There seems to be a lot of controversy these days over whether you should use salted or unsalted butter. I wanted to explain why I'm Team Salted Butter and why my recipes use salted butter.
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My butter authority
I've taken a bunch of college chemistry classes, I'm pretty good at baking and math, and I was also born in America's Dairyland, Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, butter is king and it's everywhere. I grew up with salt, pepper and, yep, butter on the dinner table. Always. It wasn't even refrigerated. At 3 am, there would still be salt, pepper, and butter on the dinner table. In fact, my mom still has butter sitting out on her countertop 24/7 to this day. It's even on the same butter plate that she used when I was a kid too!
In Wisconsin, butter goes on everything. Literally everything. Plain saltine crackers get butter. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches also get butter! You might be asking why you would need butter on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and it's a fair question. The answer, in Wisconsin, is that peanut butter is not butter. Therefore, butter must be added. (Also, the butter goes on the jelly side if you were wondering). Little ham and cheese finger sandwiches get, you guessed it, butter. Mayo is a four letter word in Wisconsin, but it is allowed for potato salad and cole slaw. Only potato salad and coleslaw. Everything else gets butter.
I even ate butter plain as a child. I have no idea why I would have eaten it plain, but I have distinct memories of it. And it wasn't salty, either. So, trust me, I know butter. But let's get to the unsalted vs. salted butter discussion.
What is in butter anyway?
So there are two main categories of regular butter: salted and unsalted. Salted butter contains milk cream and salt. Unsalted butter contains milk cream and natural flavorings (remember this!). Many bakers prefer unsalted butter because they say they like to control the amount of salt in their baking. And I think that may have been true before nutrition labels. But thanks to nutrition labels, we actually do know how much salt is in butter as it is stated right in the nutrition label. We can control the amount of salt that goes in the bake even with salted butter.
How much salt is in salted butter?
I surveyed at a few labels at the grocery store. The serving size of butter is one tablespoon which typically contains 90 milligrams of salt. There are 8 tablespoons of butter in one stick of butter. That means that one stick of butter contains 720 milligrams of salt. But how much salt is that anyway? I checked several different brands of salt, and a typical serving size of salt is ¼ teaspoon and contains 1.5 grams (or 1500 milligrams) of salt. That means that 1 stick of butter, containing 720 milligrams of salt, has less than ⅛ of a teaspoon of salt. I even checked my math. Twice.
Can you even taste the difference of ⅛ teaspoon of salt in one stick of butter? So I didn't do a blind taste test, but I'm going to go with no. In cooking, a pinch of salt is acceptable. How much is a pinch? Is my pinch and your pinch the same? Probably not. I did measure what my pinch of salt was and I got about ⅛ of a teaspoon of salt in a pinch. So basically an entire stick of butter contains just one pinch of salt!
Natural Flavorings
Have I convinced you that the amount of salt in butter is really not that much? Do you need more convincing? What about the natural flavoring in unsalted butter? How much is in there? WHAT exactly are the natural flavorings? Large food companies have long been putting gross things in our food. Several have come under scrutiny for what they put in vanilla or what they use as food dyes. Do we really trust them to use 'good' natural flavorings?
When I lived in Las Vegas, there was a manufacturing plant that made natural flavorings. It put off some of the worst smells that I've ever smelt in my entire life. If it was a nice day and you happen to be driving with the windows down and the wind was blowing just right, it was enough to make you gag down the freeway. Unknown natural flavorings? No thank you!
What does this all mean?
So salt is a flavor enhancer and so are the 'natural flavorings'. Therefore, all butter contains milk cream and some sort of flavor enhancer. I know how much salt is in salted butter, but I don't know how much or what the natural flavorings are in unsalted butter. Personally, I'm going with the devil that I know. I use salted butter in my recipes. It's ok if you still use unsalted butter or are watching your salt intake. I promise to do my best to remind you when you'll need to add an optional pinch of salt if you're using unsalted butter. Salted, unsalted, we're all friends here on this blog. I just wanted to explain why you'll see salted butter in all my recipes.
Stay salty and happy baking!
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