There's One Grocery Store Butter Brand That'll Always Have A Spot In Our Fridge

It can't be a coincidence that butter is one letter off from better, because it really does elevate every conceivable dish (ok, maybe not salads). In addition to topping your toast, the spread is the secret behind restaurant soups and sauces and the key to achieving the ultimate creaminess and rich flavor. If you've ever wondered why you can't exactly replicate your favorite restaurant dishes at home, it's probably because you aren't using enough butter. It also might have to do with the brand of butter you're using. Not all butter is created equal, and you'd be shocked at how different the best and worst types are.

Chowhound's Kyle Grace Mills went through a grocery gauntlet to definitively rank the best major retail butter brands, and it only served to emphasize how vast the difference between versions of the dairy product can be. Amongst the pool of candidates, one brand rose far above the rest. It's a name that many pro chefs know well: Kerrygold. It's easy to spot by its bold gold packaging, but it's also known as one of the more expensive butter brands, running close to $6 for an 8-ounce stick. The cost is well worth it though, because Kerrygold is far more flavorful than any other brand of butter can offer. The secret is all in the cows.

Kerrygold's label proudly proclaims "Pure Irish Butter," and therein lies the heart of its success. Simply put, the Irish know what they're doing when it comes to butter. Long before potatoes ever made it to the Emerald Isle, dairy ruled the land, and it's all thanks to Ireland's climate. The country gets its nickname from the pastures that cover so much of its land, kept green year-round by rainfall. Those pastures provide ideal grazing grounds for cows, and it's thanks to the Irish cows' all-grass diet that Kerrygold has a stronger flavor and softer texture than butter made with milk from hay or grain-fed cows. Grass also contains the pigment beta carotene, which gives the butter a rich, yellow color.

Another key difference that makes Irish, as well as other European-style butters, unique is their fat content. The United States and the European Union each enforce different regulations on the butter industry, with the States requiring butter to contain at least 80% fat, while the E.U. requires at least 82% fat (the rest is mostly water). This, in addition to the cows' grass diet, is what makes Kerrygold so rich and creamy. It's absolutely worth a try, although if the price point concerns you, Costco has a Kerrygold knock-off that should do the trick just fine.