Just a dollop of butter on a frying pan can make the whole house smell amazing, and just a smidge in scrambled eggs can transform the entire meal, so long as you know how to properly cook with butter. With the average American consuming about 6 pounds of butter in 2022 alone, it's no wonder that so much time and effort goes into categorizing and grading the quality of butter. On the whole, butter can be put into three categories: U.S. Grade AA, U.S. Grade A, and U.S. Grade B. From there, it can be further categorized into salted, unsalted, whipped, and clarified butter. To be graded, butter must contain at least 80% milk fat, but the grading scale itself was created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to take a closer look at the color, salt, body, and flavor.

The USDA takes painstaking care to verify that the butters they encounter meet the standards of their grade. About 85% of butter sold in the U.S. is officially graded by the USDA, who employ federal butter graders around the country to perform weekly quality checks at facilities. When you pick up a package of butter with the little USDA shield, you can rest assured that your butter has passed a set of rigorous standards to meet its grade. While the most common grade of butter in grocery stores, and most common for baking, is U.S. Grade AA, the other grades are equally important in the kitchen.