I Baked with 3 Chefs’ Favorite Butter for a Month and It Actually Made the Biggest Difference

Butter is one of the most-used groceries in my kitchen — so much so, that I reserved an entire crisper drawer for it. I add some to the pan before frying my eggs most mornings, and smear it on toast. It’s also my preferred fat for cookies, cakes, pies, and really every other baked good you can think of. I’m constantly whipping up batches of buttercream frosting for impromptu dinner parties, friends’ birthdays, and potlucks. 

Surprisingly, I’m not really a butter brand-devotee. I typically buy whatever’s on sale (or in bulk at Costco), and almost always use salted. Then I read that multiple chefs all agreed that Kerrygold is the best butter. So I decided to really see (and taste!) what all the hype is about for myself. I spent four weeks baking all kinds of desserts and, okay fine, snuck some into my breakfasts and dinners too. Here’s how it went.

Despite its name, Kerrygold actually first launched in the U.K. Decades later, the Irish butter is well-known for its rich flavor and vibrant yellow (almost golden) hue, thanks to its milk that comes from grass-fed cows raised on Irish pastures. It has a slightly higher butterfat content of 83% (most American brands hover around 80%), which makes it naturally luscious and decadent. 

I’ve had Kerrygold Grass-Fed Pure Irish Salted Butter before, of course, but I’ve never spent weeks analyzing its qualities. I’ll be honest that when I started I really didn’t think the difference would be that big, but I am happy to report I was wrong. In each and every application the Kerrygold butter just performed better than other brands. 

I put my first stick into my butter bell and smeared it on a piece of sourdough toast. It glided across the toast like no other butter ever had before — and the flavor! It was creamy and … almost nutty?

The real experiment came a few days later when I baked a butter mochi cake and made buttercream frosting for my friend’s birthday. The butter added a richness to the base that I hadn’t previously unlocked (everyone kept complimenting it throughout the night). And the frosting … I have never had a butter mix so seamlessly with powdered sugar in my stand mixer. It was heavenly to watch and eat. 

The same trend continued throughout the rest of my baking escapades. It made my brownies richer, pies flakier, and a gigantic cookie cake taste incredibly moist and decadent. I even used a few leftover cubes to baste a steak with that flavorful melted butter as it finished cooking.