The price of butter is soaring. Once a staple, it may well be on its way to becoming a luxury. The average price of a 500g pack of Lurpak has risen by 33 per cent since June last year — in some supermarkets a kilo of this family favourite costs more than £9. So when you’re buying butter, you want to be sure that you’re choosing the most delicious one for the price.
One of my favourite culinary words is “tandsmor”, which is Danish, and translates to “tooth butter” — when there is so much butter on a piece of bread that you leave bite marks when you eat it. The aim of this taste test is to find out which butter would be worth the cost of buttering it thickly on your morning toast.
Of course there is more to consider than price. Some butters have fancy flavours. Marks & Spencer sells butter that tastes of Marmite; Farmison, the online organic meat company that foodies love, stocks butter flavoured with everything from parmesan (yuck) to garlic (yum). And I’ve not even started on the sweet tubs from Posh Cow — Earl Grey and apricot butter on toast, anyone?
Many foodies are going crazy for cultured butter. This is when a strain of bacteria — a culture — is introduced into the cream, a bit like with yoghurt. It is then left to ferment before being churned. The result is butter that tastes tangy, fresh and slightly acidic.
But if you really want to amp up those farmy flavours, you want your butter to be “raw”. This is the holy grail of butter. It’s made of cream that hasn’t been treated with heat to remove bacteria carried by the cow — that is, it is made with cream that is unpasteurised. “Bacteria equals flavour,” says Johnny Crickmore, who runs Fen Farm in Suffolk, and whose dairy produces butters that have the seal of approval of chefs including Raymond Blanc and James Martin. This is one of the reasons butters from different farms can taste so different — and why there are so many varieties in the dairy aisle. “Nobody will have the same strains of bacteria on one farm as the next, and so each butter produced has a unique flavour,” Crickmore says.
Whatever you are after, whether it’s a truffle butter to add flavour to a dish or a no-frills supermarket staple to enrich a jacket potato, this taste test will help you decide which variety you’re happy to spread thickly — however much it costs.
Which is the better butter?
Srdja Mastilovic, butter expert and wholesaler at Neal’s Yard Dairy takes a taste test
Supermarket butters
M&S Salted Butter from Brittany, 250g, £2.45, ocado.com
Sacrebleu, this is good! Crunchy and clean. It would be lovely generously slathered on a crunchy baguette for a treat, or in the middle of a cheeseboard.
★★★★★
Specially Selected West Country Butter, 250g, £1.85, Aldi.co.uk
Pretty nice butter, especially at that price. The sea salt gives a crystally texture that you don’t get with industrial salt. It’s low moisture so would be good for savoury pastries.
★★★☆☆
Kerrygold Pure Irish Block Butter, 250g, £2.25, Tesco.com
It’s not complex, but it’s immediately rich and salty. I’d use this to melt in a jacket potato or smear over corn on the cob.
★★★☆☆
Anchor Salted Block Butter, 250g, £2, sainsburys.co.uk
Nice enough. Not a lot to see here. Reasonably salty. A nice safe butter for toast.
★★☆☆☆
Waitrose French Butter with Sea Salt Crystals, 250g, £2.25, waitrose.com
This butter is . . . fine. Not one to bring out with the posh bread. Save it for those bottom-of-the-bread-bin slices.
★★☆☆☆
Guernsey Dairy, Guernsey Butter Salted, 250g, £2.35, waitrose.com
Guernsey cows are known for producing bold yellow butter. This is pretty pale. It’s not going to spark conversation at the breakfast table, but is fine for cooking.
★★☆☆☆
Lurpak Slightly Salted Butter, 250g, £2.50, sainsburys.co.uk
This is a butter for cooking with — and that’s it. It’s pale and thin in colour and tastes fairly bland except for a slight metallic background taste. OK for the pan, but not the ploughman’s.
★★☆☆☆
Country Life British Salted Butter, 250g, £2.25, sainsburys.co.uk
This doesn’t taste of much. It’s a butter for baking or cooking with, but I wouldn’t spread it anywhere else.
★★☆☆☆
Müller Wiseman Dairies Salted Butter, 250g, £2, coop.co.uk
This looks incredibly manufactured. It’s smooth and pale, like commodity butter. It’s very, very salty too, which you’ll either love or hate.
★☆☆☆☆
Raw butters
Fen Farm Bungay Butter, 200g, £7, fenfarmdairy.co.uk
Chef’s kiss! This is butter worth mooing about. Very, very yellow, very, very soft, creamy and rich. I’d happily eat it on its own.
★★★★★
Xavier Beurre Cru Demi-Salt, 100g, £3, in store at La Fromagerie delis
C’est magnifique! Hand-churned, raw butter full of character. This should have pride of place on your cheese board or breakfast table.
★★★★★
Ampersand Hand Crafted Salted Butter, 200g, £4.50
This is a butter for butter geeks like me. It’s had multiple cultures added to it, so it’s full of that grassy, herby character. You won’t taste anything like it. Foodies will love it, but it might be a bit too intense if you’re after something for everyday spreading.
★★★★★
Artisan Bordier Unsalted Butter, 125g, £5.75, finefoodspecialist.co.uk
I don’t enjoy unsalted butter but this is full of character. Sure, it would taste nice on bread but it would make for the most delicious cake.
★★★☆☆
Isigny Ste Mère Unpasteurised Salted Butter, 250g, £3, ocado.com
Not a lot going on here. Cream, salt and not much else, which is a shame for butter made with unpasteurised milk.
★★☆☆☆
Flavoured butters
Posh Cow Butter with Blossom Honey and Cinnamon, 150g, £2.80, in store at M&S and Booths
By far the most unusually flavoured but I like it. It tastes like a cinnamon bun. This with tea and toast would be the ultimate comfort food.
★★★★☆
Posh Cow Butter with Smoked Sea Salt, 150g, £2.80, in store at M&S and Booths
I’m on the fence with this one. There’s a distinct caramelly flavour to it that I’m not sure about. Try it and decide for yourself.
★★★☆☆
Sublime Garlic and Herb Butter, 90g, £4.25, farmison.com
Wow this is garlicky. I love it. It would taste brilliant under the skin of a roast chicken or on top of a steak where it will melt into the meat juices.
★★★☆☆
M&S Maple Butter, 150g, £3, in store at M&S
That’s really sweet. Use sparingly. It’s a sugary spread rather than a butter. Just a little on pancakes or bacon would be a lovely treat.
★★★☆☆
Sublime Truffle and Parmesan Butter, 90g, £4.25, farmison.com
Quite the flavour booster! You’ve gotta love truffle, pepper and parmesan if you’re adding this to your cooking. It’s a bit too much for me.
★☆☆☆☆