Butter is back, and Americans are eating more of it than ever

All-time high butter consumption

After decades of being pushed aside in favor of margarine, oils and fat-free everything, butter is back at the center of the American table. And not just back, but thriving. Americans’ consumption of butter hit an all-time record high in 2024: 6.8 pounds per person, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

That’s up more than 2 pounds per person since 2000, and a rise of 21% just in the past decade. Forward projections show no sign of slowing down; rather, the global butter market could hit $63 billion within the next 10 years.

ButterTok is buzzing about butter

Food media has been buzzing about butter for the better part of two years. And in 2026, it’s a major trend.

According to The Food Institute, consumers increasingly view butter as a luxurious treat to add extra flavor and depth to dishes, rather than a staple. Flavor-enhancing browned butter and premium salted butter have both been flagged as breakout trends for 2026.

In 2023, “ButterTok" launched a trend of compound butters. These flavored blends of softened butter with herbs, citrus, spices or aromatics now show up on restaurant menus, in grocery stores and in home kitchens.

In March 2024, food content creator Amanda Gajdosik of Midwest Nice threw herself a fully butter-themed birthday party, complete with a butter-shaped cake and decorations. She posted it to TikTok with the caption “Churn down for what?” The video went viral, racking up hundreds of thousands of views and coverage in PEOPLE magazine. Butter is no longer just a staple ingredient, but something worthy of a celebration in and of itself.

The return of real ingredients

After years of pandemic cooking, comfort food has become a legitimate lifestyle strategy; no longer a guilty pleasure, but a conscious choice. People cook more at home and prioritize the feeling a meal gives them even more than its nutritional profile.

At the same time, there’s been widespread reckoning with ultra-processed foods. Butter is made from cream. That’s it. In a landscape where ingredient lists on packaged foods can run to 30 items, there’s something appealing about a product with just one.

Traditional fats, like tallow, trend on social media, called a return to real, minimally processed ingredients. The federal government even added them to the National Dietary Guidelines. Science has also shifted the conversation. The decades-long campaign against saturated fat, which drove the margarine boom of the ‘70s and ‘80s, has been substantially curtailed by recent research.

“Butter isn’t being demonized the way it once was. As science has evolved, we’ve moved away from fearing saturated fat across the board and recognized that the trans fats used to replace butter were often worse for health,” says Nutritionist Katie Trant of Hey Nutrition Lady.

3 ways to use more butter in your kitchen

If you want to use more butter in your own cooking, you won’t need any special techniques or fancy new appliances. You just need to know what butter can do at different stages of the cooking process. Here are three easy ways for you to get started.

Silky sauces

Butter is the foundation of some of the most beloved sauces in the world, and for good reason. It emulsifies beautifully, carries flavor well and gives a sauce that silky, restaurant-quality finish that’s hard to achieve any other way. A classic piccata sauce is a perfect example: butter, lemon, capers, cream and maybe a splash of white wine, all built in the same pan you cooked the protein in.

Searing and roasting

Butter brings color, crust and flavor to anything you cook in it. Nothing demonstrates this better than steak. The butter-basting technique, where you spoon foaming butter continuously over the meat as it sears, is the difference between a good steak and a great one.

Compound butter

This is where butter truly becomes a star in its own right. A compound butter is softened butter that’s blended with flavorings and then chilled again. It is truly one of the most efficient flavor upgrades in the kitchen. Make a batch on Sunday, and it lives in your fridge all week, ready to melt over grilled steak, roasted fish, steamed vegetables or warm bread.

Real butter, real flavor

After decades of being nudged toward substitutes and reduced-fat alternatives, the American home cook has arrived at a fairly simple conclusion: real butter, real flavor, every time.

Emmeline Kemperyd is a recipe developer and food blogger with over 20 years of experience. She is the founder of always use butter, a site dedicated to quick and easy recipes for busy people.