5 Best Unsalted Butters For Baking And 9 To Avoid

There's a time to use the best store-bought salted butters, and there's a time when unsalted butter is an absolute necessity. Some people will argue over salted versus unsalted butter when it comes to cooking, but nearly everyone agrees that when it comes to baking, only unsalted will do. That's because baking is a science, not an art, and only unsalted butter allows for full control over sodium content. Of course, even among unsalted butters, there's variation in their compositions, and not every brand you grab off the store shelves will perform to the highest standards. I started wondering: Which unsalted butters are truly the best for baking?

I decided the only way to answer this question was to buy 14 unique unsalted butters and try them for myself. To do this properly, I also knew I needed to test each unsalted butter on its own and see how it performed when used in scratch baking. So I did just that, judging each product on its taste and texture alone, as well as how it performed while baking homemade brownie bites. My food industry background and other relevant experiences gave me the skillset needed to properly judge each unsalted butter. Then I reported my findings back here to let you know which butters deserve a spot on your grocery list. You can learn more about my methodology at the end of this article. Now, without further ado, let's get into it.

One thing I noticed was that all the best performing unsalted butters had a higher butterfat percentage — based on my baking experience, I had guessed this would happen. This is because a higher butterfat means less water and more concentrated dairy solids, generally resulting in overall better performance. In this instance, Vital Farms Unsalted Butter contains 85% butterfat, which is well above the American legal minimum of 80%.

When tested alone, this butter had an incredibly creamy texture with a robust sweet cream flavor profile that made it feel perfect for two-ingredient maple butter. There wasn't a lot of nuance to the flavor profile, but that worked out well because it provided a neutral taste which didn't affect the baking results. For baking, it softened nicely at room temperature without turning into a melted puddle, and resulted in excellent brownie bites. I have no complaints here and recommend Vital Farms if you're looking for high-quality unsalted butter for baking.

Although I couldn't find out exactly how much butterfat Vermont Creamery Cultured European-Style Unsalted Butter contains, the website does say that cultured butter like this one has between 82% and 86%. This is well above the legal minimum, and explains why this option performed so well during this test.

Alone, this butter was appropriately creamy, with a robust dairy-forward flavor. Faint tangy notes and nutty undertones came through, which is nice if you're using this for something like compound butter. However, it did make me worry it might change the desired profile of my brownie bites — but I needn't have worried. Although delightfully nuanced when eaten plain, this butter became beautifully neutral when used in the baked goods, which came out exactly as desired in all aspects. If Vermont Creamery butter is available in your grocery store, it's a great choice for your baking needs.

Plugra Premium European Style Unsalted Butter says it's "inspired by chefs" on the label, where it also prints that it contains 82% butterfat. Again, this higher percentage turned out to be a great thing for how the better tasted, felt, and performed. But I wasn't really surprised after having such a positive experience with the brand's salted butter in the past.

When I tasted a little on a small spoon, I found this had one of the richest sweet cream butter tastes among all these products (with a single exception, noted below). There was a subtle tang that made me believe this would really elevate traditional American buttercream frosting, and it's very fresh all around. When I went to use it for baking, it softened well at room temperature, and did so fairly quickly — by the half hour mark, I could use it without issue. The brownie bites came out of the oven ultra-moist, with the perfect fudgy interior I was looking for. If you plan to do any serious baking, Plugra butter is an excellent option.

Danish Creamery Extra Rich European Style Unsalted Butter has an incredible 85% butterfat, and that really showed in the flavor profile. It featured the richest sweet-cream butter taste of all the products in this article, with a very clean finish. It's not that it was entirely flavorless or lackluster, but it simply had the crisp taste of freshly churned cream. Texturally, it was very soft when brought to room temperature, and it didn't have the greasiness of some lower-quality options when cold.

When it came to baking, this unsalted butter came up to room temperature quickly, thanks to the creamy consistency. It melted well with the chocolate chips I used to create my fudgy brownie base, and blended easily without clumping or separating. The final product came out delicious, with no extra greasiness or strange flavors. I feel confident saying this butter from Danish Creamery is one of the best you can grab for baking, and plan to test it on a classic buttery pound cake next.

