To Salt or Not To Salt

The Great Butter Debate

When to use Salted Butter, Unsalted Butter or other alternatives

Recipe to recipe, we see all different types of butter, fats and alternatives listed as potential ingredients. For so long, I thought butter was butter and therefore interchangable. It was not until I did my deep-dive butter research that my baking became more consistent and elevated.

In the land of butter, there are several types and textures of butter from whipped, European to classic butter sticks. For this article,we will focus on those classic butter sticks. Oftentimes, you will see the amount of butter needed per recipe as well as Salted or UnSalted butter. So what does that really mean?

Unsalted butter is just that, pure butter fat- no salt added. Salted butter has added salt, usually about 1-2% per stick.

So when do you use which and does it really matter?

Salted Butter:

Salted Butter is usually reserved for things like spreads, muffins, bagels and general cooking ie. veggies, quick meals. It gives your recipe a flavor boost, provides added convenience and generally lasts longer in the fridge. As a hard and fast rule- if it is savory, it is salted.

UnSalted Butter

What you see is what you get, just butter. With no additional ingreidents, you can truly control everything in your recipe. You can add salt as needed and not have to factor in the butter contents. Unsalted Butter is most commonly used in cookies, cakes, and other delicate pastries for that very reason. If it is sweet, if it is delicate, it's unsalted.

Can you swap them?

Absolutely! You just have to do a bit of baking math. If the recipe calls for unsalted butter and you only have salted butter, you can make that swap, just reduce the additional butter in the recipe by 1/4 teaspoon per stick. If the recipe calls for salted, do the reverse. Add 1/4 teaspoon of salt per stick of butter used.

If the recipe does not specify, I personally love a salted butter stick.

Now don't get me started on butter brands...