Grass-fed Unsalted Butter- Existence in Ireland

camz09 · 10-10-2014 2:49pm #1

I always come across friends from overseas raving about Kerrygold's Grass-fed Unsalted Butter that they buy there... I mean does it even exist here? Or are they all imported and never pass through any of our shops? Is it the term that's making it appear as if it's not available?? Is it actually the same as 'Irish Creamery Butter' (the ones you see in Aldi, Tesco, etc. for like 2.19 euros) and/or the Unsalted ones from Avonmore and Connaught Gold?

This is a bit bizzare to me. Also, I really want this for my bulletproof coffee but always opted for the irish creamery butter ones although obviously, the recommended recipe is unsalted and grass-fed butter, which I'm not sure those are

miezekatze · 10-10-2014 3:08pm

As far as I know, nearly all dairy cows in Ireland are grass-fed, so I would think that pretty much any Irish unsalted butter would be grass-fed. If you've ever had butter from other countries you will notice a big difference to Irish butter.

squonk · 10-10-2014 4:16pm

All Irish cattle practically are fed on grassland which would differ from the states or other countries where other foodstuffs would be used. If it's Irish unsalted butter then it's grass fed

the beer revolu · 10-10-2014 4:56pm

I concur with the above posts.

camz09 · 10-10-2014 6:47pm

Oooh, thanks guys!

CJhaughey · 10-10-2014 8:40pm

I'd say the unsalted 1/2lb blocks in Lidl are the same thing.
There is only a few unsalted butter makers here.

Naos · 11-10-2014 7:48pm

They sell it in Tesco (Dublin).

dudara · 12-10-2014 8:59am

Grass-fed is a big deal in the US, as the majority of their cattle are grain fed. It's a real "hot topic" over there, but thankfully, we've always had grass-fed cattle. Farmers may supplement diets with some grain, but only in certain cases, and nothing like the extent of the U.S.

I've bought Kerrygold butter though, while living abroad (Brussels & Amsterdam), and it doesn't taste the same as Kerrygold bought here. I wonder if they do modify it for the local market?

Markcheese · 12-10-2014 10:51am

Yup , lactic butter ,different culture added to the cream, kind of sour tang- what we use is known as sweet butter to which we add shed loads of salt...
Always laugh at recipes that call for unsalted butter, then add salt ...

Mellor · 13-10-2014 6:31am

Markcheese wrote: »

Always laugh at recipes that call for unsalted butter, then add salt ...

There's a pretty good reason for that. Its so you can control precisely the amount of salt in a recipe.
If you used salted butter you've no idea how much salt has gone it. And the amount will vary a lot depending on brand, some brands could have more than double the salt of others. It could be too much for a recipe, and if its not enough you've no idea how much you should add.
Its much easier to be consistent and accurate with unsalted butter.

Markcheese · 13-10-2014 8:07am

I usually manage to work it out ... :-)
Same as adding a pinch of salt - my fat fingered pinch is far bigger than my wife's , same with a half a teaspoon

Nekarsulm · 21-10-2014 8:12pm

All our home produced butter would be from grass fed cows. 95% will be eating grass outside day and night from Feb/March till now. The remainder would be eating fresh grass brought into their sheds, and both would be eating silage in the winter period.
The packaging will have a code on it somewhere like

IE
1083
EC

The 1083 denotes the creamery that made it. Our local Co-Op in Cavan here makes butter for about 38 different customers. Many based in the UK.

If you are buying NZ or Danish, feel ashamed now...................

CJhaughey · 22-10-2014 2:29pm

Nekarsulm wrote: »

If you are buying NZ or Danish, feel ashamed now...................

Apart from Lurpak(Danish) is Anchor butter sold in the ROI? I can't think of any NZ butter commonly available here?
Actually Anchor butter is made in the UK now, not imported so I can't think of any NZ butter that might be available here now.

jnicolau · 11-01-2015 12:02pm

Hi guys,

I'm looking for Kerrygold unsalted but can't find it anywhere in Dublin.
Those other unsalted butters are not really grass-fed as I get a poor effect from them.
Anybody sells real grass-fed butter or knows where to buy it. Maybe some online web site. I wonder if I should go buy it from Belfast.

TMC99 · 11-01-2015 12:12pm

jnicolau wrote: »

Hi guys,

I'm looking for Kerrygold unsalted but can't find it anywhere in Dublin.
Those other unsalted butters are not really grass-fed as I get a poor effect from them.
Anybody sells real grass-fed butter or knows where to buy it. Maybe some online web site. I wonder if I should go buy it from Belfast.

