It's butter, It's good butter, but it's just butter. American quality (e.g. Land o' Lakes) fat content butter. 82% according to their website. American butter only has to have 80% fat, and cheap butters do, but better quality have 82% just like the common Europeans do. The Euro butter that are prized have 85-86% butterfat, but there are American butters that do as well. I can recommend Vermont Creamery Cultured Butter which has great flavor and 86% fat. Vital Farms has pasture raised 85% fat.

I will look into that. Years ago my dad took me to a house someplace around Cumberland, Maine. The fellow who lived there made and sold hand churned butter that was so flavorful, rich and heavenly. No signs outside and I have no idea how my father knew about it.

I have been buying Challenge butter, grade AA, esp for table use or certain other things. They claim 83% butterfat. For some baking things, 80% is just fine.

All I can offer is I used to buy Keller’s Creamery Butter at Sam’s but it’s no longer there. I really liked it, and it looks like the same company (Dairy Farmers of America) makes (owns?) Plugra. Sometimes you just have to try it since opinions can really vary.

I buy Kerrygold at Costco. Their claim to fame is 'grass-fed cows from small country farms in Ireland'.

I've tried Plugra several times but it just seems the same as Land 'o Lakes. I've also bought Vermont Creamery butter but like Chisue I buy Kerrygold at Costco. Yesterday I bought extra since I'm baking today. The cost was $14.49 for one 2 pound package. It doesn't come in sticks like the supermarket Kerrygold. but in 8 oz bars.

One extra little feature of Kerrygold is that it seems to come to room temperature faster that regular butter - maybe it's the higher fat content (or my imagination).

Kerrygold makes good bread super yummy

I buy Kerrygold.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/your-complete-guide-to-butter/

I should say that my answer was based on baking laminated doughs, which is the only time I've known people to want French butter, but Plugra and Président have the same butterfat content as Land o' Lakes, Challenge Euro Style, and most other premium American butters. The differences in flavor depend on whether the butter is cultured or "sweet cream" and whether the cows were fully grass fed. I just found a local, organic, grass fed, 85% butterfat butter from a known dairy to make puff with. (This is way edited--OP asked for brief. :) ) For regular baking, I use Clover Organic 82% butterfat (also California).

Plllog, please move in. I love croissants. I love anything good that is flour flakey and buttery. Just like me check back with a cardiologist….

Does ”cultured” butter have a flavor that hints of a bit of cheese? I had some butter like that — not rancid. Maybe it was that hand churned butter from Maine that I brought back home and was so stingy with, that itnaged toward cheese a bit. In any case, it was really good on fresh steam corn on the cob.

For whom do you make all the croissants?

I just took DH up on his offer to buy some good ones at a “farm” market store 35 mies away. Now I’ll need to buy more elastic for any trousers or waist hugging clothing.

LOL!! I don't "make all the croissants". :) I haven't perfected them. I want to make good puff before I tackle them again. I found a great French tutorial on the puff. 2ManyDiversions and I were egging each other on to make puff and beignets (I did make some good beignets) and when we lost her I moved away from them, but one can also laminate biscuit and pie doughs.

As with all good things, the cardiologist and waistline are about portion control and overall good diet. The real problem with croissants is that they stale so fast you feel virtuous eating them while they're still fresh. I pop 'em right into the freezer before that happens. :) Oh, and the bakery sells ginormous ones nowadays. Which is why perfecting them seems like a good idea. ;)

I wouldn't say cultured butter tastes like cheese, per se--it tastes like butter--but it could certainly remind you of cheese, "hints" for sure.

Que cosa ”control?”

President brand French butter is pure heaven to me. I buy it at Publix.

“The cost was $14.49 for one 2 pound package.”

Good price. I think I paid $4 for a half pound at TJ’s.

ROTFL!!!

Una cosa maravillosa!

I buy Kerrygold irish butter too. For cooking I usually use regular butter.

I've not seen nor tried Plugra. I just wish that I could find butter that is as good as what comes in those little one-serving packages at some restaurants (diners, etc.)! Sometimes it's labeled as Land O' Lakes, but it's so much better than any Land O' Lakes I've ever bought.

