What is the difference between using salted and unsalted butter

Get the recipe: Herb butters three ways. These delicious butters are great for flavouring steaks, chicken and fish. Get more herb butter tips and recipes. Get the recipe: Muffin Tin Gratin Potatoes. Skip to main content. The difference between salted and unsalted butter As you're looking at recipes, you may notice that some call for either salted or unsalted butter.

What is salted butter? What is unsalted butter? Does "butter" in a recipe mean salted or unsalted butter? Do I really need to use unsalted butter? What is salt reduced butter? Recipes using butter It's no secret that butter makes food taste great, discover plenty of butter recipes below or check out this collection of Western Star butter recipes. When it comes to which butter is a healthier choice, keep in mind the only difference is the added salt. There are approximately 90 milligrams of additional sodium in the salted butter.

The FDA recommends 2, milligrams of sodium per day, the equivalent to one teaspoon of salt. A tablespoon of salted butter is approximately milligrams of sodium.

For any health conditions that are sensitive to salt, this can be an important distinction. Unsalted butter gives you complete control over the amount of salt in your recipe via Popsugar. If you prefer salted butter, an advantage to buying it is that it lasts longer in the refrigerator because the salt acts as a preservative. However, if you only want to buy one type of butter, buy unsalted and when using it on fresh baked goods, simply add a sprinkle of a fancier salt on top, such as a nice sea salt.

Salted Butter Vs. That's because when you're slathering it on a piece of warm bread , for example, the saltiness helps to bring out the rich flavor and enhances the experience for your taste buds. This is why you'll often see salt added to table butter or whipped butter at a restaurant — without the salt, it may taste flat or just fatty. In this case, you may want to use slightly less salt than the recipe calls for to account for the saltiness of the butter.

This kind of butter is simply churned fat with no added salt, and can be used anytime fat needs to be added to a recipe, says Laird. Unsalted butter should be your go-to for baking and pastry. Because most recipes call for the addition of salt as an ingredient, using salted butter in things like cookies and pies can take them over the edge in saltiness. Aside from the flavor, using salted butter in a baking recipe that calls for unsalted can lead the end product to not turn out as it should.

For example, in a high-fat yeast dough , such as brioche , using salted butter may not only lead to an overly salty flavor, but something that doesn't look or feel as brioche should. This is because salt can kill the yeast in a bread and lead to improper leavening, explains Jason Jimenez, executive pastry chef at The Willard InterContinental Washington, D. Related : How to Soften Butter 5 Ways.