Amish Vs Regular Butter: What's The Difference?

No matter if you prefer your butter in logs, sticks, or tubs, quality is key, and good butter is one ingredient you never want to cheap out on. In recent years, Amish butter has earned a reputation as a better alternative to regular butter — but is there a difference? There is on many levels, including production method, ingredients, packaging, and overall flavor. Though you might think of Amish butter as a specialty ingredient sold only at farmers' markets and roadside stands, bigger dairy brands are putting their own twist on artisanal butter in hopes that it will go mainstream.

However, real Amish butter will most likely come from historically Amish communities like those centered near Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, although some Amish farmers now contract with bigger companies to sell their dairy wares. Before you bake your next batch of brownies, it's important to know how the butter types differ and . Regular butter is typically made on a large-scale basis with standardized processes and procedures.



Made in industrial facilities using factory farm methods, it's shaped into sticks for easier packaging and measuring. Amish butter, on the other hand, is usually produced in small batches using traditional methods, like slow churning and pasture-raised, grass-fed cows that (hopefully) frolic outside in nature. The taste difference is subtle but certainly recognizable.

Read on to see how the two butters differ, how to use which, and if one butter is really better than the other. Why Amish butter is better What make Amish butter instantly recognizable is its shape: it's traditionally hand-rolled into a log shape and wrapped in parchment paper for homespun appeal. The butter is made from cream that's cultured, not heavily pasteurized like its mainstream cousin, which gives it a tangier, more complex flavor.

Because it's not made in massive industrial butter churners, the Amish dairy product is milkier, creamier, and richer. If you're a baking enthusiast, you'll appreciate that Amish butter rivals European butter for its high butterfat content. Standard USDA Grade AA butter must contain 80% butterfat, while the Amish kind boasts an impressive 84-85%.

If you're wondering , it depends on what you're making. If butter is your star ingredient, as is the case with or shortbread cookies, you'll want to go Amish. But if you're trying to cut costs and using butter as one of many ingredients, like with old-fashioned spaghetti sauce, regular butter works just fine.

While there's certainly nothing wrong with regular ol' butter, Amish butter can deliver that artisanal, European-style flavor without having to cross the Atlantic. Bigger companies like Minerva Dairy, Pearl Valley, and Troyer Country Market have begun to pick up on the "Amish-style" butter trend and are putting their own spin on it. Of course, if you want the most authentic Amish butter, you'll have to trek to an Amish community or find an Amish market near you.

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