I'm in the northeast and I've seen this in grocery stores and bought lots of it. I'm not convinced it's 'Amish' in any real sense, though: I switched from Kerrygold to it, and found it basically good but really salty. Ended up switching to Cabot, which is also regional. Maybe I'll go back around to Kerrygold for good measure :)
Pretty much all I use butter for is omelets, but that's every breakfast.
If you're in the northeastern US, you might be able to find Amish butter. By mass it's cheaper than Irish, and I can't tell a difference in taste or texture between the two. I definitely can between either and regular stick butter, though - I won't use that in sauces any more.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
I use unsalted butter for all my cooking and use. Never grew up with salted butter and don't miss it. The vast majority of my family and friends back home (new england) use unsalted margarine (which I refuse to allow in the house).
I'm interested though, I've seen salted butter and wondered who was buying it. Now I know—literally everyone around me.
On the west coast, Straus butter (and other dairy products) are pretty easy to find and I think they are quite good. Their butter is high-fat, but it isn't cultured - locally made, cultured butter seems to be a niche for small craft producers and is harder to find than the European imports like Kerrygold.
For Germany (and other European countries) that’s only partly true. Kerrygold and similar butters sell in two varieties. With salt (silver wrapper) and without (golden wrapper). The salt-free variety is way more popular, so smaller shops may not always have salted Kerrygold and it may often sell out first when butter is on offer.
Great article btw that explained why butter in the US was so tasteless when I tried it. (Btw, butter I tried in Italy or Spain has the same problems)
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.
Pretty much all I use butter for is omelets, but that's every breakfast.
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