I go through a lot of butter, so I buy the Costco "Kirkland" brand which costs less than half as much as the grocery store. Honestly, I cannot tell the difference in taste or cooking results from the fancy pricey labels. Butter freezes fine, I always keep a few lbs. in my freezer. I've also kept frozen butter at our vacation place for months, with no rancid taste or smell after thawing.

This is a topic I did a LOT of study on, like you, and found the information is all over the map and often contradictory. I don't think there is a right or wrong answer, it's more about price and availability, and your personal experience and preference.

My bottom line is... The least-expensive butter I can purchase (salted or unsalted, but I usually only use unsalted as a spread and in baked goods) from Aldi will perform just fine in baking, frying, or as a spread. If I'm trying to impress myself, or someone else, and it's available (which it rarely is), I'll use Plugra (European-style butter with a higher fat content). Plugra does seem to have a slight edge in baked goods where butter is a real "star" ingredient (pastry, some cookies and other baked goods). But I don't think there are two people in a thousand who would be able to tell any real difference in a taste test. I've judged foods at County and State Fairs for decades and it's difficult for me to note any real differences in butter, and I'm trying to.

I personally keep 2 brands on hand, Countryside Creamery - unsalted (from Aldi) and Kerrygold unsalted sticks, as well as an occasional tub of Kerrygold Naturally Softer Pure Irish Butter, if we have a lot of company staying with us. It's easier to use a tub of Kerrygold Soft Butter than to have to refill the butter bell (which is where our butter is located for everyday use).

When it comes to buttering our popcorn on Saturday night, we use a mixture of Pure Indian Foods 100% Organic Ghee and Kerrygold Butter. These two grass-fed butter products are healthy additions for the vitamin D content. I may only have a $125/month food budget, but I like to splurge on the "good stuff" on our popcorn, and a little goes a long way.

One "expert" said unsalted butter would keep much longer in the freezer because salt in butter is continually trying to thaw the ice crystals (like salt on an icy road). I've also read where salted butter keeps better in the freezer because salt is a preservative. I've never had any butter (salted or unsalted) NOT keep well in the freezer, and I can have as many as 10-12 pounds in my freezer at any one time.

I only purchase it when it's priced low at Aldi (the last large purchase I made was April 2015 @ $1.88 a pound). It will probably go down again in the fall, when I'll stock-up again. I also use powdered butter and canned butter (Red Feather), which I have in our home food storage and use them when they need to be rotated from storage - which I usually do when I'm running low on inexpensive butter from Aldi.

I also mix butter with coconut oil to make it go a little farther, and then I can also use up to 25% less solid fat because of how coconut oil acts in baked goods. If I don't want a coconut flavor, I'll mix butter with LouAna brand (Wal-Mart and Dillons - a Kroger subsidiary). If I use a brand of coconut oil with a light flavor of coconut, it can be the "secret" ingredient - especially in something with a chocolate flavor - like brownies.

Oops, editing to include this link for Cook's Illustrated Picks for Best Butter:
http://bakingbites.com/2011/10/cooks-illustrated-picks-the-best-butter/

-Grainlady

Thanks, GL. If I am going to be baking, I will buy the one pound block of butter. It is less expensive than the individual sticks. I have a scale, so I can cut off and weigh the needed amount. Like CnC, I also buy at Costco and freeze, especially near the holidays. But the closest Costco (and Aldi) for me is an hour and a half away. So, between times, I buy from a standard supermarket.

Do the calories per serving have any bearing on the fat content of the butter?

I'm really curious about how you sub coconut oil for some of the butter. Can you give me a better idea? If it is 25% less, does that mean if the recipe calls for 2 sticks of butter (8 oz), I should use 4 oz butter and 2 oz coconut oil in place of the 8 oz butter? I have a jar of Trader Joe's Coconut Oil that needs to be used up.

I buy the Sam's Club unsalted butter and vacuum seal it; a pint bag holds 3 sticks. Then I freeze them until needed.

Plugra is a treat. I cook with the Sam's Club stuff and use Plugra to butter stuff like biscuits and toast and potatoes when I am feeling particularly generous to myself.

I had some unexpected guests once and nuked some spuds then 'buttered' the potatoes with coconut oil because I was out of butter. They were a big hit.

