When I visited Ireland, I was enamored with how amazing their butter tasted. It seemed creamier, and more butter-y than the stuff I was used to eating in the US.
I also noticed that it was much, much more yellow than the white sticks I grew up with in the states.
My family and I asked a waiter why this might be at a restaurant one night, and he told us that the color difference — and hence the difference in taste — was because of a very simple disparity between the average Irish and American cow.
Most Irish cows eat grass, while most American cows eat grain.
I looked up the science behind what this dietary difference would do to the color, and it turns out that grass is full of a pigment called beta-carotene.
Beta-carotene is an antioxidant that gives fruits and vegetables their orange and yellow hues. It's also an important source of vitamin A, which is good for your eyes.
Corn, which is the major component of grain for US cows, is low in beta-carotene.
Butter from grass-fed cows tastes better than butter from grain-fed cows because grass is high in omega 3, an unsaturated fat that helps butter stay soft, making it easy to spread. And fats taste delicious.
Some companies may add beta-carotene to their butter to make it more yellow, but for the most part, American butter is left white.
Check the ingredients: It should only list cream and maybe salt. That's all you really need to make butter. If you see beta-carotene in there, that's a dead giveaway that it's artificially-colored.
And if you happen to snag some delicious yellow butter, you can most likely rest assured that it came from grass-fed cows.