Kerrygold Unsalted Irish Butter has become a highly recommended staple across baking circles, and after using it for myself, I can see why. Besides a pleasing aesthetic thanks to the deep yellow color, this butter also had a pleasant taste that was dairy-forward with a faint fresh tang and subtle grassy undertones. I enjoyed these aspects alone, but was even happier when they melded into my baked goods rather than supplying any unwanted flavors.

I'm not sure of the exact butterfat percentage of Kerrygold's unsalted butter, but the website says it contains more than the salted variety. It's safe to assume it sits somewhere around 82% butterfat, however, since that's the gold standard for Irish butters. That richness from the extra fat and the unique nuances in flavor make this an excellent choice for old-fashioned cinnamon rolls and similar decadent desserts. Kerrygold performed well across the board when I was making my brownie bites, and I ended up with a delicious batch my family simply couldn't stop eating.

I want to make a quick point and say that almost none of the butters on this list were truly bad products. However, this is a recommendation for the best unsalted butters for baking, not the ones that will simply work. If you're in a pinch and can't find any of the best butters I chose, then I recommend opting for Hotel Bar or Land O'Lakes Unsalted Butters, which were the best American standard butters.

With that disclaimer out of the way, this Hotel Bar Unsalted Butter and all those following it are standard American varieties that either contain around the 80% butterfat minimum or else I couldn't find the exact percentage online. Although this butter was a deeper yellow than some other American options, it was lacking the richness I was looking for. The flavor profile remained neutral during cooking, but the brownie bites created with this product were a bit dry. While this would work in a pinch, I recommend opting for a European butter when baking instead.

Before diving into a description of this Land O'Lakes Unsalted Butter, I want to offer yet another disclaimer: This brand does offer an extra creamy version of its butter with a higher butterfat percentage that I would recommend had it been available to me at the time I went to the store. Unfortunately, it wasn't, and so I had to opt for this standard option, which simply doesn't perform the same way.

Disclaimer aside, this unsalted butter was nearly identical to the Hotel Bar option. It had a light creamy taste and texture that was slightly better than the other American variants. And while the brownie bites came out okay when made with this Land O'Lakes Butter, they were slightly dryer than when I used my recommended options. This is another butter you could use in a pinch, but I recommend avoiding it if you can find one of the best ones.

I honestly went back and forth on whether to consider Cabot Creamery Sweet Cream Unsalted Butter one of the best of its kind for baking. Ultimately, it's a decent butter as far as lower butterfat options go (like its Hotel Bar and Land O'Lakes counterparts), but I just couldn't put it in the same category as European-style butters.

Alone, Cabot Creamery featured a medium yellow color and a texture only slightly harder than I was looking for, which still managed to be a bit creamy. There was a definitively bold, buttery taste, but with little nuance and without the incredible freshness of other options. Unfortunately, when used in baking, it produced brownie bites that were slightly drier than those made with the higher-quality butters. Plus, the brownies had a faint greasiness to them — this could easily be overlooked because of how small the issue was, but did manage to make Cabot Creamery fall into the "avoid" category.

Since I do a lot of my grocery shopping at Shoprite, I've definitely grabbed Bowl and Basket Unsalted Butter in the past when I wanted to pinch a few pennies on the bill. Does it work? Yes, absolutely. Does it deserve to be called one of the best unsalted butters for baking? No, definitely not.

Bowl and Basket's butter was fairly pale, and nearly indistinguishable from most of the other private-label store brands like Great Value, Lucerne, and Countryside Creamery. It took longer to soften versus higher-quality products, and when it did, there was an oily sheen that felt more like margarine than real butter. There were faint waxy tones strewn through an otherwise flat flavor profile. The brownie bites I created with this unsalted butter were moderately dry comparatively and had faint notes of that waxy flavor profile, which somehow came through against the rich chocolate, if only slightly. I'm all for saving money on a grocery bill, but this cheaper butter isn't one of the ways I'd recommend doing so.

Breakstone's Unsalted Butter was mediocre at best and a major underperformer at worst. Its yellow color was so pale it was nearly white, which set this test off on the wrong foot as I associate a deeper yellow with higher fat content. But the poor aesthetic aside, Breakstone's was also bland. There was a faint finishing tang, but otherwise it tasted more like skim milk than it did creamy butter. Texturally, it was okay, but it didn't soften or melt as readily as other options. It also took a little extra time to combine into my batter.

