The Results of Our Ultimate Butter Taste Test Are In—We Tried 17 Brands to Find Out Which One Is Best

Butter is one of those ingredients that might seem simple—until you taste a truly exceptional one. The right butter can add richness to baked goods, depth to sautéed dishes, and be downright indulgent on a thick slice of toast. To uncover the standouts, we tested 17 widely available butters in the categories of baking, sautéing, and eating plain. Our expert panel, which included BHG Test Kitchen pros, food editors, recipe developers, and stylists, sampled each one to find the best of the best. The result? Your ultimate guide to the best of butter.

Best Butter for Sautéing

Our Methodology: Cooking with butter can have incredibly delicious results. Think sauteed mushrooms in garlicky butter sauce or homemade shrimp scampi. But for us, there’s no better way to showcase the results of cooking in butter quite like a grilled cheese. As the bread cooks in butter, it becomes golden and crisp. And let’s not forget the rich, buttery flavor the spread imparts. To test the best butter for sautéing, we made classic white bread and American cheese grilled cheese sandwiches and evaluated the butters on flavor, crispiness of the finished bread, browning, and whether or not our tasters would repurchase the butter.

The 5 Butters We Tried (in no particular order):

1. Land O Lakes Salted Butter Quarters
2. Country Crock Original Spread
3. Aldi Simply Nature Organic Salted Butter Quarters
4. Trader Joe’s Butter Quarters – Salted
5. Amish Country Salted Roll Butter

The Overall Winner

Land O Lakes Salted Butter Quarters: Our tasters felt this salted butter did the best job of creating the crispy crust we love on a grilled cheese. It had a great balance of buttery, salty flavor and did a good job of browning the bread. One commenter summed it up best with a simple “yum!”

Runner-Up Favorites

• Best Butter Flavor: Aldi Simply Nature Organic Salted Butter Quarters
• Crispiest Bread: Land O Lakes Salted Butter Quarters
• Best Browning of Bread: Country Crock Original Spread

Best Butter for Baking

Our Methodology: When deciding how to test the best butters for baking, we knew we wanted to make something that would allow the flavor of the butter to shine. After much deliberation, we landed on our classic flaky biscuit recipe. We baked the biscuits in the BHG Test Kitchen and evaluated the finished biscuits on butter flavor, flakiness, color, and whether or not our tasters would repurchase the butter used.

The 5 Butters We Tried (in no particular order):

1. Member’s Mark Salted Sweet Cream Butter
2. Vital Farms Salted Grass-Fed Butter
3. Kerrygold Grass-Fed Pure Irish Butter – Salted
4. Crystal Farms Salted Sweet Cream Butter 
5. Vermont Creamery Cultured Butter with Sea Salt

The Verdict

Vital Farms Salted Grass-Fed Butter was a favorite in two of the three categories: flakiness and golden-brown color. Tasters raved about the great texture and perfectly salted flavor of the finished biscuits. You could really taste the butter in every bite. One called the biscuits baked with Vital Farms butter “the best-looking biscuits.” This was a tight race; all the butters we tried were great, but it was the flakiness of the finished biscuits that tipped the scales.

Runner-Up Favorite

Best Butter Flavor: Member’s Mark Salted Sweet Cream Butter

Best Butter for Eating Plain

Our Methodology: Rather than simply eating scoops of butter plain, each of the butters was blind tasted, softened at room temperature, with toasted artisan bread. The butters were ranked on flavor, spreadability, color, creaminess, salt level, and whether or not our tasters would repurchase the butter.

The 10 Butters We Tried (in no particular order):

1. Finlandia Butter Perfectly Salted Imported – 8 oz.
2. Trader Joes Cultured Salted Butter
3. Le Beurre Bordier Churned Salted Butter
4. Plugra Premium European Style Salted Butter
5. Trader Joe’s Salted Butter Quarters
6. Kerrygold Grass-Fed Pure Irish Butter – Salted
7. Store Brand Salted Butter Quarters 
8. Lurpak Danish Butter Slightly Salted
9. European-Style Salted Amish Butter
10. Old-Fashioned Amish Butter Roll

The Verdict

Trader Joes Cultured Salted Butter took the top spot in butter flavor and was an overall fan favorite. Our tasters appreciated the balance of saltiness to butter flavor and felt the butter was one of the creamier ones we tried. This inexpensive option (it’s just $4.99 per package) is a great pick for eating with bread or slathered on backed goods.

Runner-Up Favorites

• Best Spreadability: Kerrygold Grass-Fed Pure Irish Butter – Salted
• Creamiest: Finlandia Butter Perfectly Salted Imported – 8 oz.
• Best Salt Flavor: Le Beurre Bordier Churned Salted Butter