The Best Butter for Everyday Cooking, According to Chefs

Butter isn't just a supporting character in the kitchen—it's the diva who shows up in a gold wrapper and steals the show the minute it hits warm bread. In baking, it dictates texture, flavor, and structure in everything from croissants to brioche.

However, butter is not a one-gig ingredient. Butter-poached lobster? Check. Velvety beurre blanc sauce? Absolutely. A thick smear on toast? That's where butter proves it can deliver the magic.

Sometimes you want the butter's flavor to shine brightly; other times, you need it to quietly bring fat and richness. To find out which butters excel as the everyday workhorse and finishing flair, I asked three chefs to name their favorites for smearing, sautéing, and snacking. In the end, they mostly agreed.

What Makes Good Butter?

Butter's personality is shaped long before it reaches your kitchen. A cow's diet, the butter-making process, fat content, and the presence (or absence) of salt or culture all matter. For finishing touches, chefs seek complexity: a little tang, silky texture, and creamy richness that lingers. For everyday cooking, they opt for neutral, unsalted butter—something that slides into a pan without taking over.

Categories of Butter

• Sweet cream: Unsalted, pasteurized, uncultured cream tastes exactly as the name suggests—sweet and creamy. With a minimum of 80-percent butterfat, it's your mild-and-versatile workhorse.
• European style: Clocking in at 82 to 86-percent butterfat, European-style butters are rich and flavor-forward. It's ideal for when butter is the star: pound cake, brioche, and that loaf you didn't mean to eat three slices of.
• Cultured: Fermented cream adds depth, complexity, and tang to rival those of a triple-crème cheese.
• Salted: In my opinion, salted butter is pure joy. It’s also chaos; brands vary wildly in salt levels, which is why chefs avoid it in baking. In cooking, season cautiously to avoid over-salting. On the plate, salted butter gets to be its best self, melted over cornbread, tossed into popcorn, or dolloped on baked potatoes.

The Butter Braintrust

• Jonathan Warnock: Executive Chef of State Road on Martha's Vineyard
• Esther Reynolds: Recipe Developer and Food Writer
• Sophie Frazier: Food Stylist and Pastry Chef Instructor at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education

The Best Butters for Everyday Cooking, According to the Pros

Jonathan Warnock: Plugrá at Work, Kerrygold at Home

Chef Warnock cooks exclusively with unsalted butter to control salt. At State Road, he uses Plugrá Premium European Style Unsalted Butter for richness that doesn't blow up the budget, leaving room for premium seafood and produce elsewhere on the plate. He mixes crab stock, white wine, ginger, turmeric, and garlic into Plugrá to make a compound butter that melts over cod en papillote—downright decadent.

At home, when he's not budget-bound, he splurges for Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter. "It’s one of my favorite indulgences," he says. Cultured and higher in fat, Kerrygold turns an everyday bite into a moment into something richer. It’s about 4 times the price of Plugrá, so it's definitely a treat-yourself kind of butter.

Esther Reynolds: Land O’Lakes for Utility, Kerrygold or Plugrá for Snacks

Reynolds relies on Land O'Lakes Unsalted Butter for melting into pasta, stirring into rice, and sautéing aromatics. It's versatile, neutral, and affordable.

For splurge-worthy spreads to savor, Reynolds chooses salted Kerrygold or Plugrá, prized for their "rich, creamy mouthfeel and pure, delicious buttery taste." She enjoys a thick smear on toast and in cucumber tea sandwiches, or pairs either with radishes and flaky salt. For briny tinned fish like anchovies and razor clams, she opts for unsalted to maintain balance.

Sophie Frazier: Kerrygold Is The Luxurious No-Brainer

Frazier leans on science for her butter obsession: It melts between 90 and 95°F, immediately softening the second it hits your tongue. She seeks "rich flavor, light yellow color, and high fat." Her pick: Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter. "You can really do anything with it," she explains, "but when you get a nice butter like this, just plain bread and butter can feel luxurious."