I buy whatever is the cheapest, butter is butter for the most part.  But I don’t like unsalted butter for anything but baking.  On toast it has no flavor to me.  

I generally buy the Target Good and Gather brand, the only thing I don’t like about it is that they now pack in the longer, narrower sticks, like on the East Coast, I prefer the shorter West Coast style sticks, or cubes as I was brought up to call them.  They fit in the butter dish better when there is still a partial cube left in the butter dish and I want to put a fresh cube out to get soft.

And I always keep at least 3 lbs. of butter in the freezer, and I was glad for this when the COVID-19 shortages set in a few weeks ago.   You can’t find margarine around here in anything but those tubs of whipped crap.  Even though I don’t like margarine and it isn’t as good for you health wise as butter, I would have bought a pound or two of Imperial if I could have found it when there was no butter to be had.  During a couple of poor years for my family in the mid 60’s we used Imperial and it tasted the most like butter of any of the other margarines available then. 

BTW, during WWII when everything was rationed, you could buy more margarine than butter with your fat coupons.  But the dairy industry had a law in place then that prohibited the sale of margarine that was colored yellow to resemble butter.  It came in 1 lb. rectangular plastic bags, with a capsule of carotene coloring in the block of white margarine.  You then had to massage the bag to break the capsule and continue to knead the bag until the margarine was a uniform yellow in color.  

My Mom was the youngest girl and this was her chore, which she hated doing.  Therefore, margarine always had a negative connotation  for her.  Those couple or years we used Imperial were a real come down for her.  When things got better financially she went back to butter and never used margarine again.

Eddie

Kwik Trip/Kwik Star is running their $1.99/lb butter promo until 4/30.  I've found it to be comparable in quality to Land O' Lakes.  They source all their milk from within 100 miles of their corporate headquarters in LaCrosse, WI.  Whenever they run this special, we stock up so that we have about 10lbs in the freezer.  

https://www.kwiktrip.com/Savings

from Costco Is what I usually buy.  Quality is very good and price is excellent.  

Polkanut:  I agree on the KT butter.  I also buy all my milk there, excellent quality and taste.  Guess I'll be headed to KT for some butter while the price is so low. 

WK78

Challenge Butter for $1.99 on sale!  Here in Calif. it’s usually about $5.49 to 5.99 at reg price, on sale the lowest I’ve ever seen is $2.99.  It’s the butter we always had at home, except for those few years in the mid 60’s when times were tight.

My cousins and I always called it “Deer Butter” when we were kids, because our grandparents used margarine, and thats what the called the “70 cents spread”, (remember that TV ad gimmick)  of our mothers choice, which was of course Challenge. 

You guys in the East seem to have much cheaper everything than we do on the West Coast.

Eddie

I used to use Land O Lakes for years until I found Kerrygold. So worth the extra price.

Bob, we were the same way in Texas.  Margarine ruled!!  Butter viewed as unhealth.    

I always leave the butter out and so did everyone on both sides of my family.  A stick lasts anywhere from 2 to 5 days here and never tastes off.  

My stepfathers family left it in the refrigerator and you could never butter a piece of toast or slice of bread without tearing it up. And BTW, these people were always plagued by some intestinal distress or another.

Eddie

Well, I lived in SF from '63 to '69, when I left to go to college out of town. I don't remember any community preference for butter. At the time I'd use whatever was in the fridge. And yes, I refrigerate unused butter. If I need it softer, a few second in the microwave at a low power setting will handle that. 

Last week I got 4 lbs of Kirkland brand butter at Costco for $7.19. That works out to $1.80/lb. To me it tastes the same as Challenge or other brand butters. I keep 1 lb in the butter bin in the fridge; the rest I vacuum wrap and freeze for later. Refrigerated butter may pick up off odors from the rest of the fridge, so I'll probably vacuum wrap all but the stick I'm using.

When I was a young teen, my mom used to get a Danish butter that came in a yellow, white and brown tin. Can't remember the brand name. Boy, was that an eye opener. Prior to that it was usually Brookfield and Land-O-Lakes. She stopped buying it when the local supermarket stopped carrying it. Margarine was never a staple in my home. On occasion, the odd tub of Blue Bonnet or Chiffon would appear.  Today I usually get Trader Joe's or Aldi's butter.

