Home cooks making sauces or risotto
An unsalted block gives you a starting point when stock, cheese or cured ingredients will also affect the dish’s seasoning. Check the salt declaration on the pack before cooking.
Who is each format for?
Hosts serving bread and antipasti
If you want to spread butter straight from the fridge, compare spreadable butter-and-oil blends with blocks. Check the ingredients before using a blend in a recipe that calls for block butter.
Shoppers checking for milk
The Food Standards Agency identifies milk as a common ingredient in butter. Check the current pack’s allergen information before serving it to someone with a milk allergy.
What should you check?
Start with how the butter will be used, then check the exact pack’s salt, ingredients and storage instructions. A reference to filtered longer-life milk does not replace those butter-specific checks.
| Priority | What to check | Your needs |
|---|---|---|
| Seasoning | Check whether the block is salted or unsalted, and compare the salt declaration on the exact pack. Anchor lists 1.7% salt in its Original Block Butter. | For risotto with stock and cheese, I would rather add salt after the other ingredients. |
| Cooking or spreading | Check whether the product is a butter block or a butter-and-oil blend. Anchor recommends its regular block for cooking; Tesco lists Lurpak Slightly Salted Spreadable as a 75% blended spread. | I need butter for a sauce, or something I can spread on bread straight from the fridge. |
| Ingredients and allergens | Read the current ingredient and allergen statements. The Food Standards Agency identifies milk as a common ingredient in butter. | When serving guests, I need to know whether the product contains milk and whether its ingredients have changed. |
| Storage and dates | Follow the pack’s storage directions and identify its date mark. GOV.UK distinguishes use-by dates, which concern safety, from best-before dates, which concern quality. | If I am buying ahead of dinner, I want to know how to store the pack and what its date means. |
Buying mistakes to avoid
-
Using a spreadable blend as though it were a butter block
Tesco lists Lurpak Slightly Salted Spreadable as a blend containing milk fat and rapeseed oil, rather than a plain butter block. The ingredients matter when a recipe calls for butter.
Read the product description and ingredient list before substituting a tub. Anchor recommends its regular block rather than its spreadable product for cooking.
-
Forgetting the salt already in the dish
Anchor lists 1.7% salt in its Original Block Butter, so it gives you a different seasoning starting point from its unsalted block.
For a sauce or risotto containing stock, cheese or cured ingredients, check the butter’s salt declaration and adjust the dish’s seasoning accordingly.
-
Relying only on an online ingredient listing
Ingredients and allergen information can change, so an earlier listing may not describe the pack being served.
Check the physical pack’s ingredients, allergen statement, storage directions and date mark before preparing food for guests.
-
Treating best-before and use-by dates as interchangeable
GOV.UK explains that use-by dates concern food safety, while best-before dates concern quality.
Read the date wording and follow the pack’s storage instructions; do not use smell or taste to override a use-by date.
Butter brands to compare
These brand examples help distinguish blocks from spreadable blends; they do not indicate which products are available in the Joybuy selection below.
Anchor
Anchor lists salted and unsalted butter blocks alongside a spreadable product.
- Its unsalted block lists butter (milk) as its ingredient; its Original Block Butter lists 1.7% salt.
- Anchor recommends its regular block for cooking rather than assuming its spreadable product serves the same purpose.
Kerrygold
Kerrygold lists salted and unsalted butter in its UK range.
- Kerrygold describes its unsalted butter for baking and cooking.
- Check the salt and pack details of the particular product before choosing it for a seasoned dish.
Lurpak
Lurpak appears in UK listings as block butter and as a spreadable blend.
- Tesco lists Lurpak Slightly Salted Spreadable 250g as a 75% blended spread containing 52% milk fat and 23% rapeseed oil.
- Check whether a recipe calls for block butter before substituting this spreadable blend.
Joybuy product options
This Joybuy option is ghee for cooking. It is distinct from the unsalted blocks, salted blocks and spreadable blends discussed above; check what your recipe calls for before substituting it.
No image available
Laila Pure Butter Ghee 500g
Ghee is a different format from block or spreadable butter. Do not assume it will substitute like-for-like in a sauce or risotto; check the recipe and the current pack before buying for those dishes. It contains milk.
Questions about choosing butter
Should I use unsalted or salted butter for a sauce or risotto?
Choose an unsalted block if you want to adjust seasoning after adding stock, cheese or cured ingredients. Anchor’s Original Block Butter lists 1.7% salt, so check the declaration on the particular pack if you choose salted butter.
Is spreadable butter the same as block butter?
Not always. Tesco lists Lurpak Slightly Salted Spreadable as a butter-and-rapeseed-oil blend, and Anchor describes its spreadable product as butter blended with rapeseed oil. Check the ingredients before using a spreadable tub in a recipe calling for block butter.
Can I serve standard butter to someone with a milk allergy?
Do not assume standard butter is milk-free. The Food Standards Agency identifies milk as a common ingredient in butter; check the actual pack’s allergen statement and use an appropriate alternative when milk must be avoided.
How should I store butter bought ahead of dinner?
Follow the storage directions on the pack you buy. Check its date mark too: GOV.UK explains that use-by dates concern safety, whereas best-before dates concern quality.