Favorite Butter - Worldwide
 

I've been trying to limit the intake of one of my most favorite food groups...FAT :D

Consequently, I'm hoping to maximize the enjoyment of what little I do indulge in.

So, have at it and let loose with your favorite butter brands and (country of origin/salted/unsalted) and then the tastings can begin ^

Kerrygold salted pure Irish butter. I believe 8 oz is usually about 5 bucks here but honestly I don't look at the price. I am a cook and you can really tell the difference cooking with it, especially in sauces. I pretty much only use it for cooking though. For toast and other stuff I usually just use Land O Lakes or something like it.

Isigny Ste. Mere - salted, French. Got hooked on it in Brussels!

Échiré -- salted or unsalted they are awesome. No other butter has come close that I have tried yet. I actually love getting the unsalted and sprinkling a little fleur de sel or some other artisinal salt on it. Simply devine!!

Such a shame one cannot get it in Canada......

+1. It's an appelation controlee product too.

+2. BTW it is completely legal to bring butter back to the states. We usually rent an apartment in Paris, and we stock up on this stuff and freeze it. I put each one in a zip top bag that I bring along for this purpose and put it in checked baggage. It arrives home in perfect shape. You can actually buy what appears to be the same thing at Whole Foods, but it costs an arm and a leg and I swear it doesn't taste the same.

Good stuff, indeed, though I don't know how it compares to other butters of the world (such as the others mentioned in this thread).

It's somewhat reasonably priced at Costco, though they don't always carry it. If yours doesn't, bk3day, or you're not a member, come visit me and I'll stock you up! :D

I like Kerrygold, but the one available in Costco doesn't taste the same as the one I used to eat as a kid. I liked Anchor too when growing up, but that's changed too.

However, my favorite is the fresh butter we get on our family farm in Pakistan - it's made fresh every day and placed on the table just in time for breakfast (10-11 AM'ish). It looks like plain yoghurt or curd, but when you taste it, it's like the lightest but butteryest thing there is.

And why are you disparaging Fresno's airport? :eek:

I'm a big fan of Smjor--Icelandic, salted. I've seen it in a number of Whole Foods on the east coast, but I've yet to find it in the western US, unfortunately. :(

I have never tasted anything quite like the truffle butter at Tetsuya's in Sydney (they gave me a jar to take with :) ).

There are of course cheap substitutes available in better gourmet shops...

Some excellent recommendations for great commercial butter on this thread, and until last year I would have been in heaven with any of them..... but now I have been spoiled and have found butter that blows these away. Hand churned butter sold at a few markets in Melbourne Australia. Amazing what a difference freshness makes, plus milk in Australia tastes soooo much better than US or even France or Switzerland (my prior high water mark for good tasting milk). This really results in a difference you can taste, but it is not sold in supermarkets! The Tetsuya butter is great mostly due to this (the trufle addition really doesn't do that much more for the great taste, but helps to justify the stratospheric price -- $100/lb anyone?).

Plugra anyone? Maybe not "favorite" but a great everyday butter.

I'm a fan of Kerrygold since it's easy to get here, Plugra is good stuff too but nothing beats the stuff I get when I'm in France. It's just amazing, so fresh and light but so much butter flavor.

Errr - which markets? Who's the supplier? I'll have to hunt this down since I live in Melbourne!

Audrey