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Baking 101: Why We Use Unsalted Butter

September 18, 2013 by Joy the Baker 133 Comments

Let’s talk about butter! It’s my go-to. It’s my boo. It’s my sweetheart.

I’m not shy about sharing my affection for butter, but you may have noticed in the recipes here  that I’m very specific about how I like my butter.  Sometimes melted and browned.  Sometimes cold and cubed.  Sometimes beaten with sugar and egg.  Always though… most almost always.. UNSALTED! Yea, I get opinionated about my butter. We should talk about why.

strawberry raspberry crisp

Butter is my go-to fat in the kitchen.  Olive oil is nice.  Coconut oil is lovely.  Butter gets the job done!

Butter is typically made from cow’s milk and consists of mostly butterfats.  Low-fat buttes are suspicious, at best.  Butter is generally about 80% fat, with the remaining 20% consisting of water and milk solids.

You have a choice when you go to the grocery:  salted or unsalted butter.  If you’re thinking about slathering your butter on a warm baguette, you’ll want to reach for the salted butter.  If you’re baking a cobbler, you’ll most definitely want to reach for the unsalted butter.

Brown Butter Banana Bread with rum and toasted coconut

Here’s why:

Most importantly: unsalted butter ensures that you can control the amount of salt you add to your cakes, cookies and Fig and Almond Breakfast Cake.  Different companies add different amounts of salt to their butter.  How are we to know how salty our butter is, and how we should adjust the salt in the recipe?  It’s too much of a guessing game.  Removing the salt from the butter equation puts us in control of salting. Control is very important when it comes to flavor.

When a recipe calls for unsalted butter, that means that the salt levels in the recipe account for no other salt source.  If all you have salted butter, try cutting the instructed salt amount in half.

Also, salt is a preservative.  Salted butter has a longer shelf life than unsalted butter.  That means that unsalted butter is typically fresher.

Salt can mask flavors!  We may not be able to taste or smell if our butter is off because clever clever salt can mask funky taste and odors.  Tricky.

Does butter really go bad? Heck yes it does!  Unsalted butter lasts about 1 month in the refrigerator.  Salted butter lasts for just over 3 months in the refrigerator (that’s so long, right?).  If you think your butter might be off, give it a good sniff.  The nose always knows.  Also, slice your butter.  Is the inside the same color as the outside… or is the outside a darker casing around the butter?  Bad butter is two different colors.

What happens if I use salted butter in baked goods?

Well… the world will end, and that’s that.

Baking 101: How To Read A Recipe

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  1. zita

    August 14, 2015 at 6:28 am

    In Ireland unsalted butter is pretty uncommon. I really only ever use salted butter, and it works perfectly fine… although I do understand we have a luxury on our hands very accessible and affordable.

    Reply
  2. PEG

    July 18, 2015 at 11:48 am

    THIS IS ABOUT THE 4TH REVIEW I’VE RED ON SALT. I ALWAYS TOLD HUBBY TO BUY SALTED AND THEN I PICKED UP UNSALTED BY MISTAKE. HAVEN’T USED YET. I’M A GOOD BAKER, HOPE THIS WILL MAKE ME A SUPER ONE. I HAVE A RECIPE FOR GREEN TOMATO CHOCOLATE CAKE. IT’S TO DIE FOR.

    Reply
  3. woodNfish

    March 18, 2015 at 10:24 am

    The only reason I put butter in the fridge is to keep it firm until I am ready to use it. When I put on a butter dish it stays in the dish on the table or counter. It NEVER goes back into the fridge. My wife learned this from her cousins who are farmers and ranchers on the eastern Colorado plains. I tossed all my soft spread margarine after I began to do this. Butter is so much better and better for you.

    Reply
  4. bill brunett

    February 22, 2015 at 9:14 pm

    The author of this article honestly makes me wonder if they realize that sodium content is specified on every food label. There is no guessing game, you can read on the side of the package the amount of salt each company decides to add to their salted butter!

    Also the idea that unsalted butter will be ‘fresher’ than unsalted butter is frankly asinine. Unsalted butter does not keep as long so will tend to be less fresh than the salted variety.

    The fact that the author does not seem to know that sodium content is listed on food labels coupled with apparent misunderstanding that unsalted butter does not stay fresh longer than salted butter causes me to doubt the veracity of the entire article.

    Reply
  5. Marie Williams

    January 22, 2015 at 10:02 pm

    I have a place in my freezer to keep my butter, salted or not.

    Reply
  6. Janelle Dalstra

    January 18, 2015 at 7:00 pm

    Well first of all I want to thank you for all your efforts, you have a cute sence of humor. My question is, what happens if you accidentally dumped the egg whites in the cake batter that should have been beaten to a soft peak then a quarter cup of sugar added slowly, then because you realized it was a big part of the recipe turning out in the cake beat 3 more with the sugar and folded them in. So now I have 3 egg whites extra in the batter. What will happen to the cake? Should have just used a cake mix.

