Butter of the Month: Kerrygold Salted Pure Irish Butter

Unboring Rating – 3 cows out of 4 cows

This is what all butter should taste and look like.

Perhaps no other brand has capitalized on the iconic gold yellow color we associate with butter better than Kerrygold. This “golden” butter is produced from the milk of grass-fed cows living a peaceful life off the idyllic coast of Ireland. There might not be a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow, but on the pastures where these cows graze, there might be Kerrygold and that’s okay with us!

High-quality butter is a key ingredient in our small batch premium Butter Baked Granola. We tested our secret recipe with every major butter brand on the market to discover which butter unleashed the best flavor. Kerrygold was the first butter we tested. Why? Have you ever noticed the gold bars in our brand logo? Those gold bars symbolize the exceptional quality of our ingredients including the butter we use. That gold butter equity in the Kerrygold branding seemed a perfect fit for our golden Butter Baked Granola.

What makes Kerrygold unique compared to other butters? Kerrygold is made from the grass-fed milk of predominantly Holstein Friesians cows. It’s easy to take that golden yellow-colored butter for granted. The sad truth is that much of the butter on the market does not possess a beautifully gold yellow color. Most butters are pretty pale compared to Kerrygold. This butter is saturated in a seductive golden yellow color that can only come from cow’s milk rich from a continual grass-fed diet. The cows on the dairy farms owned by Kerrygold feed on lush mineral-rich grass nearly year-round—a luxury due to Ireland’s climate. By comparison, many American dairy farms are unable to provide a year-long diet of grass to their cows due to the winter season.

The gold-colored allure of Kerrygold butter isn’t just optics. The butter tastes delicious. It has mild grassy notes and the salt level is spot on. Chefs aren’t timid when it comes to salting their food so it’s refreshing to have a butter that’s calibrated perfectly on the salt. The texture is smooth and dense which makes for very easy spreading. This butter is best for spreading on bread, making eggs, and sautéing meat and vegetables. It’s not necessarily the right butter if you’re seeking a more European-style butter in both flavor and texture.

Kerrygold has gained popularity in the U.S. among culinary and fitness aficionados over the last decade. It is the number one imported butter in the U.S. Technically, the macro-nutritional profile is no better than conventional butter (any butter including Kerrygold must meet the standard of identity for butter which is a minimum 82% butterfat content). From a micro-nutritional standpoint, grass-fed butter contains five times more CLA than butter from grain-fed cows. Butter from grass-fed cows is also much higher in Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin K2, compared to butter from grain-fed cows. So there are tangible health benefits to consuming grass-fed butter versus grain-fed butter not unlike the benefits of consuming grass-fed beef versus grain-fed beef. American consumers now prefer “clean” fresh less-processed foods and this trend has clearly benefited Kerrygold.

Kerrygold does its part to play up the “pure golden butter” in its packaging. The butter comes neatly wrapped in gold foil that shimmers on the shelf beckoning you as you walk by it. For a butter that is so metaphorically associated with gold, Kerrygold is priced quite reasonably. It’s also very accessible. Kerrygold is sold at everyday low priced grocers like Walmart and Aldi.

Irish steel cut oats is to granola as kerrygold butter is to…Golden Butter Baked Unboring Granola. One would think Kerrygold is a slam dunk for a four cow rating. On paper, we thought it was a shoe-in for our highest rating. In the end, we felt Kerrygold was more like a solid three cows. Kerrygold succeeds at making a case for why grass-fed butter is better than grain-fed butter. The fourth cow in our rating really addresses the Unboring nature of the butter and this is where Kerrygold missed by a nose.     

Key Takeaway

When we visualize butter in our minds, we probably envision Kerrygold. That’s pretty counterintuitive when you consider that the leaner the cow’s diet is, the richer the gold color of the butter becomes. If your budget permits, then Kerrygold is the “everyday butter” you need to stock in your fridge right now. Gold may lose its luster, but butter never will.

That is especially true of Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter.

We do not receive any form of compensation for our reviews by any of the butter brands we feature. The views expressed in our blog are solely based on our own opinions.