Butter of the Month: Tillamook Extra Creamy Salted Butter

Unboring Rating – 2 cows out of 4 cows

“Tillamook makes butter?” We thought the exact same thing. But do you know what else we thought?

That’s awesome.

One of our favorite Unboring burgers in Los Angeles is the Hickory Burger with melted Tillamook cheddar. It’s one of LA’s best burgers in a city known for amazing burgers. We’re known for our amazing granola so we wondered what Tillamook butter might do for our Butter Baked Granola. After all, Tillamook is definitely a go-to cheddar for a proper burger so we know they have some serious street cred when it comes to dairy. One look at the Tillamook family of dairy-based products and you could argue this company is an “American Kerrygold.”

Established in 1909, the Tillamook County Creamery Association (Tillamook for short) is a farmer-owned, dairy co-operative located in Tillamook, OR, where they have been for the past 110 years. The co-op includes over 80 farmer-owners that together produce cheese, ice cream, yogurt, sour cream, and butter. It operates production facilities in Tillamook and Boardman, OR, employing nearly 900 people throughout the state and its visitor center attracts more than one million visitors each year.

“Does the two cow rating mean you didn’t like Tillamook Salted Butter?

As a matter of fact, we did like Tillamook Salted Butter. This butter is a respectable everyday all-purpose butter. Alas, this is The Unboring Granola Blog and we believe two cows is an appropriate rating for an everyday all-purpose butter. As Colin Jost might say, “It’s sort of like the under $20 bottle of wine you drink every day, not like the wine you horde in your wine cellar.” Now, let’s be Unboring and get into the weeds.

The overall flavor profile is that of a pleasant and mild flavored butter. There’s nothing tangy or grassy about the butter and, in fairness, this should be expected. Tillamook does not market this butter as cultured, Pasteur-raised, or European-style. The butter is sea-salted and the salinity level is muted. So we don’t recommend Tillamook for customers that want a more salt-forward flavored butter. This butter shines when the accompanying carriers (i.e. think hamburger bun as a carrier to a hamburger patty) are equally straightforward: classic dinner rolls, scrambled eggs, buttermilk pancakes, muffins, scones, biscuits, cupcakes (vanilla buttercream frosting). The butter also performs well in delicate heated applications: beurre monté, beurre blanc, fried or scrambled eggs, béchamel sauce. Are you starting to see a pattern? Recipes that require a respectable straightforward butter are good fits for Tillamook butter.

Tillamook describes the butter as ‘Extra Creamy’ which is not the initial impression upon unwrapping the butter. The butter is sold in a one pound package with 4 individually wrapped sticks and has a very solid texture. Surprisingly, that solid texture, when bitten in to on a slice of toast, actually does come across as creamy and dense the same way a slice of chilled foie gras terrine does on toasted brioche.

The price per pound of Tillamook is around $4.80 which is definitely a slight premium compared to private label salted butter or the more ubiquitous Land O’Lakes. Tillamook Salted Butter is currently sold at Target stores.

Key Takeaway

Tillamook Salted Butter is a respectable work-horse butter that you could use for just about anything, but is probably best for applications that require an “Iowa Caucuses-type” butter. We’d be proud to use Tillamook Salted Butter in our Butter Baked Granola, but we wouldn’t recommend this butter in applications where the butter needs to be the star. In the spirit of its logo, one might say Tillamook Salted Butter is more chief mate than it is captain.

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.