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).
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.
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.
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.
1) Your first assertion is false. Land o' Lakes and the store-brand butter I buy (in both cases, the non-organic varieties) are as yellow in my grocery store as the expensive Irish Kerigold butter I also buy.
2) Butter is less yellow in the U.S. because of lower levels of beta carotene. Grass has higher levels of beta carotene than hay (which is cut grass, the lower levels are due to the decay of the beta carotene). https://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-between-europ...
3) American butter is not "lower quality." It is lower fat. American butter can be used in more cooking situations than Irish butter, which is too fat for many dishes (including, for example, pizza).
4) Not all foreign dairy products command a price premium. Kerigold is less than the organic American butter in most grocery stores in Southern California. So much for that silly theory.
5) You are asserting EU propaganda without any support. Because...you won't be able to find any. More to the point, Kerigold only feeds its cows grass 312 days of the year. Let your imagination fill in the blanks as to what they feed their cows for the remaining 43 days (hint: sometimes it comes on a cob, and sometimes it rights with "boy"). https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/food-drink/kerrygold-la...
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.
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.
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.
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.
I generally load up a few Amazon Fresh disposable coolers with TJ products as gifts for friends in Vancouver whenever I drive up -- Kerrygold butter is really hard to get in Canada, and has much better omega 3 ratio than grain fed butter.
For anyone living in Canada (which has a serious lack of quality dairy products), I'd heartily recommend Emerald Grasslands butter. It's superb. Grass fed, Jersey cows, fantastic flavour.
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.
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).
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