I have discovered recently that "more expensive" doesn't necessarily mean "better" when it comes to butter. I found this out the hard way while melting butter in my microwave. Every time I tried to melt Hotel Bar butter or Breakstone butter (both among the more expensive brands), they would spatter all over the microwave, while this did not happen with the store brand (Shop Rite). Lo and behold! The Shop Rite butter is clearly marked with the Grade AA shield, while the other two expensive brands are not. The only A A butters in my super market are Land O' Lakes and the store's own brand! Obviously the non-AA brands have considerably more water in them. Sam's Club's own brand of butter is also Grade AA, so I've been using Shop Rite and Sam's for all my baking unless there's a great sale on Land O' Lakes, and they all work equally well, and taste good too. I only keep a couple of sticks of butter in the fridge at a time and store the rest in the freezer-usually three or four pounds worth. I NEVER want to run out of butter. Too much baking to do!

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