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Unsalted Butter Delivery or Pickup

The Instacart guide to unsalted butter products


About unsalted butter

Butter is a common dairy product used for everything from baking to pan-frying. You can use butter on its own as a condiment or spread, or make a delicious sauce with it. Unsalted butter is simply a butter product that doesn't have a significant amount of salt added to it. Unsalted butter may still contain a small amount of salt as a preservative, but there isn't enough salt to impact the taste.

Unsalted butter comes in many different forms, each with a different flavor and nutrition profile. The packaging can tell you a great deal about your butter. Some words that you may find on the label include:
  • Cultured: To make cultured butter, live bacterial cultures are added to the cream after pasteurization. This gives the cream a tangy flavor. After fermentation, this cream is churned into butter. Cultured butter has a higher butterfat content and creamier texture than regular butter.
  • European-Style: European-style butter is churned longer than American butter. Its butterfat content is around 85%, which is slightly higher than American butter's 80% butterfat content. In many cases, European-style butter is also cultured.
  • Danish: Danish butter is a cultured European-style butter.
  • Irish: Irish butter comes from the milk of pasture-fed Irish cows that consume more beta-carotene than many other cows. This results in a creamy, spreadable butter with a bright yellow hue and higher fat content.
  • Grass-Fed: Grass-fed butter is similar to Irish butter in that it comes from cows that eat grass rather than grain. This butter has more omega-3 fatty acids, CLA, and vitamin K2. However, cows that are grass-fed are not necessarily allowed to roam or graze.
  • Pasture-Raised: Cows that are pasture-raised are allowed to roam freely while consuming grasses. This butter has the same nutritional benefits as grass-fed butter.
  • Organic: To be classified as organic, butter must come from cows that are at least 30% grass-fed. The cows are also exposed to less toxins, herbicides, and pesticides than dairy cows used for conventional butter.
  • Whipped: Whipped butter simply has air whipped into it, giving it a lighter texture and lower calorie count.
  • Vegan or Plant-Based: Butter that's labeled vegan or plant-based is not made from dairy products. Instead, it's a type of margarine that's made by combining water and plant-derived oils like coconut, avocado, or olive oil.
You may find one or more of these words on your butter packaging, giving you a more detailed idea of how the butter will look and taste. If none of the above descriptors are included on the packaging, you're most likely looking at an American-style conventionally made butter. This means that it probably has a fat content of around 80 or 81% and comes from grain-fed cows.

How long does unsalted butter last?

When refrigerated, unsalted butter is typically good for at least a month past the best buy date on the package. In the freezer, unsalted butter will retain its flavor for at least six months. While you can still consume it past this point, it won't retain the same creamy flavor or texture.

You can leave unsalted butter out for a day or two, but it will often go rancid after this point if left at room temperature. Air and sunlight cause the butter to go rancid more quickly, so it's best to keep butter in an opaque butter dish if you're leaving it out on the counter or table.

Unsalted Butter Near Me

Buy your favorite Unsalted Butter online with Instacart. Order Unsalted Butter from local and national retailers near you and enjoy on-demand, contactless delivery or pickup within 2 hours.

FAQs about unsalted butter

Unsalted and salted butters are very comparable. The primary difference is in their salt content. If a recipe calls for unsalted butter, it may have additional salt that compensates for the lack of salt in the butter itself. Unsalted butter is what's typically used for baking. Using unsalted butter makes it easier to control the salt content of your dish. Unsalted butter also has a creamier texture and flavor that allows the rich dairy taste of the butter to stand out more.

If your recipe calls for salted butter, but you only have unsalted butter on hand, you can easily make up for this by adding salt separately. You should add about 1/4 teaspoon of salt for every 1/2 cup of butter to get comparable results.

Salt is a preservative that helps foods last longer. Salted butter will typically last for two months longer than unsalted butter when refrigerated. In the freezer, salted butter lasts 6 months longer than unsalted butter.

You can purchase a wide variety of butter products through Instacart. Select the perfect unsalted butter for your needs, and you can set up same-day delivery, so you get the groceries you need quickly without having to leave the house.