Jacques Pépin's Favorite Butter Proves You Can Bake Like A Pro On A Dollar-Store Budget

Jacques Pepin smiling with bow tie and multicolor vest

Gregg Deguire/Getty Images

If you are used to looking up the best ingredient to use in your recipe and seeing nothing but expensive options, you might assume learning about Jacques Pépin’s favorite butter means your wallet is about to get a lot lighter. However, the man often has more humble tastes than Americans would expect from a French chef. Of course, like any gourmand, Pépin has his indulgent favorites, like caviar and Champagne, but day to day, he often eats the simplest things, like English muffins with jam and cornflakes. And of course, he loves bread and butter too, and for Pépin, that butter is Land O’Lakes.

Despite hearing from many food influencers and celebrity chefs about hunting down the best gourmet ingredients, sometimes what is most common is also what’s best. Even Pépin’s love of Land O’Lakes started out purely practical. As he told Food & Wine, “Years ago, I started using Land O’Lakes because it was one of the only butters I could find. It’s still a favorite of mine.” Land O’Lakes is such a common grocery store butter brand that it’s found basically anywhere you can buy food, even in budget shops like Dollar General. It may not have the full, rich flavors of some of the more expensive butters, but Land O’Lakes is more than good enough to cover 90% of your butter needs without shelling out too much.

Jacques Pépin prefers popular butter brands Land O’Lakes and Kerrygold

Land O'Lakes butter

Anatoliy Tesouro/Shutterstock

Even when it comes to the nice stuff, Pépin is pretty populist. The number of fancy butter brands at grocery stores has really expanded recently, as Americans develop a taste for more full-flavored European-style butter, which has a higher percentage of butterfat. But Pépin prefers a European butter that has also been around for a long time: Kerrygold. The Irish butter is a perennial favorite of taste testers, with a tangy, cultured flavor and complexity from being grass-fed. However, Kerrygold is usually more price-accessible than other gourmet brands, so it’s within reach for most shoppers.

And while Kerrygold and other European-style butters have a nice, strong flavor for spreading, they are even better for baking. The pungent taste lends more of that butter flavor to your baked goods, but high-fat butters are also great for their texture. Higher fat butters will make for more flaky pastries, help baked goods rise more, and give cakes a more tender crumb. The extra butterfat even helps them brown more in the oven. And finally, the softer texture at room temperature makes these butters easier to incorporate into recipes and spread out in layers for laminating.

You don’t need to opt for European-style butter for every recipe; if Land O’Lakes is good enough for Pépin, it’s good enough for anybody. Still, it’s nice to have both on hand.