Food and Recipes Fats Butter This Is The Very Best Butter For Baking Our Test Kitchen is particular about butter—read on for their favorite brand. By Lisa Cericola Lisa Cericola Lisa Cericola has been on staff at Southern Living since 2015. As Deputy Editor, Lisa manages the food and travel departments and edits those sections of each issue, as well as digital content. Previously, she was the features editor at Food Network Magazine and has more than 15 years of experience writing, editing, and managing photo shoots for print and digital lifestyle brands. Southern Living's editorial guidelines Updated on February 9, 2023 Medically reviewed by Jerlyn Jones, MS, MPA, RDN, LD, CLT Fact checked by Jillian Dara Fact checked by Jillian Dara Jillian is a freelance writer, editor and fact-checker with 10 years of editorial experience in the lifestyle genre. In addition to fact-checking for Southern Living, Jillian works on multiple verticals across Dotdash-Meredith, including TripSavvy, The Spruce, and Travel + Leisure. brand's fact checking process Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: Joy Skipper/Getty Images As you can probably imagine, we go through a lot of butter at the Southern Living Test Kitchen. On any given day, you'll see tray after tray of golden buttermilk biscuits, a dozen different bundt cakes, or around the holidays, enough Christmas cookies to give even Santa a stomachache. You might think all butter is alike, but our cooks know better. Our giant walk-in refrigerator is stocked with boxes and boxes of one particular brand: Land O'Lakes. It's the preferred choice of the Test Kitchen not only because it's affordable and can be found in most grocery stores across the South, but because it is consistent. And when you have to crank out two dozen perfect pie crusts, consistency is everything. The biggest difference in butter is the amount of salt. For baking purposes, the Test Kitchen recommends using unsalted butter so you can better control the amount of salt that goes into the recipe. Salted butter is best for serving at the table with bread or to flavor a dish, like mashed potatoes. Land O'Lakes unsalted butter, which is made with sweet cream, has a creamy texture and mild flavor that marries well with other ingredients in baked goods and other recipes. You might also be interested in: The other difference in butter is the fat content. American butter is usually around 80 percent fat, although the exact amount varies from brand to brand. (And is the reason why European butter is so expensive—it's often 85 percent fat.) Lower fat content means that the butter contains more water, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, especially for baking. High-fat butter softens and melts faster, which can lead to flat, dense baked goods. In conclusion: "Land O'Lakes has a balanced milk solid to butterfat ratio that makes for superior flavor and consistency in the final product," says former Test Kitchen Director Robby Melvin. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit