We Style-Examined 11 Grocery store Unsalted Butters—Right here Are Our Favorites

You don’t want me to sit down right here and let you know why butter is sweet and vital, do you? I don’t have the vitality, you don’t have the time, and all of us have already got 17 sticks of the stuff ready for us after we get house. I don’t imply to suggest I—otherwise you—get house from a really exhausting day and nibble by way of a butter bar or 17 butter bars simply to really feel one thing, however ought to that be the case, you understand deeply why butter is sweet and vital…and why it’s so vital to inventory your self up with good butter.

And so, as we’re wont to do, the SE crew has pulled collectively 11 manufacturers of unsalted butter that you simply’re prone to discover in your native grocery store, and methodically, empirically, scientifically! tasted its manner by way of all of them in a quest to establish the perfect. And we beloved each minute of doing it!

The Contenders

• Finlandia Butter Imported Unsalted
• Vermont Creamery Cultured Unsalted Butter
• Land O Lakes Unsalted Butter
• Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter, Unsalted 
• Beurre D’Isigny French AOP Unsalted Butter
• Natural Valley Unsalted Cultured Butter
• 365 Butter, Unsalted 
• Important Farms Unsalted Butter
• Horizon Natural Unsalted Butter
• Breakstone’s Unsalted Butter
• Plugrà Unsalted

The Standards

Butter’s scent ought to be good. Strategies of grass, cream, and far-away film theaters are all good issues. Whiffs of oil, acid, and close by film theaters are considerably much less good. All of the above applies to style as nicely. Nature: good! Not nature: oy!

As for the colour of butter, this crew went in satisfied they may establish Kerrygold from a rocket ship (in a superb and comforting manner) due to its signature yellow coloration, so we aimed to eradicate this variable from the style take a look at itself to be able to decide what truly tasted the most effective. All this to say: I spent a really very long time guffawing within the take a look at kitchen galley trying to unfold equal 1/4-inch layers of 11 totally different butters onto many, many salt-free saltines after which flipping them the wrong way up into little communal bowls whereas Slacking “do NOT look by way of the holes of the saltines when tasting—this can be a blind style take a look at!!” at my coworkers frantically. (Credit score the place it’s due: Our new senior social media editor Kelli very graciously helped me unfold butter after she noticed me struggling. Don’t fear—she didn’t see the important thing to the take a look at and did finally take a look at blind.) It seems this crew enjoys all colours of unsalted butter!

Additionally price noting: There needs to be nary a hindrance to utilizing an unsalted butter, whether or not that be for baking, for greasing, or for, nicely, buttering. You need to be capable to unwrap it, dip into, and unfold it with ease. It shouldn’t take bodily effort or dexterity to evenly coat your required floor with the stuff. To be able to gauge every pattern’s true spreadability, we let the blocks sit out at room temperature for simply over three hours. By the point we sampled, every of the 11 butters measured temps someplace between 57-62 levels.  

This! wasn’t! simple! No, cease! It wasn’t! For those who say you want butter a lot, you attempt consuming back-to-back pats of the stuff slapped onto unsalted crackers, all of the whereas straining, straining your jaw to notice all of your helpfully pithy butter sample-specific nonsense. Then we’ll speak!!!

The Massive Image

If there’s one factor to remove from this tasting, it’s that there wasn’t an enormous distinction amongst any of those butters. Under, you’ll see a scored rating and feedback from tasters, and sure, technically, that’s how these butters scored. However we have been all struck by the truth that it was fairly rattling arduous to inform any of those butters aside, except for the faint tang of a few of the cultured choices. It’s price noting that just about the entire scores hovered near a really slim one-point vary.

Have been there variations? Certain. Have been they dramatic, life-altering, or no less than butter-purchasing altering? No, not likely. There have been variations and a few of us did really feel that one or two manufacturers really rose above the remaining, however in addition they all kind of tasted like…butter. 

Take that as excellent news: Strategy the butter part of the market freed from the type of decision-making nervousness that may freeze you within the cereal part for 43 minutes. You actually can’t go incorrect.

The Rankings

Important Farms Unsalted Butter, 3.84/5

A powerful spherical of applause for this man proper right here. It smelled candy, however not too candy. It tasted grassy and milky, however not too grassy and milky. It ate easily, it wasn’t greasy, it evoked pictures of rolling hills and delicate background cows. It made a foul factor (see: outdated salt-free saltines) higher. I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out this butter has the very best butterfat content material of the group at a whopping 84 p.c (the others ranged anyplace from 78.6 to 83).

