Butter: salted or unsalted?

[Greg Who Cooks]

I've always used unsalted butter for two reasons: you can always add salt but can hardly take it away, and it seems to me that too many of our foods have salt added so I get better control by not using salted butter.

About the only thing I was able to discover by Googling my question is that some people think unsalted butter is likely to be fresher, presumably because salt can be used to extend the shelf life of butter.

I have my reasons for using unsalted butter, but I'm having difficulty finding reasons why anybody would want to use unsalted. The only idea I've been able to come up with is possibly when butter is used as a spread (like on toast) people like a little salt taste and it's convenient to not have to sprinkle salt as an extra step.

So I give up. Why use salted butter?

 

[Steve Kroll]

I suppose it's a matter of personal choice.

The only kind of butter I buy is something called pasture butter, which is cultured and lightly salted. I find unsalted butter to be distinctly lacking in flavor, and since I use butter more as a spread or food flavoring agent than for cooking, I prefer it to be lightly salted.

 

[taxlady]

I leave butter out, so it will be spreadable. If I do that with unsalted butter, it goes off quicker. I also like the taste of salted butter. I like the taste of unsalted butter too. Now that I have started watching my salt intake, I will probably switch to unsalted.

BTW, did you know that unsalted butter keeps longer in the freezer than salted butter. I imagine it is because salt lowers the freezing point of water.

 

[justplainbill]

Canned?
I've had some unsalted butter that was quite sweet and went nicely with bread and fruit preserves.

 

[Siegal]

I think your right it depends how you use it. I almost never use butter as a spread on bread. I usually use it in baking or for cooking. So I usually buy the unsalted. Sometimes salt added to things can throw a recipe off - I made a cake and could only find salted pistachios and between that and the salted butter I used (brought it home from parent's restaurant and we use salted there) it was not the ideal situation. So I agree - you can always add - never take away.

 

[niquejim]

Both. Salted for toast, unsalted for cooking

 

[GLC]

You may want to buy salted butter if it's a longer keeping time matters, but you can freeze it if that's a problem. I seriously doubt distributors are keeping butter around for different amounts of time according to whether it's salted or not. In spite of the common claim, I can find no authority claiming actual knowledge of it. They don't have to do that. They have control of production. And think about it. Salting retards spoilage. Is there any difference between unspoiled unsalted butter and salted butter. And if they wanted a sure fire way to keep it for a long time, they'd just freeze it or freeze the milk supply until needed.

I buy and use unsalted for two reasons. I try when possible to cultivate a lesser taste for salt. I like salty - a lot. So I try to do with less and learn to like it. It's not a health thing. My kidneys work just fine, thank you, meaning they do their job of managing salt. But there are purer and subtle flavors that I think too much salt masks. Plus, salted butter calls too strongly to me, and by keeping nothing but unsalted, I'm less likely to smear butter or smear it so heavily on something.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I leave butter out, so it will be spreadable. If I do that with unsalted butter, it goes off quicker. I also like the taste of salted butter. I like the taste of unsalted butter too. Now that I have started watching my salt intake, I will probably switch to unsalted.

I guess I'm beginning to understand, and it looks like my conjecture that salted butter is often preferred for a "better" (saltier) taste when using it as a spread. I often use margarine rather than butter as a spread.

And oddly, when making bread I probably use more salt than some folks (or prefer making salty breads, particularly focaccia with sea salt sprinkled on top). Maybe I'm just putting my salt into my bread instead of into my butter.

Like Siegal I use butter more often in cooking and baking. I use unsalted and then just salt to taste separately. I also often put butter over hot vegetables, and again salt it as a separate step.

BTW, did you know that unsalted butter keeps longer in the freezer than salted butter. I imagine it is because salt lowers the freezing point of water.

I didn't know that, but partly because 3/4 a pound of butter lasts me forever in the freezer (one in the refrigerator and the other three in the freezer). I don't use a lot because I tend to use vegetable oils in cooking and often reserve butter for the recipes where it is ideally suited.

I don't know about the conjecture but of course salt does lower the FP of water. However I believe salt extends the shelf life of butter even in refrigeration or apparently even at room temperature.

 

[GLC]

And oddly, when making bread I probably use more salt than some folks (or prefer making salty breads, particularly focaccia with sea salt sprinkled on top).

I do too. Probably a bad habit, but it's sure good. I suppose I should make some effort to reduce it and get closer to the flavor of the bread.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I seriously doubt distributors are keeping butter around for different amounts of time according to whether it's salted or not. In spite of the common claim, I can find no authority claiming actual knowledge of it. They don't have to do that. They have control of production. And think about it. Salting retards spoilage. Is there any difference between unspoiled unsalted butter and salted butter. And if they wanted a sure fire way to keep it for a long time, they'd just freeze it or freeze the milk supply until needed.

I'm not sure if it came out in my OP but I too was scoffing the idea that there would be any different supply chain for salted vs. unsalted butter.