    Reply
  7. JC

    January 18, 2015 at 10:14 am

    I’ve always wondered about this question (in the blog post title) wile watching baking and cooking videos by the award-winning Stephanie Jaworski of Joy of Baking. She always says, “you can use salted or unsalted, but I use unsalted because I like the flavor better,” implying that it is a personal preference and that it has no impact on the recipe. Your blog post explains the reasons well.

    With this said, I still prefer to use salted butter. I like the flavor better when used for my baguette or toasts (just eating it as is); I had tried unsalted long time ago, and I found it tasteless, henceforth have never bothered with it again.

    As for baking with salted butter, I happen to enjoy the slight saltiness in my sweets like the pastries I get from the Chinese bakeries. I especially love the mild salt flavor in the cream and icing parts of the cakes and always figure that they probably throw in some salt in the preparation. Now I imagine another possibility . . . they probably use salted butter! ;)

    In the U.S., the prices for salted and unsalted butter are the same. I find it illogical and not making sense that unsalted butter is charged more like some commenters revealed.

    As for the freshness of the butter, there is always an expiry date in all dairy products, butters included. I simply use my butter before this expiry date, salted and unsalted. The tip on spotting two different colours on bad butter is a good one for me as I did not know this . . . it is time to toss out this Breakstone Spreadable Butter With Canola Oil in my fridge (this is another product I decided to try out but will not buy it again just because I did not like its flavor even while it was fresh.)

    BTW, my love and pickiness of butter only permits me to eat/use Kerry Gold and Breakstone whipped butter (second choice for easier spreading), and sometimes Plugra European-Style Butter. :)

    Reply
  8. Paul

    December 21, 2014 at 12:32 am

    hah, never used unsalted butter in my house… only once, way back in the 90’s when I was covering someone on leave in a small business making Russian Fudge. Used unsalted butter and then added salt. While recollection is a little hazy, it wasn’t all that much salt that was added in to the fudge mixture… and I’d hazard a guess at between 1.5-2%

    So, what was the point… especially where I live (New Zealand) unsalted butter is quite a bit more expensive?

    Reply
  9. Christine

    December 17, 2014 at 8:35 am

    I think the salted vs. unsalted must make a difference with cookies vs. cakes or cupcakes.
    I have a recipie for espresso cookies. They always go flatter than pancakes when I use salted butter. They only turn out properly (with the right texture and puffiness) when I use unsalted butter. How can I modify the ingredients when I only have salted butter (that my hubby buys) on hand? No added salt in recipie; just espresso, cocoa, flour, icing sugar, vanilla and butter.

    Reply
  10. Rebecca

    December 8, 2014 at 10:03 am

    What about for a recipe that doesn’t call for salt at all? I have a sugar cookie recipe that calls for butter, unspecified, and no salt. Should I use salted butter in that case? I feel like it might need some salt to combine ingredients. Sorry, I don’t usually bake, but I’m trying!

    Reply
  11. Jackie

    December 7, 2014 at 2:56 pm

    Fabulous post! I’m a little behind, but find myself with salted butter and a recipe that calls for unsalted. Your blog has helped a lot!
    I laughed out loud when I read your comment about the world ending if one bakes with salted butter! Thanks for the giggle!

    Reply
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  1. FRIDAY FIVE: 5 GREAT FOOD READS - Boxes and Jars says:
    January 9, 2015 at 3:02 am

    […] Why We Use Unsalted Butter: If there’s anyone you should be taking butter advice from, it’s Joy the Baker. Before I read this I was one of those “use salted butter and just omit the salt” fools. That’s still an ok trick when you’re in a pinch, but it shouldn’t be your game plan from the start…and Joy will tell you why! […]

    Reply
  2. Why Do Recipes Say Unsalted Butter | We Get Healthy says:
    November 30, 2014 at 1:05 pm

    […] Baking 101: Why We Use Unsalted Butter – Joy the Baker – It’s like the baking gods read my mind & asked you to write this post. I was standing in the butter section for minutes yesterday pulling out my hair over the …… […]

    Reply
  3. Is Unsalted Butter Best For Baking | We Get Healthy says:
    November 27, 2014 at 2:50 pm

    […] Baking 101: Why We Use Unsalted Butter – Joy the Baker – It’s like the baking gods read my mind & asked you to write this post. I was standing in the butter section for minutes yesterday pulling out my hair over the …… […]

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  4. Why Does Baking Call For Unsalted Butter | We Get Healthy says:
    November 8, 2014 at 8:54 pm

    […] Joy the Baker – Baking 101: Why We Use Unsalted Butter – Love this! Most people look at me blankly when I tell them about salted vs. unsalted. I always bake with unsalted and I think it makes a big difference in the quality …… […]

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