerrygold or Finlandia (which are also excellent) because it seems silly to ship butter in cargo ships when there are plenty of cows right here.
If the only other option was store brand supermarket butter, I would choose Kerrygold, but not when there is a local alternative.
Happy to see Plugra and Organic Valley mentioned as “good” American butters. I use Plugra for most everything. There are some French butters I prefer but the import cost is high. KerryGold is fine.
Kerrygold in Germany is sold in the standard gold wrapper but unsalted. I was really surprised having come from the UK where it's salted and utterly delicious. If you want the salted stuff you have to hunt for silver labels, and I have only started to find these recently and only then in the biggest supermarkets.
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