I don't use a lot of butter--mostly for baking and eggs, and the occasional bread and butter (we don't eat a lot of bread except for sandwiches)--but I do find a difference in flavor. Sometimes also in texture when it's still a solid stick rather than as eaten. I also find a difference between salted and unsalted, from the same dairy, when frozen. The salted feels wetter on the outside as I unwrap it, and the texture is different--firmer and more brittle, if I remember right, than unsalted. I think that actually might be because the unsalted thaws faster as one is cutting it. Once it's defrosted, they both seem normal.

For flavor, my very favorite is Vermont Butter and Cheese Company cultured butter, but only fresh, and it's not available very often at my store. I've tried freezing it, and it's fine as butter goes, but that specialness of flavor goes away and it just tastes like butter.

On a more regular basis I use Organic Valley cultured butter or pasture butter for table. I can't tell a difference in baking or cooking--the subtle flavor of the good stuff is too delicate to withstand the heat--so usually stock up the freezer with Clover Organic (same brand as the milk I buy). I've tried Kerrygold, and don't find it special. For the price, it should be.

What kind of Plugra has 110 calories per TBSP? The Plugra website says 100. Their website says they have less moisture, which could make a difference in baking -- isn't the key to flaky pastry the moisture in the butter steaming off? I've never used Plugra.

Hmmm- I see online both Plugra and Kerrygold state 100 calories per serving, but I could have sworn one or the other had 110 listed on the package I looked at this morning. I'll have to re-check that next time I shop for groceries.

For cooking I use unsalted Organic Valley or Challenge. For the occasional fresh use it's salted Plugra, Kerrygold, or Delitia.

For flavor, my very favorite is Vermont Butter and Cheese Company

Is that the same as Vermont Creamery?

When using butter as a spread, on toast, etc, Dh can tell the difference between store brand and Challenge or Land O Lakes. Kerrygold and Plugra (or other European butters) are our preferred for spreading but we are a family of 6 and certain members have no idea of portion control. Butter prices were crazy last fall so at that time, I limited baking until the Thanksgiving sales. Then, I bought about 20 pounds of butter (between $2.50 and $2 a pound). I threw all of the boxes in the freezer and it has done fine. Sometimes it will go on sale for that price range in the summer and I will stock up again. When I run out of the good butter, DH will just have to deal with the cheaper stuff until it drops to the right price again.

CindyMac, yes, they've apparently changed their name, but I looked at the website and it's the same packaging. There's also a quote on the sidebar of the product page that calls them VBCC (the initials of the old name). They also make the best mascarpone. I don't know if it's the most authentic to the Italian standard, but I think it's the most delicious.

Bbstx, Perhaps the wrapper had a scratch? 15g is 108 kcal (Calories), and the euro info for Kerrygold is given in kj (kilojoules), as one might expect.

I use Kerrygold for items I make at home, the butter is healthier, and for bulk cooking for others, whatever is cheapest, almost always Aldi's.

I can definitely taste the difference in LoL, Challenge and the European butters --- perhaps I'll pick some Plugra up. I'm thinking it'll make a big difference in a shortbread and other butter-heavy baked goods. But then again, I could stick with the Costco butter cause DH eats butter like a food group and it is better than most house brands.

plllog, I don't think it was a scratch. Maybe I just hallucinated 110 calories! :-)))

When it was my turn to be the hostess for our luncheon group, I had Plugra to go with the bread. I don't think a soul noticed - and these are food savvy women!

If it isn't going to make my baking wonky (wonkier?), I think I'll just continue to buy the cheapest. I just wish I had stocked up when my local grocery had butter for $1.58/lb a couple of months ago. I bought about 5 pounds; now, I wish I had gotten that much more.

Thanks everyone for your comments and for sharing your research, GL.

Re wonkiness, it's possible that a particular breed of cow might have a different sized fat globule, but in general, butter is milk fat and the only other variable (besides the added salt) would be moisture content, and that isn't different enough to change the amount of fat if the figure really is 100 for the European types, so there's little reason to think that the cheap stuff isn't just as good for baking. (Edit: this was meant to be a little tongue in cheek, but I think not successfully. Butter is 80-86% fat, and the rest, besides water, is mostly milk solids.) The flavor differences come from what they're fed and whether the butter is churned or cultured, but those are very subtle.

