Olive Oil vs Butter: When to Use Each

Use olive oil when you want fruitiness, a cleaner finish and steady everyday frying and roasting; use butter when you want richness, browning flavour and structure in pastry and some bakes. Many of the best dishes use a little of both.

This is a kitchen guide, not a nutrition one. Both fats have a place, and knowing what each does in the pan or the oven makes it easy to choose.

What is the difference between cooking with olive oil and butter?

The two fats behave very differently:

• Butter is roughly 80% fat, with the rest mostly water and milk solids. The milk solids give butter its nutty, toasty flavour when browned, but they also burn quickly over high heat.
• Olive oil is pure fat with no water or milk solids. It stays liquid at room temperature, carries flavour well and does not scorch the way butter does. Extra virgin olive oil also brings its own taste, from grassy and fruity to bitter and peppery.

That difference explains most of the rules of thumb below.

Is olive oil or butter better for frying?

For most everyday frying, sautéing and roasting, olive oil is the easier choice. Whole butter starts to burn at a fairly modest heat because of its milk solids, so it is better suited to gentle cooking. Extra virgin olive oil copes comfortably with normal home frying temperatures; we cover this in detail in Can You Cook with Extra Virgin Olive Oil?

A classic restaurant trick combines the two: start a steak or a piece of fish in olive oil, then add a knob of butter at the end to baste. You get a good sear from the oil and the flavour of the butter without burning it.

Can you use olive oil instead of butter in baking?

Often, yes, but not everywhere.

• Works well: loaf cakes, sponges made by the all-in-one method, muffins, brownies, focaccia, flatbreads and many biscuits. Olive oil gives a moist crumb that keeps well.
• Works less well: anything that relies on creaming butter and sugar for lift, laminated pastry such as croissants, shortbread and buttercream. These depend on butter being solid.

As a rough guide, swap about three parts olive oil for every four parts butter by weight, since oil is all fat while butter is not. Start with recipes written for oil rather than converting complicated ones, and pick a milder oil for delicate sponges or a bolder one where you want its flavour to show.

When should you use butter instead of olive oil?

• Beurre blanc, hollandaise and other emulsified butter sauces.
• Brown butter for pasta, fish or baking, where the toasted milk solids are the point.
• Shortcrust and puff pastry.
• Spreading on toast, if that is your preference.

Equally, olive oil is the natural choice for dressings, marinades, mayonnaise-style emulsions, roasting vegetables, confit and finishing soups, pasta, salads and grilled meat or fish. In southern Italian cooking, including the food of Puglia, olive oil does almost every job that butter does further north.

Which tastes better: olive oil or butter on bread?

That is personal, but a good extra virgin olive oil turns bread into something worth stopping for. A dish of oil with a pinch of salt is the simplest starter there is, and it shows off the oil better than any recipe. If you want to try it properly, our guide to the best olive oil for dipping bread explains what to look for.

How ours compares

Our extra virgin olive oil is a single-estate, Coratina-led oil from the hills between Puglia and Basilicata, cold pressed, unfiltered and bottled at source. Its bold character comes through in finishing, dressings and bread, and it is equally at home in the frying pan for everyday cooking. Independent lab analysis in January 2026 confirmed it as extra virgin, with full results on our lab results page.

It comes in 500ml (£14.99), 750ml (£19.99) and 3L (£60.00) sizes; the 3L is the sensible choice if olive oil is replacing butter in most of your cooking.

Quick answers

Can I replace butter with olive oil one for one?
Use slightly less oil, roughly three parts oil to four parts butter by weight, and stick to recipes that do not rely on creaming.

Why does butter burn faster than olive oil?
Its milk solids brown and then burn at a lower temperature than olive oil can handle.

Can I mix olive oil and butter in the pan?
Yes. Starting in oil and adding butter near the end is a classic way to get both a good sear and buttery flavour.