As far as I know, most butter sold in Canada and the US is salted. Cooking experts often recommend using unsalted butter in some recipes, particularly in baking, to better control the saltiness of the food. Some people, I’m sure, don’t like salted butter and always buy unsalted. Today, I heard about some Germans who immigrated to Canada in the 50’s and were surprised – even a little disgusted – that such a thing as salted butter was available. (I also remember something from a D&D book: ‘only barbarians salt their butter’.)
So, which countries or cultures prefer salted butter, and which don’t?
I’m pretty sure that salted butter is a fairly American phenomenon (I read that it came about as a method of preserving butter on long trips across the American continent, and that’s how American’s tastes for it developed.) I very rarely came across the stuff during my years in Europe, and it certainly was not considered the standard butter anywhere on the Continent or England. Personally, I can’t stand salted butter anymore.
It’s the standard in Australia, too. You see shelves & shelves of “Butter” and there, waaaaaay back in the corner, are two sticks of “Unsalted Butter.”
What, do you lick sticks of frozen butter like popcicles?
I always buy unsalted butter (which is widely available in the US, but you do have to look for it) as the salt interferes with clarifying the butter, and I mostly use butter in cooking and baking. I figure I can add salt later, either to a recipe or to melted butter.
And good butter doesn’t need salt to taste good. I’m not talking about Land-O-Lakes crap, but if you can get some good, fresh butter (we used to buy it from the Menonites back when I was a kid) it tastes indescribably different from the commerical product–rich and creamy, as differen from dairy factory butter as a good North Coast Pinot is from Gallo.
I only buy unsalted butter. I’ve read Americans already have way too much salt in their diet, so when I can control salt content I usually go without. Plus I mostly use it for baking and don’t want it throwing off the taste of things.
It does seem hard to find though. In some supermarkets I can only get one brand.
Yes. I do realize I specifically said England. It doesn’t matter, because I think salted is the default in Scotland as well. Oh well. I was wrong. So, now it seems to be that Britain and her colonies seem to prefer salted butter to unsalted.
But a note, good unsalted butter should be made from slightly soured milk. It gives the body so much more flavor. The stuff that Land O’Lakes sells as “Sweet cream” butter is a bland product. If you can get a good quality butter, you would understand the simple bliss that a dab of unsalted butter on a fresh baguette will produce.
dunno if its indicative of anything or not, but at least as far as Ive noticed, in the supermarkets in (ontario) canada there has definitely been a growing availability of unsalted butter. (This is purely annecdotal so ymmv. I’ve always purchased unsalted as has my family and I’ve def. noticed that there are more brands available unsalted now than when i was a kid).
Also, unsalted is def. the norm in south america. Never saw it down there, and would get some VERY strange looks when I told them about it.
Some years ago my job took me to a creamery, one of whose products was listed to me as “lactic butter”. Inquring about this (because I had never heard of it or seen it offered for sale) I was told that their entire production of lactic butter was for export to Germany. I don’t know any more about what it is or what place it occupies in German food culture, or whether German emigrants to Canada would have been disappointed not to find it in the shops.
I forgot to mention that unsalted butter is more expensive than salted here in Ireland, leading to the apparent conclusion that the action of adding salt actually reduces the value of the product.
Until I moved from Ireland to France, I didn’t know that there was such a thing as unsalted butter. It may have been added to butter exports heading to the USA, but salt has been added to butter for almost 1000 years.
