Is Grass-Fed Butter Better?
Does grass-fed butter taste better? Grass-fed is thought to be healthier and gives the butter a nice, golden yellow color. Do the cows eat stuff other than grass? Most cows are supplemented with a dried grass product in colder months, which is often enriched with other ingredients to provide nutrients to the cows. If you are looking for 100% grass-fed cows, you should do some extra research on your dairy products. While it is only a small percentage of the diet, some of the cows are supplemented with grains and other ingredients that may be genetically modified.
Fat Content
What about fat content? Does a higher fat content make the butter tastier or creamier? High butterfat is what gives extra flakiness to pie crusts and croissants and gives it a high smoke point which makes it better for searing. Butter with high butterfat is also creamier and richer in flavor. Butter with 83-85% butterfat is said to be European style. Most butter produced in America has a lower butterfat content, somewhere around 80%.
My husband and I recently tested 11 different kinds of butter to find out which one we liked the best. We eat large quantities of popcorn at our house and I am always trying to find the best butter to drizzle over it. I had a couple of favorites in the line-up and picked some new ones to try.
Taste Test
All the butter was salted, most with sea salt, and all had 100- 110 calories per TBSP. The price ranged from $2.79 to $5.99 for each selection. For the taste test, all the butter was taken from the refrigerator and allowed to come to room temperature for tasting. All the butter was purchased on the same day, from the same store, with the exception of 2 I already had in the refrigerator. This is important because butter can absorb some of the other flavors in your refrigerator. You don’t want to keep it next to leftover onions for example. We needed something to test the butter on, so we spread the softened butter on warm croissants.
Here are our top choices:
Truly Grass Fed
Truly Grass Fed was our top pick. It had a nice golden color from being grass-fed and had a delicious, creamy, texture. Truly butter is made from cows that are 95% grass-fed on small family-owned farms. They are antibiotic-free and no hormones are used to increase milk production. Truly is a non-GMO project verified company and the cows are given plenty of room to roam and plenty of fresh air. The company is environmentally responsible and animal-welfare friendly.
Vermont Creamery Cultured Butter
This was another top pick for both of us. This butter has 82% butterfat and has added cultures. Cultured butter is made with lactic cultures which reduce almost all of the lactose in butter. Culturing also gives tangy notes of roasted hazelnuts to butter. I found this gave it a delicious flavor and an unexpected creaminess. It was also easy to spread. Vermont Creamery cultured butter is made from cows raised on local Vermont farms that have access to pasture and a grass-fed diet.
Ashe County Creamery Butter
This is a local entry. I buy it at a local farmer’s market. It is available for purchase from their online store so I decided to leave it in. They have been making cheese since 1930 and offer 20 varieties of cheese along with butter. This was the most flavorful of all the butter tasted. It has a deep, golden yellow color and was easy to spread at room temperature.
Danish Creamery
For an everyday option, Danish Creamery is a good choice. It’s widely available in grocery stores across the United States. I use it often in cooking and topping my popcorn. Its low butterfat doesn’t make it a good option for searing. Danish Creamery butter is churned fresh daily and made in small batches. They have been making butter since 1895 and the original recipe has not changed. The milk comes from cows humanely raised, munching grass in wide-open spaces, just as nature intended. Danish Creamery is committed to sustainability, open California pastures, and grass-fed, humanely raised cows. Danish Creamery recently added a higher butterfat, European-style butter option.
Other Brands
Other brands tested were Harris Teeter Traders, Kerrygold, Vital Farms, Challenge, Nellie’s Free Range, Simple Truth Organic, and Moovelous. The last two are Kroger brands, found at my local Harris Teeter. All had the same basic ingredients of cream and salt. Some were grass-fed, some were not. They all had good butter flavor but none stood out and were not as flavorful or creamy as some of the top choices. The Moovelous was a good non-organic, non-grass fed option. It had a nice buttery flavor, but it tastes saltier than the rest of the choices. If you select that one, I would use the unsalted butter.
Final Thoughts
In our taste test, grass-fed was the overall winner along with the higher butterfat. Price was not found to be a factor. The Truly Grass Fed was on sale, making it one of the less expensive choices and the most expensive choice was one of our least favorites. If you want to splurge on a more expensive butter, wait for a sale to give it a try. Or look on the website for a coupon.
