Why unsalted butter?

[ruthcooks]

No, I haven't tried any European butters except Plugra, because there have never been any available in the stores I've shopped in. There was one little fancy gourmet store, but judging from the mushy figs and dried up morels in their produce department I didn't trust anything they kept on hand--not to mention the prices which were sky high.

[Bux]

One other thought occurred to me about salted butter: I've long assumed that it's better to use unsalted butter, adding salt to it as appropriate. But I was struck by stories of Alain Passard and his vegetable cookery at L'Arpège. He always seems to specify salted butter for cooking the vegetables. Is there something special about the salted butter in France? Is it a matter of cooking chemistry?

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If I recall correctly, Passard is a Breton and I assume he's used to salt butter and developed a taste for it. Let's not forget that while we sit around and argue over the superiority of one product over another, to a great extent, it's a matter of subjective taste. We should also understand that not all sweet or salt butters are the same. At the very basic level, some butters have more butter fat than others and while salt takes up space in the mix and I believe it tends to increase the water content, it's possible to have a salt butter that's creamier than a sweet butter. How the milk is cooled and how the butter is made, along with the feed of the cow, have an effect on how hard or soft the butter will be.

I'm not so smart, I just have McGee's new On Food and Cooking beside me.

[Kim Shook]

I read this on another board that I frequent:

"after hearing over and over on the Food Channel (from everybody on it, it seems) that baking required unsalted butter, I stocked up on it for the holiday baking...Unsalted butter was all I had on hand when I made my wonderful fudge this year.

Be warned: you gotta use the regular salted butter for fudge. My goodness, but it made a frightful concoction that sat in the 13 x 9 pan with pools of butter floating on the top, and butter grease oozing down the sides. I tossed it in the garbage, sent DH for the right butter (and more chocolate), and got a good batch the second time--smooth & creamy, with no butter puddles.

Guess that unsalted butter isn't good for everything, and that a little knowledge really is dangerous."

At first look, this seems silly. Why would unsalted butter act like this? But I am not too sharp in the science-type areas, so I thought I would check with you smart folks. Whaddaya think?

[Desiderio]

Very interesting .When I moved here form Italy I thought american butter was made differently ( it might be ) because all my recipes react differently with american butter , I always had the feeling that wouldnt melt or soften as the european one used to.Anyway right now the only butter I use is the salted one even when recipes call for unsalted ( I find it silly if there is salt in the recipe anyway , just have to keep that in mind ).

Let's see what the experts says

[SuzySushi]

One main difference between salted and unsalted butter (besides flavor) is the amount of water the butter contains; salted butter has a higher percentage of water.

This can affect the results in baking, where it's recommended that you not substitute salted for unsalted butter in recipes (and vice versa).

IMO, the same thing happened with the fudge. If the recipe called for salted butter and unsalted was substituted, the result would contain less water and more fat, producing the "greasy" texture.

Edited February 25, 2007 by SuzySushi (log)

[ChristopherMichael]

The butter I use has 85% butterfat and it doesn't matter if it's salted or not, because they both have the same butterfat content. It may not be the case with other butter.

[hummingbirdkiss]

While I use unsalted butter almost all the time I have used them both in all kinds of recipes and short of adjusting salt I have not found anything different in the final product.

I have made fudge with both salted and unsalted and never had a problem with either ..just left out the salt in the recipe when I used the salted butter

I do however use the stick with brand of butter because I think it has the best flavor and is consistant in quality.... maybe that is why I have no issues with it?

[chiantiglace]

whoever wrote that qoute more than likely just botched the recipe, and now one screw up on his/her account they are an experimental genious. If you dont really understand why something went wrong I suggest you not contribute a theory.

I don't make a lot of fudge, but I have used several different types of butter in several different states with no problem resulting the butter itself. I even bet you this screw up wasn't even beyond fixing.

[etalanian]

I agree. I always use unsalted butter to make fudge, and I have never had a problem. The person who made that comment messed up, but just can't accept that fact.

Eileen

[Natho]

Almost every time I use unsalted butter for a recipe I am unhappy with the result, not texture wise or anything but just in taste. It always tastes bland to me, I find that the salt rounds out the flavor better, even with sweet things, chocolate etc. I always try it first with unsalted if the recipe calls for it, but generally always end up remaking it with salted.

[Shalmanese]

Ditto, sounds like they just botched up once and found something they could blame it on. I bet if you made them make fudge 20 times in a double blind, they wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

[Geminigirl]

Almost every time I use unsalted butter for a recipe I am unhappy with the result, not texture wise or anything but just in taste. It always tastes bland to me, I find that the salt rounds out the flavor better, even with sweet things, chocolate etc. I always try it first with unsalted if the recipe calls for it, but generally always end up remaking it with salted.

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I always add salt, not alot a pinch or two at most, for anything sweet I make. I use exclusively unsalted butter, because I want to control the salt factor.

geminigirl

[Chris Hennes]

This topic has been in hibernation for quite some time, but over on the Recipe Instructions You Routinely Ignore topic it turns out that a lot of people substitute one for the other. Has anyone actually ruined anything by doing so?

