What's The Difference Between Irish, American, And European Butter?

Whether in the grocery aisle or the kitchen, it's easy to assume that butter is just butter. It's the yellow dairy stuff that we spread on toast, bake cakes with, and use to make sauces. Outside of margarine, there's nothing too unexpected happening in the butter aisle. But there are some variations between butters from different places and ones made in different ways, and those small differences could be making or breaking your cooking experience without you even knowing it. And that's even more likely to be the case if you have picked up a recipe from another country and just used the butter that you're used to without a second thought.

The difference between butters is more than simply the geographical name. While most butter is made through the same simple practice, American butter, European butter, and Irish butter have variations in the exact process and the nature of the ingredients. The most important consequence is that the end product has different ratios of butterfat to water to milk solids. However, depending on how the cows are kept — and, arguably more importantly, where they're kept — the butter might look and taste quite different too.

Not all American butter is created equally, and there will be some variation in all cases. But when it comes to the standard butter that you'll find in the grocery store, with some recognizable brand names and a store brand or two, American butter is usually going to be sweet cream butter. While some people might be turned off by the terminology, sweet cream butter is the normal butter you're used to and there is no sugar or sweetener added, it just means that it was made from fresh cream. This makes American butter uncultured butter, distinguishing it from cultured butter. Rather than being made with fresh cream, cultured butter is made with cream that has been allowed to rest for as long as 20 hours, so it begins to ferment and develop a different texture and flavor.

The USDA requires that butter made in the United States is no less than 80% milk fat. That remaining 20% is made up mostly of water and milk solids, which — while they sound unappealing — are the vitamins, minerals, and lactose that brown when you cook butter. Beyond that, there are variations between salted and unsalted butter. Which you use is going to be a matter of taste, and it depends on what you're making with it. It's just good to know whether the butter already has salt before you decide to add more to a recipe.

As with American butter, you will find variations in European butter, so no rule holds true for all of them. For example, there are three butters in France that have Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), meaning that, like Champagne, the type of butter made there is protected and must be crafted in the traditional way. However, some differences in practices in Europe distinguish European butter from its American counterparts.

While the USDA only requires that butter made in America has 80% milk fat, the European Union requires that it has between 82% and 90% milk fat with a restriction of no more than 16% water. This means that European butter usually has a higher fat content and a lower moisture content, which can make a huge difference when baking and planning for wet to dry ratios. The result is a richer and more spreadable butter. Rather than sweet cream butters, most European butters are cultured, giving them a tangy lactic flavor. Finally, dairy cows in Europe are more likely to be fed on fresh grass, while American cows are more likely to be fed feed made from feed made from corn, soy, and other substitutes. In Europe, the grass adds a terroir to the butter and helps to justify those PDO statuses as the grass of the land itself is said to impart a flavor to the end product.

Irish butter has made a name for itself in the United States in recent years, with brands like Kerrygold becoming a staple in grocery stores and home fridges. Ireland is not part of the United Kingdom, so it was not affected by Brexit, and is still subject to EU butter regulations, meaning that Irish butter is a subset of European butter. This means that, compared to American butter, Irish butter has that extra fat content and lower moisture content that we associate with European butter, but there are a couple of extra factors that set Irish butter apart.

The milk used in Irish butter comes from grass-fed cows, and it seems that the grass in Ireland really is greener. The grass the cows eat is higher in beta-carotene than most places, owing to the climate in Ireland and how fertile the soil is. The beta-carotene is absorbed when the cows eat it and it gives their milk a stronger color. This affects the end result of the process and gives Irish butter its distinctive bright yellow color. As with the PDO butters of France, this particular grass has been credited with giving Irish butter a distinctly rich flavor with earthy notes that is unique to butter made in the country.

There's a lot of discussion about slight differences in flavor for butter from different places, but how does all of this really affect your cooking? The differences are going to be most noticeable when you're baking. Going from 80% to 82% butterfat might seem negligible, but that 2% will make the difference in a large number of recipes.

If you have less butterfat, you also have more water, and that moisture will throw things off because of how it affects the expected amount of steam. Using higher butterfat butter will help to make better cakes, cookies, and pastries, and it is especially important when making laminated dough for treats like croissants. Even something as simple as making a roux, you can see a need to add more flour to get the same consistency with American butter versus European butter.

Consumers have shown a preference for European butter and its higher fat to water ratio. While the grass-fed butter approach requires the right climate and available grazing pasture, butterfat ratios come down to how the butter is churned. So, why aren't butter companies in the United States making the same butter? In some cases, they do, and that will often be labeled as "European style" butter.

However, for the most part, American butter has a lower milk fat ratio simply because it is cheaper to make it that way. If butter is churned to a point where there is more than 80% butterfat, then many American companies will add more water to the butter to thin it out back to 80%, spreading the milk further to be able to get more sales from one batch. This isn't universal, so it's always worth checking the grocery store label to see the butterfat content before you buy.