I buy and use unsalted for two reasons. I try when possible to cultivate a lesser taste for salt. I like salty - a lot. So I try to do with less and learn to like it. It's not a health thing. My kidneys work just fine, thank you, meaning they do their job of managing salt. But there are purer and subtle flavors that I think too much salt masks. Plus, salted butter calls too strongly to me, and by keeping nothing but unsalted, I'm less likely to smear butter or smear it so heavily on something.

I too have been focusing for years on decreasing my taste for salt. In fact I've taken it too fat (perhaps) in that I've reached the point where many foods (particularly convenience foods) taste so overly salted to me that I dislike their taste. I'm taking this as an indication of how the public has been gotten used to ever larger doses of salt, to the point that these salt lovers sway the producers into making saltier foods. I forgot the statistic but it's disgusting when you look up modern per capita use of salt.

Salt was a great idea a thousand or two thousand years ago. It was often hard to get enough. In modern times it seems to have shifted to being difficult to not get too much!

I do too. Probably a bad habit, but it's sure good. I suppose I should make some effort to reduce it and get closer to the flavor of the bread.

Nah! Salty bread is good! But too much bread is bad for you (refined carbohydrates). Just eat reasonable portions when you serve bread.

I wonder how many DC members are like me: I tend to limit my baking of bread because home made bread is so good that I eat too much unless I bake only rarely.

 

[PolishedTopaz]

I am in the salted butter camp myself. I read or saw somewhere {Jacques or one of those other French Chefs} scoff and toss out salted butter when found opting for unsalted, baking and cooking. "Back-in-the-day" it was imperative to salt butter for spoilage reasons. As time went on people just seemed to prefer the taste.

 

[Zhizara]

I prefer salted butter also.

 

[DaveSoMD]

I started buying unsalted for baking and it was just easier and less confusing to keep only one kind in the house so now that is what I use. Although I have been known to buy the salted if no baking is imminent and it is on sale for a really good price (K-Mart had salted butter for $2.00 lb not too long ago.)

 

[FrankZ]

I use unsalted for cooking and baking and usually have one stick (or part thereof) in the fridge and the rest in the freezer.

I keep salted butter in the butter bell for spreading.

 

[Katie H]

I use unsalted for cooking and baking and usually have one stick (or part thereof) in the fridge and the rest in the freezer.

I keep salted butter in the butter bell for spreading.

Just about exactly what we do. Haven't seen any reason to do any thing any differently.

 

[Andy M.]

The argument that salt is added to butter as a preservative or to mask off flavors in older cream is an outdated one. With modern manufacturing and supply processes, this is simply not an issue. Dairys deliver cream to butter plants daily. It is processed into butter. Some has salt added and some doesn't. It's shipped out and sold.

For quite a long time recipes were developed using salted butter because that's all there was generally available. Betty Crocker, Good Housekeeping and Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks all used salted butter. Switching to unsalted won't make a recipe better. There isn't a lot of salt in salted butter. It's not what's going to make a difference in your life.

 

[buckytom]

unsalted. i can always add my own salt, and i'd be more apt to taste the salt more that way (still crystallized), therefore in less quantity which s better for my health.

and fresh butter, really fresh, is awesome. no need for salt unless you want it.
.
that's often the case with people who aren't affected cardiovascularly by salt, so they saturate their tastebuds with it. but that's another thread.

 

[HistoricFoodie]

I'd always used unsalted for everything, just cuz that's how I grew up. When I started working with historic foods I began using salted butter. It should be obvious why.

In my experience with the two: When I use salted butter for cooking, I can not tell the difference between it and unsalted. However, if used as a spread on breadstuff, the saltiness comes right through.

FWIW: The salt content of modern butter is there as a flavor element. There's not enough of it to actually serve as a preservation medium.

So, what it boils down to, IMO, is that salted or salted is a matter of personal taste, rather than something that really makes a difference.

 

[taxlady]

A couple of posts mention that there isn't that much salt in salted butter.

I decided to check the nutrition info. Turns out the salted butter in Canada, or at least in Quebec, is saltier than the US stuff.

10 grams of salted, Canadian butter, ~ 2 teaspoons: 80 mg of sodium
10 grams of salted, US butter: 58 mg of sodium

That could add up really quickly. 100 grams of butter - 800 mg of sodium in Canada, 580 mg of sodium in the US and that's less than a 1/4 pound of butter. It's in a lot of recipes.

2400 mg is the recommended daily amount of sodium.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I did a very rough translation from 2400 mg into teaspoons and got 1/2 a teaspoon as my answer. Note that this included a very iffy conversion from weight to volume measure, arguably flawed at best.

I'm very bothered by the amount of salt people consume (in US, CA, EU or anywhere) but I'm particularly bothered by the amount of salt that I myself consume. Half a teaspoon is getting into the area that I'm very uncomfortable with. I think the 2400 mg RDA is very important, important enough that I think everybody should heed the warning and set that as their maximum.

Only problem is, there's so much salt in everything that it's hard to tell when you're nearing the borderline.