Dunnes stock this which is very tasty

http://www.glenstalfoods.com/food-ingredients/butter/

Stheno · 11-01-2015 12:16pm

jnicolau wrote: »

Hi guys,

I'm looking for Kerrygold unsalted but can't find it anywhere in Dublin.
Those other unsalted butters are not really grass-fed as I get a poor effect from them.
Anybody sells real grass-fed butter or knows where to buy it. Maybe some online web site. I wonder if I should go buy it from Belfast.

Jcs in swords sell it

jnicolau · 11-01-2015 4:09pm

TMC99 wrote: »

Dunnes stock this which is very tasty[/url]

Have tried it but unfortunately it doesn't make me perform as well as Kerrygold.
Have been drinking coffee with salted Kerrygold butter for many months, witch is very nasty because of the salt but the effect on the brain is very good, but this Christmas went to Portugal and was surprised that the Irish Kerrygold unsalted butter is being sold in many supermarkets there (equivalent to Tesco in here). I bought many units and brought as much as I could fit into my luggage. Really good taste and great effect. There are good reasons why only Kerrygold and Anchor are being recognised for high performance ketogenic diet, and that's because all the others are not being transparent and not disclosing how they produce their butters. Nothing in their web sites about percentage of grass. I've actually tried to get in touch with other brands here in Ireland and asked them about how much grass-fed is their butter. Got no answer, not by email nor by facebook.

Nekarsulm · 11-01-2015 4:39pm

Our local Co-Op (Lakelands) produces butter for Kerrygold, and approx. 27 other retailers, both here and the UK. As well as own brand for Aer Lingus etc.
All the butter they produce is Grass-fed. There are probably no dairy herds in this country producing milk from maize silage and concentrates, as opposed to the USA dairy industry.

Markcheese · 11-01-2015 4:56pm

Pretty much all butter over here is grass fed -find a brand you like , and contact the supplier/manufacturer/co-op and ask do they make unsalted butter-
Alternatively get yourself a lb of ordinary salted butter- put it in a thin tall pot over a very very low heat (an empty bean can on a frying pan wil do - let the butter melt and seperate over an hour or two -and hey presto the salt and water are at the bottom (about 5 %) and the rest is clarified and low in salt - you can decant the butter fat into a different container if you want -
It'll be cheaper as you can use pretty much any Irish butter-especially southern counties (Bandon co-ops is decent ),Dairygold co-op used to make and brand summer butter don't know if they still do /

jnicolau · 14-01-2015 1:26am

Nekarsulm wrote: »

Our local Co-Op (Lakelands) produces butter for Kerrygold, and approx. 27 other retailers, both here and the UK. As well as own brand for Aer Lingus etc.
All the butter they produce is Grass-fed. There are probably no dairy herds in this country producing milk from maize silage and concentrates, as opposed to the USA dairy industry.

Hi Nekarsulm,

Is it possible to order unsalted butter directly from the Co-Op?

Nekarsulm · 14-01-2015 2:06am

Hi j nicolau, I'll ask my neighbour. He works in the butter plant. Serious tightening up of security there lately, too much butter going walkabout!

Neyite · 15-01-2015 4:47pm

Nekarsulm wrote: »

Hi j nicolau, I'll ask my neighbour. He works in the butter plant. Serious tightening up of security there lately, too much butter going walkabout!

You may need to butter him up. Grease his palm like.

Nekarsulm · 15-01-2015 7:15pm

Neyite wrote: »

You may need to butter him up. Grease his palm like.

Groan............................:D

squonk · 19-01-2015 5:34pm

I saw ALDI doing Irish unsalted butter today. I can't remember the brand name but it was in a silver wrapper just around the same place as the soft cheeses, creme fraiche and regular butter and spreads.

Nekarsulm · 19-01-2015 7:16pm

squonk wrote: »

I saw ALDI doing Irish unsalted butter today. I can't remember the brand name but it was in a silver wrapper just around the same place as the soft cheeses, creme fraiche and regular butter and spreads.

Didn't get a chance to chat to the neighbour yet. But if you check the Aldi butter, there is a code printed on the wrapper which you can use to pinpoint which creamery made it. If you google "Irish creamery registration codes" you will find a dept. Ag. listing of all plants in Republic. Similarly you can find Northern/UK creamery codes as well.
Last week Aldi were selling Town of Monaghan butter beside their own brand stuff. Both had the code IE 1083 EC on the wrappers, so both were identical butter. Just the Aldi wrappered stuff was 60 cent cheaper.

AndonHandon · 21-01-2015 9:58pm

Tesco have Kerrygold unsalted.

Grass-fed Unsalted Butter- Existence in Ireland

Comments