The Costco NZ butter is great - very similar to Anchor, another NZ butter I love (hard to find near me, though). I use it or the Kerrygold I buy at Costco for most everything other than American baking recipes, as I find they don’t turn out properly with higher fat butters unless I tweak the liquid content. For American baking I usually use Kirkland brand quarters, or Land o Lakes if I have to buy butter at the regular store.
The other day I realized I was out of ALL butter (the horror!) and grabbed a pound of a new-to-me local brand at Shoprite since their prices on LoL or Kerrygold were insane. BIG FAIL. Flavorless and a weird texture. It will be fine in things like bechamel or general sauteing but I don’t trust it for baking, and certainly not for eating plain. Lesson learned!
Speaking of horrors, I just found a 1/2 pound package of Plugra, open and mostly eaten, in the box on the door of the fridge. I usually reserve the Plugra for baking, and I didn’t bake
ETA
Oh wait! Maybe it was used to make the Baklava the other day.
Once I tried LES PRES SALES Sea Salt Camargue I never want back to Kerry, which was more former go-to. Whole Foods (In Manhattan) often has it. I do not bake so this is for cooking and eating.
If it was easier to find, I’d probably be a fan of Le Beurre Bordier Unsalted French Butter.
Was not fond of Delitia Butter Of Parm. Plugra is fine, as is President. Ronny Brook is pretty good.
I’ve been getting the Vermont creamery butter, and prefer it unsalted. Plugra is nice, too, as is Kerrygold.
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BarneyGrubble
(Fan of Beethoven and Latina singers)
28
Whatever brand of unsalted butter is on sale. I usually by a half-dozen, and throw them into the freezer.
For a long time I’ve been wanting to buy the high-fat stuff and make puff pastry, but with my health challenges, that will most likely not come to pass.
Type aside, I remember ATK or Serious Eats testing butters and concluding that packages whose individual sticks were wrapped in a shiny, foil- look paper resisted rancidity and picking up freezer odor better than sticks in waxed paper wrappers.
When I was growing up, Breakstone’s was about it as far as unsweetened butter was concerned. Maybe Land o’ Lakes had it too, but Breakstone’s in the red and white tub is what we bought.
I’ve had most of the butters listed in the article. My old tastebuds now prefer the ones with starter culture, but obviously YMMV.
The margarine producers really brainwashed whole generations into thinking that butter was bad for you. It wasn’t until college that I became a regular butter user. Then the truth came out about transfats, and the whole culture shifted back to butter as the default.