The luncheon group probably didn't notice the Plugra, or not enough to mention, because there were so many other nice things to eat. I did have a brunch during Sukkot (Feast of Booths) which didn't have a lot of highly seasoned items and featured my homemade challah prominently. The cousins did notice the yumminess Vermont Creamery nee Cheese and Butter Company butter, which is more likely when the feature of the meal is bread and butter and honey. I think the official main was chicken salad but it was the challah that everyone wanted. :)

My local Breton butter is 108 per 15g

FWIW, I find butter can pick up a stale 'off' flavour. I can tell the difference. Trader Joe's organic butters taste the freshest & most flavorful to me. I always buy organic & often mix it half & half w/ EV olive oil in a lot of my cooking.

CindyMac, yes, they've apparently changed their name, but I looked at
the website and it's the same packaging. There's also a quote on the
sidebar of the product page that calls them VBCC (the initials of the
old name).

Thanks. I know Whole Foods carries a number of Vermont Creamery products. I'll look for their butter next visit.

Cabot butter is great too.

Some of the European cultured butters are quite strongly flavored. We dine out a lot and there are some restaurants where my spouse can't even stand to smell a dish because he objects to the butter.

He doesn't mind a mild cultured butter but I have to agree, some of the ones we've run into are more reminiscent of sour cream than regular (uncultured) butter.

We find Kerrygold very salty compared to LoL - spouse is happy with that as he likes salt more than I do. Out here in Northern CA one of the best for both regular and cultured butters is Strauss.

I don't shop at either Costco or Trader Joe's any longer; don't like the crowds.

Strauss is fantastic! Plus glass bottles so the milk doesn't taste waxy and they deliver if you live in the right area. :)

I haven't encountered the snooty heavily flavored cultured butters. That sounds intense!

Some people offline were discussing butter too and looking puzzled by terms. It's not that complicated, in case any reading are confused by this:

European style/standard = cultured butter

American standard = sweet cream butter (cultured will be marked as such)

Most butter here is just milk with or without salt. Some with milk cultures. Butter made from raw milk is the best. French people make and eat more butter than any other Europeans - we must be very greedy! I've never had sour butter though. Perhaps it was rancid?

Forgot to add that when freezing butter (& it's supposed to last in the freezer for approx. 9 months), I wrap it in its package in heavy foil, not plastic, & write the date in sharpie on the foil. Plastic actually breathes & can cause things to taste stale.

FWIW

Well, looks like butter is going to become the new salt, which to me was the new hummus which was the new bagels . . . I haven't gotten into the potato chip variations yet! The Oreo variations were a hoot though! I will be happy when yogurt thins out. It takes me ten minutes to navigate the yogurt section of even an average grocery store! I just want plain "American" yogurt, darn it! :)

Well, in my tiny town, butter is limited to salted or unsalted; store brand, LoL, or too cheap to even be store brand, and Kerrygold or Plugra. Is that weird that it is pretty basic but we can get 2 fancy schmany European style butters?

Seems like Kerrygold is everywhere these days ... even Walmart.

Kerrygold is very ordinary basic and cheap butter in europe.

It is grass fed butter though and without the hormones and such that the cows here have. To me, it is about that, not the taste, which is the same more or less of other supermarket butters.

This blog/article is an interesting comparison.

http://www.nwedible.com/grassfed-vs-organic-butter-and-which-one-will-kill-you-faster/

Great article BB. Sort of sums up how I feel about dairy in general. I know a lot about possible contamination, but I REALLY, REALLY like dairy products, especially cheese. I try and moderate myself, but it is difficult.

Boy am I sorry I looked up the butter box gag, because I can't unsee it!!!! My eyes, they burn! WARNING: the song on YouTube, has the F word throughout. I'm ok with it, loved the music and singing though. :)

We do not care for Kerrygold butter at all, the taste is just off. We do like Challenge, Falfurrias (made in Falfurrias, TX), LoL, and the Kirkland butters. Will try the Aldi butter mentioned above.

I think it's really important to eat locally produced food where possible. You must have great butter producers near you without having to import the stuff. I can't afford to eat organically, but where possible I eat local.