One of the joys of eating pancakes is cooking them in butter. Those crispy, buttery edges...Mmmmm!

My mother hates butter.  She always used Blue Bonnet or Shedd's Spread.  Her mother used real butter  for some things like her homemade rolls at Christmas and I liked it.  Restaurants use real butter and I started liking it so when I moved out on my own I started buying real butter, typically at Save-a-Lot or Aldi unless Walmart or Kroger has it on sale.  I've always wanted to try Kerry Gold but just haven't yet.  We really don't use that much unless I'm baking or we have baked potatoes or if I fix some popcorn. 

I switched to Lactaid milk a few years ago due to the shelf life being longer than regular milk.  It's ultrapasturized.  At the time I didn't use much milk and kept powdered milk in the house for cooking and regular milk for the occasional bowl of cereal before bed in the morning.  I tend to eat more cereal now (and my waist shows it).

When I was about 8 or so we moved from New York to Wisconsin.  At that time you couldn't buy margarine in Wisconsin so I think my Mom started using butter then and never went back.  Seems I remember we made a couple of trips somewhere to buy some margarine but I don't remember doing that many times.

For some reason I prefer salted butter. But then I don't usually put it on sweet stuff. Other than pancakes, but the salt seems to add some character. I also understand the butter is more stable with salt.

Does it slice the butter into little squares?

It's called a "one click butter cutter"...

Cause, you know, butter is so hard to cut with a knife...

Doesn't it get too soft to cut like that if you leave it out on the counter?  We have one of those butter dishes that has water in the bottom to keep it cool but soft.

When my family first moved to the Northern Calif. Coast in 64’ our neighbors up the road were sheep ranchers, but they also had 2 dairy cows and they sold us the excess milk for 50 cents a gal.  Mom would drive over with a 1 gal glass jar and Mrs. Pedotti would fill it with the fresh un pasteurized and un homogenized milk.  The cream would rise to the top about 4.5 inches of the jar.  We would skim off about 3” of the cream for butter and cream, and stir the remainder into the milk.  Of course everytime you wanted to pour a glass or milk you would need to stir the pitcher to mix the cream back into the milk, because it was un homogenized.

Since I was the oldest kid at age 13 it was my job to make the butter.  I would put the cream into the large bowl of our Dormeyer Stand mixer and beat it on high until it turned to butter and the wye began to separate from the butter.  Then I put the butter into a cheesecloth lined strainer and twist the cheesecloth to remove as much of the wye as possible, then I added a small amount of salt and put it into a butter dish.  I didn’t form  it into a stick or cube, we just used it from the butter dish, which was actually a small covered bowl.

We used to have plenty of cream for whipping.  We bought at least 3 gals a week.  My siblings and I drank at least a quart with each meal and the milk ran out fast in our home.

Sadly, after about 18 mo.of this the neighbors lost one of their dairy cows and then only had enough milk for their own use and couldn’t sell us the fresh milk anymore.  Thats when we had to switch to Imperial Margarine for about two years. We also drank Milkman Powdered Low Fat Milk during that poor spell, that was a real come down, but we got used to it.  I really hated mixing up that milk powder.

My Mom was a widow with 3 kids and it was hard for a few years in the mid 60’s.  But I have fond memories of making the butter for the family.

Eddie

I love steamed white rice with butter and soy sauce!  Now I also frequently also stir in some thinly sliced green onions just before serving.  This is one of my husband David’s favorites and its as easy as hell to make.

Butter makes everything better, just use it in moderation. 

Eddie

Until 1967, margarine sales were illegal in WI.  Restaurants here still can't legally serve colored margarine unless a customer specifically asks for it.

My Mom remembers visiting family as a young girl in MN, and Beloit, WI (on WI/Il state line) and bringing home a trunk full of Blue Bonnet for friends and family.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/wisconsin-waged-war-on-margarine-and-the-dairy-industry-won/

Land O'Lakes is pretty much a staple.  If they suddenly stopped making it, society would gasp.

Fresh made pop corn wouldn't be the same without 2 tablespoons of melted butter.

The main reason for the strong anti-margarine laws in WI is because the dairy industry is very strong here.  Even now, during this crisis, even though farmers are dumping milk daily because of decreased markets due to less restaurant and institutional usage.