Salted vs. Unsalted Butter: When to Use the Different Butters

Butter is a water-in-fat emulsion made from cream. If you leave unhomogenized, full-fat milk out to sit, fatty cream can rise to the top within twelve to twenty-four hours. Agitating that cream results in butter, which has a longer shelf life than fresh milk or cream. Butter has many applications as a spread, condiment, baking ingredient, and cooking fat. No matter which kind of butter you use, the ingredient can enhance your dish’s flavor.

There are two types of butter in general: Salted butter is butter with added salt, whereas unsalted butter has no additional salt content. Here are additional considerations between the two types of butter:

• Flavor: Made up of butterfat, unsalted butter does not contain any extra salt. If you’re eating unsalted butter, you will taste the natural flavor of butter—less salty, sweeter, and smoother than its salted counterpart.
• Shelf life: Salted butter has a longer shelf life than unsalted butter since the additional salt acts as a preservative. The presence of additional salt can counteract its natural buttery and sweet cream flavor.
• Sodium: The amount of salt included in butter can vary from brand to brand, as can the type of salt used (kosher salt, sea salt, etc.). If you want to detect the general saltiness of a new tab of salted butter, consult the nutritional information on the label to determine the milligrams of sodium.

Cooks and bakers should consider what a recipe calls for when deciding whether or not to use salted butter. It’s a good general rule to use salted butter when you don’t need to have complete control over the salt content in cooking or baking recipes. Spreading salted butter over corn on the cob and other veggies or melting it over popcorn makes sense. Adding salted butter to buttercream frosting or cupcakes is inadvisable, as it would make a sweet treat salty.

If you’ve only got salted butter on hand and need to make a sweeter dish, there are baking tips that can still leave you with an ideal finished product. If a recipe calls for a certain amount of salt and butter, take out a teaspoon of salt or two rather than reduce the amount of salted butter.

Unsalted butter allows you to have complete control over your recipe’s sodium content, so it’s the go-to option for any breads or desserts that need a very specific amount of butter and salt to taste their best. Brownies, peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies, pound cake, and other baked treats are much better off made with unsalted butter as a general rule of thumb.

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