Post

#truth

The only time I reach for unsalted is when I’m making shortbread. Otherwise it’s salted, since I rarely put salt itself into anything.

But really, unsalted butter on good sourdough bread is heavenly.

My baking instructor in culinary school said the difference between the two is minimal.

I usually just ignore that part of the recipe

Simple solution - Unsalted for cooking and baking, Salted for eating.

Croissants?

If you are not baking, keep that stuff away from me

Every time I see unsalted butter, I think to myself, "fuck unsalted butter."

I’ve heard that cooking is physics, but baking is chemistry, which is why adding an exact amount of salt to unsalted butter is more important in baking.

I'm good with unsalted butter. But I will only use sweet cream butter, because how would you even use sour cream butter?

... e.g. a cardio-friendly diet

"You should use unsalted so you can salt to taste" My taste says MORE SALT

Always use unsalted butter. Control the salt by adding along the way.

No notes.

I use unsalted butter to bake, so I always -think- about when to use butter. In other words, it's a threat from past me, waiting for an unwary moment to strike. ....look it results in me using a noticeable amount less butter, okay?

Salted butter is for spreading on bread. Unsalted butter is for everything else.

It's really just more accurate to use unsalted and add salt.

This encapsulates my exact feelings so well

We bought unsalted butter recently thinking, "oh, that'll be better." It wasn't.

Look…if I’m using butter for anything, I don’t know why it would be unsalted. I’m adding more salt anyway.

Rather like unsalted peanuts or potato chips.

I don’t understand salted butter. If you want salt. Add it yourself. Not everyone does.

Yes, I probably eat too much salt, but unsalted butter is🤮. My girlfriend occasionally buys it and I react poorly.

French toast. When I used salted butter to fry the bread it had a strangely metallic taste. I then used unsalted butter and no longer had that issue.

I feel the same way!👍👍

I always just use the salted. No problems baking or in other recipes.

Use unsalted and put as much salt as you like on/in anything you wish.

I’ve never bought nor used salted butter.

🤣😂🤣 True. I grabbed it by mistake once. Wasn't that bad but I wouldn't buy it on purpose for any reason. Even recipes that call for it are great with salted butter 🤷🏻‍♀️ I'm pretty old and haven't ever needed it. Maybe* in complex pastry baking. Maybe*

Exactly!

Cakes and chocolate

🤣🤣

Adding extra salt after using salted butter in a cake or cookie recipe will make the finished product very salty. I had cookies from a bake sale that were rather salty because the kid who made them used salted butter and added the extra salt.

Baking. That's what it's used for, primarily.

I prefer to know what kind of salt I’m getting in what I’m eating, and that it’s a good salt that’s *worth* eating. I feel the same way about coffee sweetener, incidentally. My wife, meanwhile, buys red Stok 🤷‍♂️

And pretty much every recipe that calls for unsalted butter also calls for salt. 🙄

I asked a dear friend/cook why unsalted butter - what was the actualy difference. Her: well lower in salt for those that need that Me: no difference in taste, texture, nothing? Her: no Me Fuck it, salted it is Its a Big Dairy/Big Cooking conspiracy

Agreed. Salted is the only way I roll

The heart wants what the heart wants.

Food page headline tomorrow: SF author admits that he never sets foot in the kitchen 🤣🤣🤣

I never use unsalted butter. I just use less salt instead.

If I'm baking I just use the salted butter instead of unsalted and follow the recipe and then I'm like.. Yum it's a little salty If I'm cooking I taste it but I never want less salt than the salted butter provides so it's fine

Unsalted butter is lard. According to a neighbor of mine.

aaaah, I see you don't bake at all.

Read this to my wife because we just had a conversation about me accidentally picking up unsalted butter. She says "amen".

This is the way.

Bingo.

I'm of the opinion that if a salt lick is good enough for my gerbils, it's good enough for me.

Counterpoint: Most cake and cookie recipes are undersalted

I'm salt-restricted, so yes

Nope.

