This Popular Ice Cream Brand Makes A Cheap Kerrygold Butter Alternative

If you've been perusing the butter shelf at the grocery store lately, you may have seen the distinctive shiny gold and green packaging for Kerrygold Irish Butter. It's a popular butter brand; in fact, it's the second most popular in the U.S., and fans swear by it. There are some definite reasons to love Kerrygold, but price isn't one of them — this butter can be on the expensive side. Luckily, if you're looking for a cheaper but still excellent alternate option, we've got one. When we found the best alternatives to Kerrygold Irish Butter, one of the standouts was Tillamook's Extra Creamy Butter. 

It's not surprising that Tillamook would have a good butter, considering the company is expert in all things dairy, offering a wide array of dairy products including cheese, yogurt, sour cream, frozen mac and cheese, and ice cream, the latter being its trademark and most well-known product. The brand's butter, available in both sea salted and unsalted varieties, is a Tillamook product that lives up to its "Extra Creamy" designation. It has a rich, luxurious flavor that is equally ideal for adding to baked goods or spreading on toast.

What is it that makes Tillamook's butter extra creamy? The label says "Made with sweet cream," so you might be tempted to think that's the differentiator. In fact, most butter is made with sweet cream, so this isn't it. Instead, the creaminess comes from the slightly higher fat content. While most American store-bought butter typically has a butterfat content of 80%, Tillamook's Extra Creamy has 81%. That's only a small difference, but it can still lead to a richer flavor. Kerrygold, meanwhile, has a butterfat content of 82% for its unsalted version, but only 80% for its salted version, meaning Tillamook is giving you even richer salted butter for close to half the price.

Keep in mind that, while Tillamook's butter is a solid alternative to the Irish version, it's not the exact same thing. Irish butter comes from grass-fed as opposed to grain-fed cows. Grass-fed cows graze freely outside on plants rich in carotene, and carotene is what gives Kerrygold butter its distinctive golden-yellow color. The compound may even provide some health benefits as well. Tillamook makes no claims about the amount of greens in the diet of its dairy cattle, but most American farms use grain-fed cows. The grass-feeding method may lend Irish butter a distinctively tangy, complex flavor profile that would be slightly different than that of Tillamook's product. Nevertheless, with Tillamook at a significantly lower price point, you might be willing to sacrifice that tang.