The brownie bites created with Breakstone's mostly looked fine, but they ended up a bit greasy along the bottom. In contrast, the interior was drier than when the European butters were used, and this specific batch took exactly one minute longer to cook. I'm not entirely sure why that was (or even if it was really a downside) but it bears mentioning. Long story short: Skip this butter if you want your baked goods to turn out well.

Keller's Creamery Unsalted Butter was pale and a bit greasy, but it did feel appropriately soft when touched. Admittedly, I wouldn't have expected this quality based on aesthetics alone — to me, the stick had an artificial appearance to it, although I can't quite pinpoint why. When tasted alone, this butter featured a moderate dairy flavor, which would have been okay except it was tainted by faint metallic tones. The metallic tones created a blood-like, iron flavor in my mouth, like when you bite the inside of your cheek.

Keller's took a bit longer to incorporate into my batter, and the brownie bites required two additional minutes to cook through. When they were finally done, the bites were a bit dry and greasy, with faint iron-like metallic tones you'd probably miss if you weren't scrutinizing the brownies. Definitely avoid this option in favor of literally any of the best unsalted butters for baking.

Countryside Creamery comes from Aldi, which produces more good private label products than bad ones, in my opinion — but then, private labels are what the entire store is built around. That being said, I wasn't a fan of the Countryside Creamery Sweet Cream Unsalted Butter for a few reasons. The coloring wasn't the deep yellow I was looking for, but it was a few shades deeper than other low-quality options, which was promising. It also appeared less greasy and more creamy. When I tasted it, there was an entirely neutral flavor profile that was more like clean water than butter. Still, it wasn't completely unpleasant.

When put to the test, Countryside Creamery's performance fell somewhere in the middle of the low and high quality options. The brownie bites had no unwanted flavor notes like some of the options I recommend avoiding, but they were drier than all those I believe are the best. The bites weren't greasy either, but I still can't recommend this when proper moistness is critical to baked goods.

Great Value is Walmart's private label, and honestly, I didn't have high hopes for its Sweet Cream Unsalted Butter because I've been disappointed by the brand fairly frequently lately. I also struggled to find anything to say about this grocery store butter that I didn't say about Bowl and Basket's — the two were shockingly similar. It makes me wonder if some of the store brands aren't the same butter but repackaged.

A pale yellow-colored butter with a greasy sheen carried artificial waxy tones that reminded me more of margarine than real butter. This one took the longest to soften at room temperature, clocking in at about 1.5 hours before it was the right consistency for my recipe. The sole difference between this and its Shoprite counterpart was that this one had a sharp metallic finishing note I didn't enjoy. The brownie bites I made with this butter looked fine overall, but they felt dry and were greasy enough to leave marks on every surface I set them on.

Lucerne Unsalted Butter is from Acme Market's private label, which means it should be available at all Albertson's stores — this includes Vons, Safeway, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, and more. Again, we had that pale yellow color on a slightly oily stick of butter. This one did soften at room temperature around the time I expected it too, and the flavor profile was more dairy-forward than similar alternatives. Unfortunately, it carried those waxy undertones and a subtle metallic sharpness that made this butter taste more like a canned product than freshly churned dairy.

While Lucerne Unsalted Butter looked nearly indistinguishable from Great Value or Bowl and Basket, its performance was slightly better. Although it still produced less moist brownie bites compared to recommended brands, it didn't impart any unwanted flavor tones and was a little less greasy. Nevertheless, I can't recommend Acme's private label butter when significantly better options are available.

I chose unsalted butters for this list based on their availability to me near Vineland, New Jersey. Each product underwent two rounds of testing. First, they were tested alone based on their taste and texture. I was looking for a rich, sweet cream flavor profile and a creamy, medium-weight texture when eaten off a small spoon. Second, each unsalted butter was quality tested in the exact same baking recipe for scratch-made brownie bites. Here, I was looking for something that kept the baked goods moist, didn't provide any significant flavor alterations on its own, and resulted in an end product that had an overall positive flavor, density, and texture.

To make my judgments, I primarily relied on a food industry background of more than 15 years, which included extensive time spent in bakeries — including several years as head baker. I also used my past experience working with unsalted butter to influence my judgments, as well as prior work for Daily Meal. This includes similar baking-based articles like my review of PiiPer Hero products and my baker-approved tips for making the perfect pineapple upside down cake. Although personal preference played a role in this recommendation, I aimed to be as unbiased about product quality as possible.