I think freshness is key. I read a few comparison posts/ threads. "best value', 'best for baking', 'best for special occasions', 'best European style'...Plugra was listed all over the place--towards the top and on the bottom. No way does it taste of bland oil.

Groceries that have those open shelves may not have a big turn-over for the higher priced butters. Like the produce section where most is kept for days at higher than perfect temps.

A restaurant will purchase from a supplier transfer station directly and into their walk-in cooler. Cosco keeps butter in glass fronted cooler doors.

I have 5 different butters right now in the freezer. (unusual). We don't use much butter but before Thanksgiving we had run out and panicked. I stocked up for the holiday season not deciding what i might make...like batches of shortbread. I had two shopping carts and what if one was out of stock? Then i wanted to try the new Costco grass-fed from NewZealand. Then a good friend gifted his organic butter and cheese from his upstate farm.

Mine are in 1/2 stick blocks, wrapped and frozen. Taken one out as i need it. Every two weeks or so. In the fride is Plugra right now.

If i make more shortbread cookies, i could do a taste test.

VermontCreamery, KerryGold, Plugra, CostcoGrassFed, and local farm friend. (their higher fat European style butter went viral in the NYC restaurant world during covid lock-down due to the supply chain). Higher end restaurants love 'locally' produced product. Chef's talk to each other when supply is short. They no longer sell retail. Still busy and can barely keep up supplying restaurants.

Would be interesting to see how they all compare at room temp on plain toast. All are un-salted.

A DH request was to not have a last minute list of just a few items this holiday season. Like cranberries, butter, eggs, parsley, shallots.....in the past years something was always needed, needing sometimes 2-3 shopping stops and searching.

I get an itchy rash thinking what the Costco parking lots looks like right now. Or any market the friday before Christmas.

I just got back from an hour at the local Giant (I only got $30 of miscellaneous stuff), and the self-check line was 16 deep at 10:30 AM.

"Those little one-serving packages at some restaurants" can be made at home by whipping butter with a little milk or water. But not sure how you'll get it in those little plastic containers and seal them.

Thanks, guys. And sleeve, You took a lot of time and hit on what others suggested. Maybe butter doesn’t stay very fresh on grocery store open shelves. I don’t eat much butter, but want it to taste as good as possible when I do. In the fridge now is some Kerrygold. When the butter gets too far gone, the birds and opossum will take it.

I usually put opened butter in a ziploc bag, in the wrapper it came in. I have butter dishes from the beautiful to the practical, and several are at least air tight. The zip bag is best at keeping it fresh, though I imagine one of those butter bells with the water seal are at least as good, if you don't mind smushing the butter into the housing.

We eat loads of butter. Mostly organic supermarket own brand which is absolutely fine. It doesn't get a chance to go off as it's used everyday. It sits permanently on the counter in its butter dish.

I buy either Land-O-Lakes or the supermarket brand when the L-o-L isn't on sale. Had no clue butterfat content varied. I should buy a pound of this premium stuff you all are talking about and see if there's any difference that warrants the high price tag -- for ME.

@porkchop_z5b_MI, It's the cultured vs. sweet cream and grass fed vs grain fed that make the big differences in flavor. Land o’Lakes is premium by American standards and has the same 82% butterfat as the Eurpean butters mentioned, such as Plugra, KerryGold and Président. The Euro standard (as in regulation) is 82% minimum, so that's what most are. American regulation is 80% minimum. 80% is often referred to as ”commodity butter”. Your store brand might be that, or it might be 82%. House brands are often the same as the fine brand made at the same facility but with cheaper packaging, reductions in transport costs because the facility is often chosen locally for just that reason, and the ”house” doesn't pay for marketing campaigns. Stuff like that. But sometime the products do vary, and the house brand has cheaper ingredients. I don't know if you could detect the difference, in just far content, spread on toast, but it makes a difference in baking.

How do you find the percentage of butterfat on the package? I’m away from home for the holidays. DD has Kirkland (Costco) butter in her fridge. It is listed as Grade AA, but no where on the package could I find a butterfat percentage. She usually keeps Kerrygold on hand too, but I didn’t see any. I’ll admit, I did not look in all her fridges and freezers.