Interesting. I feel the reverse. I come from a background in French cuisine, and certainly we love plenty of butter. However, most French people actually agree with you, John -- that is, they prefer salted butter. But I don't because I can always adjust the salt content separately.

Touché. I’ll accept that.

Really? I prefer sweet cream butter, as it’s fresher.

Only salted butter 🧈

There’s no judgment here! Unsalted is for cooking. Salted is a condiment.

Oddly, I picked up a tub of unsalted butter once, I knew I'd fecked up at the first taste, but couldn't put my finger on what was wrong. Truly a sad time here, as I started to think butter had turned against me 🤕😥

I'm a baker so we have unsalted butter in the house at all times...and, I like to add my fancy Maldon salt to it for salted butter uses like spreading. Mmmmm....butter....

Who knew so many people would feel compelled to chime in on this?!?! I am ambivalent. I use both for either toast or baking depending on what I have and how I feel that day. Freedom!!!!!!

I never use salted butter. Unsalted butter is always fresher. Always!

I use unsalted for spread on toast and biscuits ... always .

😂

those fuckers just hate salt. don't fall for their lies

My high school home ec teacher told me salted butter is the lower quality butter (salted to hide the taste), so I always buy unsalted. No idea if that’s true but it stuck 🤷‍♀️

No puff pastry for you, huh?

😬

😨

TIL

So true!!

someone on social media once shared a unforgettable quote from their grandma on the topic of unsalted butter: “you might as well be cooking with vaseline”

Popcorn exists purely because it would be unseemly to drink butter at the movies.

Every recipe my wife or I have ever cooked that called for unsalted butter also called for… …salt. Make it make sense.

obviously salted butters are so awash in salt that those of us with heart issues have to avoid them! You can taste it in every bite! Really! Honest! [this comment brought to you by Kerrygold Is Paying For My Next Heart Attack Inc.]

😳🙀🥺 😏 Regardless - may your cuisine always be blessed.

I think I used unsalted butter once, and it was a very long time ago. Like probably 30 years or so. 🤢

Even cakes and cookies need some salt. So, I see no reason for it at all.

Whipped butter on bread is best salted. I’ll give you that.

I measure with a scale whenever possible. I think tiny changes make a difference in baking! Puff pastry would be tooooo salty! 

My cat used to have a lick of the butter on my toast, it was one of her favourite treats. One time I used unsalted butter, and she looked at it like it was poison. I trust a cat's instincts.

I just like being able to add exactly as much salt as I need without having to guess at how much was already in the butter.

I almost always use salted butter in everything, even when the recipe calls for unsalted. I don’t even get the point of unsalted being an option.

I had a theory about about what the mentions on this one would look like, and they did not disappoint me.

Frankly, toast with unsalted butter sprinkled with Maldon is to die for.

I bought a small packet of unsalted butter for those situations but had to chuck it out last week because they never eventuated.

Drives me crazy. Every recipe that calls for unsalted butter at some point tells you to add salt. The whole category is a mistake.

Thank you.

The difference is imperceptible to the human tongue in 99.9% of the cases.

You don't bake?

You might be right but i just use salted 🤷🏻‍♀️ It's delicious. Honestly never thought about using unsalted 🤣🤷🏻‍♀️

… Meow wants to know what a fine author such as yourself has against baking cookies?

It’s only been the last couple of years that recipes have started specifically saying unsalted butter. They often don’t compensate anywhere else. You need salt to balance sweetness. A cookie made with unsalted butter is a disappointment.

Calling for unsalted butter is snobbery.

You and my daughter both hold the same opinion

I love those recipies that call for unsalted butter - and then tell you to add salt. Say what?

Baking almost anything, that salt is a different ingredient.

I prefer unsalted. Creamier. And you can always put salt on it.

cookie recipes - the only thing imo where you gotta

Salt is also required because it also activates the leaveners.

Well, a lot of ingredients can have varying levels of salt. Celery, for example, can be more or less salty depending on where/when it's grown. "Salt to taste" is basically saying "We don't know how salty your stuff is, so add a little, then add a little more if needed."

Hey- at least there's butter?

My brother had to go salt free he'd do everything except bread