[roosterchef21]

I tend to use unsalted butter for the majority of my food. It's really hard to judge how much salt is in butter and what the end product will be. I save salted butter for the table. And I really advocate (as with anything), the use of high quality products in a dish. I'm not saying make your next pudding with kilos of Monsieur Bordier's butter. But there are products out there that are at a quite good price point:quality ratio. I think the salted stuff can really hide the poorness of butter and the unsalted stuff is just plain nasty. So sick of mass produced crap.

[LindaK]

I grew up with salted butter and so used it reflexively when I first started cooking--and don't recall that anything was ruined. But having long since switched to sweet butter, I would never go back. Better flavor, for one thing--salted butter now tastes slightly sour to me. But I've also read that salted butter has a higher water content than sweet butter, so I imagine that could make a difference in pastry-making.

[Jenni]

Unsalted butter is important for making ghee - you could not substitute with salted butter.

The salted butter that we buy for putting on breads, etc. is barely salted at all. It certainly doesn't taste salty. To me, it tastes more buttery, because there is just enough salt to enhance the natural flavour of the butter. Actually, I think it may just be labelled as 'Butter', and then underneath it says 'with a pinch of salt' or something like that. The unsalted butter is clearly labelled as 'Unsalted Butter'

Having said that, I have had some cheaper salted butter before and I found it very salty indeed. Certainly wouldn't buy or use it out of choice.

[Katie Meadow]

I grew up with salted butter too. I don't recall my mother ever baking so much as a batch of cookies. So I too continued to use salted butter for years after I was on my own. I would buy unsalted butter only if a recipe specified it. Then I had to cut back on salt, so salted butter was the first to go. Now I'm so used to the taste of it I can't imagine going back. Unsalted butter is delicious. The only time I miss salty butter is on a matzoh. So now I just sprinkle buttered matzoh with a little sea salt or kosher salt.

[Chris Hennes]

I just buy huge quantities of Land o' Lakes unsalted butter when it goes on sale around holidays and freeze it: I haven't really noticed a quality difference between it and the salted variety. I don't put butter plain on much of anything, so maybe any "off" flavors are getting masked in cooking. Those who notice a quality difference: would you say it's a subtle thing?

[SobaAddict70]

I just buy huge quantities of Land o' Lakes unsalted butter when it goes on sale around holidays and freeze it: I haven't really noticed a quality difference between it and the salted variety. I don't put butter plain on much of anything, so maybe any "off" flavors are getting masked in cooking. Those who notice a quality difference: would you say it's a subtle thing?

To me, the difference between unsalted and salted is literally like night and day. There's nothing subtle about it.

Then again, I don't consume much in the way of processed food, which probably explains things.

[Porthos]

I am always fascinated by recipes that call for unsalted butter but have you add salt. I use only one brand of butter and I know how much salt is in a stick.

 

I saw a recipe yesterday that called for 3 Tbl of unsalted butter and 1 1/2 tsp salt. Since 3 Tbl of my butter contains 1/8 tsp salt, for that small amount I won't even adjust the salt going in, particularly since the recipe uses chicken broth and DOES NOT specify sodium-free.

 

I call foolishness in asking someone to stock unsalted butter in cases like the one above, which is very typical.

 

For people with salt sensitivities they already know what they need to do to control their exposure so that certainly shouldn't be a factor in creating a generally available recipe.

[Honkman]

But it makes more sense for any recipe to start with unsalted butter as it is easier to add the desired amount of salt to unsalted butter than using salted butter where you have no control over the amount of salt already used in butter (and you knowing the amount of salt in your butter is very unusual and definitely not the standard in most kitchens).

[btbyrd]

Different butters contain different salt levels, so it makes sense if you're trying to create a consistent result. Who measures salt by volume anyway? The difference between table salt and various types of kosher salt can vary by more then 100%.

 

I saw a recipe yesterday that called for 3 Tbl of unsalted butter and 1 1/2 tsp salt. Since 3 Tbl of my butter contains 1/8 tsp salt, for that small amount I won't even adjust the salt going in, particularly since the recipe uses chicken broth and DOES NOT specify sodium-free.

 

I call foolishness in asking someone to stock unsalted butter in cases like the one above, which is very typical.

 

The difference between 1.5 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp is far from insignificant. You'd have to use 12 times as much salted butter to match the salt level. I call foolishness on those who ignore such a giant difference. I agree that the recipe should specify the sodium content of the broth, but people should be using (unsalted) stock for cooking anyway.

[Martin Fisher]

What really matters is the quality of the butter...salted or not.

[Smithy]

Another argument for using unsalted butter is that (the arguers claim) you're more assured of getting butter with good flavor; they say that salt can mask the flavor of poor butter, but that you'll taste off-flavors in the unsalted butter and know that it's substandard.

This reason seems plausible to me, but I admit that I rarely follow it unless it's for a very precise recipe (usually for baking). Supermarket butter seems to have so much variation in quality that I stick to brands I like that seem to have consistently high quality and good flavor - not the cheapest store brands, which were probably supplied by the lowest bidders. Perhaps because of nothing more than inertia on my part, they're generally salted.

[Anna N]

Since salted and unsalted butter cost the same where I shop I usually keep both on hand. It has only happened to me once but I had a pound of butter that was so oversalted it was almost inedible. I do notice that some butter is saltier than other butter so I prefer to use the unsalted when a recipe calls for it.

As for salt I have now memorized the weight of a teaspoon of table salt in grams and convert all salt from volume to weight.