You don't, unless, like Strauss, they print it front and center as an advert on the box. You look up the dairy and hope they publish it, or find a reliable blog (many aren't) where they've aggregated the info. You can get a general idea from the NI by comparing weight to weight, fat to total, but the numbers in the NI are notoriously unreliable due to rounding error when you get down to "portion size"..

ETA, I couldn't find a reliable source for the butterfat content of Kirkland butter. All the sources I found could be quoting the same originator, which in turn could just be making an assumption, but they all say 80%, which is normal for cheap butter. ETA2: the NI math says 78-79%, so it's likely 80% in reality. Probably. Kerrygold is reliably 82%. What I did learn is that Costco does a big trade in Kerrygold and they all say that the price there is terrific.

I was at the grocery this afternoon and saw they had the Kerrygold - $4.49 for two sticks (1/2 lb). That's ~$9.00/lb That's beyond what I'm willing to pay, its cream and salt for pete's sake.

And pastureland and transport. And competition. It's actually a dollar more per here, which s a comparable price to the local grass fed 82% ones. And a bargain compared to making your own from similar quality cream.

Not that you should buy it! If you're satisfied with the alternative, that's all that matters.

Cultured butter is fermented so it has a richer, 'riper' flavor than standard butter. Different brands will have different flavor profiles. My spouse is Asian so he loathes anything that reminds him of spoiled dairy - yogurt, sour cream, creme fraiche, Devonshire cream - and we've encountered certain cultured butters at restaurants that he simply cannot eat.

In fact we were up in the Napa Valley last week and ate at a great little restaurant in Calistoga. I loved it, but he could only enjoy the dishes where there was very little butter used. In contrast, another restaurant we love up there also uses cultured butter - but it's a mild one, and he's fine with it.

You really do have to try them to see which ones you like and which ones you don't.

For French butter in the US, I prefer Isigny-ste-mere. They are getting broader distribution in the US so you may be able to find it (at Whole Foods, or another brand, Echire). They have a beurre de barette which is their best, a cultured, churned and washed butter, made in Normandy with grass-fed cows in coastal pastures. My favorite for eating on bread is the version with crystals of fleur de sel de Guerande (in the black foil package). This is a cultured butter, probably mid-strength in the cultured taste. Rarer to find are Rodolfe le Meunier (super expensive, hand made) and Bordier.

Butterfat content is printed on the wrapper here. One thing to remember is that butter freezes perfectly, so if you see one you like buy lots.

Floral, to be clear, our packaging has nutrition information (NI) which gives the total amount of fat in grams, the amount of saturated fat, the amount of trans fat and the amount of cholesterol. A ”serving” of butter is standardized at 1 TBSP or 14 g. Plugrà butter lists 11 g of total fat. Plugrà say they have 82% butterfat. Straus NI shows 12 g total fat, OTOH, Straus has 85% butterfat, according to their box and website. Challenge Euro Style butter says 12 g total fat. Challenge regular butter says 11g total fat. Challenge says Euro Style has ”less moisture and higher butterfat— 82% versus 80% for standard butters”, which seems to say their plain butter is 80% butterfat.

These percentages are also rounded and mean a minimum. As you can see, the rounding error on the grams obfuscates the differences in butterfat, while in a lot of baking, it's quite obvious that there's a difference. The same rounding errors apply to the NI protein content of flour. One of the things I love about Central Milling flour is they state the protein percentage very clearly.

So, Floral, are you talking about the equivalent to our nutrition information? Or a statment of percentage, like in the Straus banner?

Note re Plugrà: ”Slow churned with real American milk, creating a smooth, extra creamy butter. Always fresh, crafted without artificial ingredients or added hormones. Created by chefs with the perfect amount of butterfat (82%) for delicious results in baking.“ Not really French...

Our butter has both nutrition information and percentage butterfat on the wrapper.

Plugrà is not available here so I can't comment on it.

Thanks for the clarification! It would be SO much easier if they did that here. A number of the 85-86% do say so right out front, but the 82%, which are pretty common, do not.