Plugrà Unsalted, 3.6/5

Megan described this providing as a “strong buttery butter,” which I am keen on as each a butter style take a look at descriptor and a tongue tornado. Regardless of the room temperature-ness of all of it, Plugrà held simply agency sufficient. Every tester famous and accepted of its solidity and distinct dairy taste. Daniel wrote: “Good!” which, as at all times, felt vital sufficient by itself to incorporate. IYKYK, and so forth., and so forth.

Finlandia Butter Imported Unsalted, 3.6/5

There comes a time in each Severe Eats when Genevieve identifies a pattern as “like what I believe ‘the factor we’re testing’ tastes like.” This one is what Genevieve thinks butter tastes like! It’s “evenly, evenly candy” and the aroma was hanging in, like, a pastoral manner. This was one other sturdy butter; Daniel famous its dense texture whereas tasting, and it held its personal for lengthy after the style take a look at concluded (See: It was seamless to deal with and re-wrap). Finlandia specifies its unsalted butter runs between 82-83% butterfat, for what it’s price.

Horizon Natural Unsalted Butter, 3.42/5

A creamy but impartial providing among the many bunch. This was a departure from richness and hay bales butter and an introduction to “I’m late, I’ve nothing on this fridge besides butter, that’s OK, a buttered English muffin is one in every of life’s greatest issues typically, that is gonna be nice” butter. It was thinner, simpler to unfold than the above choices, and smelled completely of dairy and dairy alone.

Breakstone’s Unsalted Butter, 3.33/5

Three of our testers made a degree of mentioning the smoooooothness of this butter. They famous how “clean,” “actually clean,” and “very clean” it was, to be particular! Megan additionally specified her approval of its “gentle buttery, nearly nutty scent,” whereas Genevieve appreciated the butter’s “plain and ease.”

Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter, Unsalted, 2.8/5

…There comes a time in each Severe Eats style take a look at when each participant simply is aware of they will pinpoint their real-world favourite. This group of Kerrygold fanatics went in assured and got here out much less so. They loved Kerrygold, to be clear (its cultured tang, its funky aftertaste, its beautiful texture), however they didn’t robotically or collectively pinpoint it as their favourite.

Land O Lakes Unsalted Butter, 2.75/5

It’s right here we start to enter “it’s not you, it’s me” territory. We are able to’t notably let you know why we’re not prepared to maneuver in with Land O Lakes, however we recognize it and might’t image our lives with out it, we swear. (Megan loved its “good, candy buttery scent.” In any other case, the stuff was pleasantly impartial. And typically impartial is precisely what you need.)

Beurre D’Isigny French AOP Unsalted Butter, 2.75/5

The expertise of consuming Beurre D’Isigny French AOP Unsalted Butter on a salt-free saltine, from what I can glean from my coworkers’ notes, is kinda like chugging film popcorn butter and then consuming the popcorn itself. It’s not a foul factor—you get to expertise butter scent and style, you get a pleasant little snack within the course of; it’s all simply very sensorily intense (gonna chalk that as much as the lactic starter listed within the substances of this flavorful cultured butter).

365 Butter, Unsalted, 2.6/5

At this level, our crew was ready for no less than some type of dairy-driven scent with every pattern. This one didn’t scent like something, which in some methods labored in its favor: “A surprisingly buttery taste for a butter that has no discernible aroma,” Megan wrote. Daniel gave up on giving aroma notes about 5 samples in the past, noting for this providing that he “actually couldn’t inform any of those aside.” Once more, take it from me: Excessive reward from the Severe Eats crew. Kinda.

Vermont Creamery Cultured Unsalted Butter, 2.5/5

Neutrality on neutrality on neutrality right here. “Impartial, however good?” mentioned Daniel. “Good for cooking while you desire a extra impartial taste,” opined Megan. “Nothingness!” wrote Kelli, which, in a manner, is a synonym for “neutralness,” yeah? 

Natural Valley Unsalted Cultured Butter, 2.34/5

Curiously, Natural Valley Unsalted Cultured Butter has the identical share butterfat as our top-ranked choice (84 p.c). And but…they didn’t style, unfold, or eat the identical.

Our Tasting Methodology

All style assessments are carried out utterly blind and with out dialogue. Tasters style samples in random order. For instance, taster A could style pattern 1 first, whereas taster B will style pattern 6 first. That is to forestall palate fatigue from unfairly giving anybody pattern a bonus. Tasters are requested to fill out tasting sheets rating the samples for varied standards that adjust from pattern to pattern. All knowledge is tabulated and outcomes are calculated with no editorial enter to be able to give us essentially the most neutral illustration of precise outcomes attainable.