Smooth as butter. Butter up. Bread and butter. Butter is as much a staple in our language as it is on our tables. We took on the task of testing butter with all the gravitas it deserves. We tasted 17 salted butters and baked with 11 unsalted butters to make our recommendations. When it comes to choosing a brick of butter, we know which side our bread is thickly buttered on. Golden, grassy, and velvety: Kerrygold is the closest thing to the platonic ideal of butter in most supermarkets.
The experience of unwrapping a brick of Kerrygold Salted Butter is almost transcendent. We missed out on all of this ceremony in our tasting, instead receiving a small pat of butter in a small container. And yet, every taster looked down at their little pat of butter and gushed about its sunny yellow tones. Kerrygold was one of the few butters in our tests that spread well when cold, without crumbling or lumping too stubbornly on the bread.
At room temperature it slid on the bread with one satisfyingly smooth motion, and rather than melting, it sat in a glossy, thick, even layer. The texture was luxuriously creamy, dense, and silky, without any mouth-coating greasiness. The flavor of the pasture really comes forward in this butter, with fresh, grassy notes, alongside a slightly cheesy, animal flavor.
In our buttered noodles test, Kerrygold made a thick, glossy emulsification that evenly coated the noodles. It was extremely buttery and savory, with a fresh grassy flavor and a balanced salt level.
Whether you choose to make a sauce with it or just melt it straight on top of a dish, the flavor it adds does not go unnoticed. Its full dairy flavor and hint of grassiness will bring more to your baked goods than most of the pallid sticks that make up most of the butter case at the supermarket.
