Salted versus Unsalted Butter

Cafe Society
21

I’ve always viewed salted butter as an unnecessary combination. If I want to add a little salt to whatever I’m buttering, I can do so. And some things do NOT come out correctly with salted butter.

The idea that the salt is intended as a preservative intrigues me, but I’ve rarely had problems with unsalted butter going bad, so it doesn’t seem too meaningful.

On a related note: butter is one of the few inexpensive things where I feel there’s a MAJOR difference between name brand and store brand stuff. 99% of “basic” goods like milk, eggs, sugar, etc. I could never tell a difference, but the difference is really obvious to me with butter. And high end butter is even better. One of the stores here sells cheapish plugra, and I LOVE that stuff…

22

I was raised on Land O’Lakes Lightly Salted and see no reason to change. :slight_smile:

23

Apparently the unsalted kind is supposed to be higher quality than salted (I guess because you can actually taste it better?). Personally, I like the salted variety better.

Strangely, I also like non-organic varieties better, too. The organic salted butter (or unsalted, for that matter) in our supermarket has a vaguely cheesey after taste that I’ve never been able to get used to. I initially thought that maybe I just got a bad batch, but that’s been true every time I’ve gotten the organic stuff.

24

That’s an old joke about Normandy: Their best cheese is their butter.

25

Do they sell Land O Lakes butter where you are? Their whipped butter is the only kind I’ve ever seen in a tub, but it’s definitely butter. They also make a butter n’ olive oil spread too, but the whipped butter is just butter.

26

No, it’s not available here. I have probably seen it before in the U.S. but didn’t know it was butter.

27

Alton Brown on butter. Because unsalted butter has a shorter expiration date, grocery stores are forced to rotate the stock much more frequently, meaning you’re more likely to get a fresh product when you buy unsalted. Also, you have greater control over the salt content, which as other posters have said, is crucial.

28

When I put butter ON something, I use salted. When I put it IN something, I usually use unsalted. It’s also important to use unsalted when browning grains prior to cooking, like steelcut oats or spanish rice. Salt affects the cooking chemistry once water is added.

29

I tend to buy only salted butter, just because I don’t want to have to buy two types of butter (one for eating on toast/pancakes, one for baking.)

I have a reputation as a very good baker, and I do use salted butter in baking. I normally adjust the amount of salt in the recipe accordingly — usually down to about one quarter to one third of the added salt that was called for.

I’ve tasted far more baked goods that were marred by too little salt (I’m looking at you, chocolate chip cookies at Whole Foods!) than by oversalting.

30

Land O Lakes is available in Thailand, but we tend to buy Imperial, just because the shape of the tub fits better in our fridge. (Are we gourmets or what? :D)

So I’m hearing salted tastes better and unsalted tastes better. As mentioned, the few times we’ve picked up salted by mistake, we could not tell the difference. It maybe depends on what you’re using it for then, as a couple of posters have suggested? And if so, we only use it for pancakes and the odd occasion when we dust off the toaster for toast; would salt realy bring out more flavor for something like that? We use butter for nothing else.

31

Yeah - I prefer the taste of salted butter if I’m going to spread it on a roll or whatever.

For cooking, I try to have unsalted around simply because you never know how much salt is in the butter, and adding the salt separately gives you better control. Though I’ve made plenty of recipes calling for unsalted, using salted, and never really noticed a difference. I guess my palate isn’t that discerning.

32

To me, the difference is pretty clear between the salted and unsalted versions. The salted one tastes, well, salty and a little sharper. The unsalted tastes sweet and creamy, but a little bland. I always use unsalted for two reasons: I can always add salt to it and, in my opinion, unsalted butter with a sprinkle of kosher or sea salt somehow tastes better to me than the salted butter with the salt evenly distributed throughout.

33

Strange, I taste a HUGE difference. I’ve become somewhat obsessed with sweet butter, I think. It tastes lovely and fresh. Whereas salty butter just tastes salty.

34

You use unsalted butter with dishes you are going to add salt to later.

My mac and cheese are made with unsalted butter, because I am going to add some smoked salt to it just before it’s done.

My cookies are made with unsalted butter because I add salt and baking soda (or is it powder) to the recipe

My sauteed green beans use salted butter.

35

I just went to Europe, and I’m not huge on pastries, so breakfasts at the hotel consisted of a buttered roll. The butter was unsalted. It was palatable, but kinda meh. I ended up having to very lightly salt the butter to make it taste good. I’m not exactly proud of this, but it’s evidence that there is a difference in taste.

36

Weird, I was wondering just last night if there’s salted butter why isn’t there peppered butter. That’d be great on a steak, veggies, etc.

37

Thanks, all. I guess the bottom line for me is: Should one use salted or unsalted butter with pancakes?

38

There’s no real answer, it’s just a matter of taste. Whichever you prefer.

39

Ask the (ex) professional pastry chef:

Use whichever butter tastes good to you. Salted butter has such a small amount of salt added to it that in most recipes, there will be little difference in taste. Unsalted butter may taste cleaner to you or not; it may also turn rancid faster. I used to have a problem with one brand of cultured butter going rancid and had to switch suppliers. Now all cultured butters taste too cheesy to me after that.

This is true. A food technologist told me that most processed foods have a little salt and sugar added not necessarily for preserving purposes, but because they go a long way in bringing out the flavor of the foods. I can’t count how many times I’ve been served bland cake frosting made of unsalted butter with no other salt added because the cook thought they were being enlightened or something.

Many American cookbook recipes up until the last 20 years were written for salted butter, and many still are. If you’re using your old red plaid Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, don’t worry about using unsalted butter. Even in that book, similar cake recipes have varying amounts of salt seemingly at random. As a matter of fact, I have not see any adjustments being made in recent cookbooks in the amount of added salt called for when using unsalted butter in baking recipes, just less salt overall. Cakes should taste fine with salted butter – a half-teaspoonful of salt more or less, spread throughout the entire cake, just isn’t that significant. True French buttercreams do need unsalted butter, maybe too a butter-heavy ganache (though both still will benefit with a some amount of salt added to round it out), but otherwise, I can’t even think of any recipes in the baking world off the top of my head that won’t be fine with salted butter. But again, if food tastes too salty to you, then definitely use what you like the best.

I agree! Land O’Lakes is great, always clean tasting. I prefer salted butter on my food, personally, but I can swing both ways. And half-salt definitely sounds like something I could get into.

My first time: When I was 11, I had dinner at the home of a German family. I was served pumpernickel bread with unsalted butter, both firsts for me (I’d only ever had Mazola and Wonder Bread, or for a gourmet treat, Pepperidge Farm Sandwich Bread). At first, I couldn’t stand the taste of the unsalted butter and brownish-black bread, but by the end of the meal, the heavens had opened and angels were singing! I didn’t have unsalted butter again for quite a few years, though.

40

There’s nothing salted butter can do that unsalted butter sprinkled with a light dusting of flaked sea salt can’t do better.