If a recipe calls for unsalted butter which I don't buy (but would if it makes a big difference to the outcome of a recipe)can I get away with salted butter.I am always looking at recipes online and this question is always coming to mind.I think the last recipe that made me question this again was a cake.I just wonder how important this is please.

When I baked often, I sometimes used unsalted sweet butter, and I found that I preferred the tiny level of salt that salted butter provided.

Of more importance to me is the flavour of cultured butter, so on the rare occasions on which I bake a plain buttery cake I like to use either Lewis Road, Lurpak or the French butter that has recently been made available (Petit Normand?).

Most of my cakes are either chocolate or orange, so it really doesn't seem to matter.

I have an idea that unsalted butter has a slightly lower water content, which might be of significance in a very buttery cake such as Madeira Cake, or in a buttery pastry like pâté brisée. I don't think it would matter in everyday baking.

Maryanne, I was once like you, but I'm going back many years! Consequently, at that time I decided to bite the bullet and use salted butter simply because we lived kilometers from a shop or supermatket which stocked unsalted butter. My country supermarkets didn't and there was no way I was going to drive for kms simply to purchase unsalted butter, which, in any case, in those days was worth gold to buy and, what would I do with the rest of the butter?

I say go for it with ordinary butter. .Don't know what you're going to cook, but maybe just be aware of salt content in salted butter and cut back salt in the other ingredients.

To me, a recipe can sometimes be put out for the sole purposes of promoting an unsalted butter product or label.
Good luck,
Regards Dawn.xx
Forgot say that what I cooked with salted butter was great and there was o consequence from not using unsalted butter.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/2022 11:54AM by Dawn.

Not infrequently one finds a recipe that recommends unsalted butter but adds salt elsewhere!

I was told by someone in the restaurant industry that by using unsalted butter you have control over the amount of salt being added. However, there was always salt on the table.
I cannot remember a dish I have made and used unsalted butter, salted butter is all I have in the fridge.

Thanks all for your replies I will use my salted butter.This unsalted butter came up a couple of times as I was reading baking recipes and I always wondered how much of a difference it would make.

I pretty much always use salted butter in baking, (unless I'm doing a big batch or special cake in which case I may buy butter especially for that, and will go for unsalted). As Marnie says, I understand the primary reason for using unsalted is so that the salt level can be controlled more easily, so if I use salted butter in a recipe I would then reduce the salt added elsewhere in the recipe.

I do love the cultured butters but would never use them in baking, IMO they are best used as a spread (preferrably on really good sourdough!) where you will really taste the tangy flavour. The Joe Pastry blog had great information regarding this kind of stuff, but it's offline now (have a horrible feeling that he's either very sick or passed away).

I hadn't known about Joe Pastry (I wish I had) and in looking him up I see that his Instagram page hasn't had any activity for 10 weeks, so I fear you might be right.

TPANDAV his deep dives into baking subjects have taught me so much over the years. I really hope he's just taking a hiatus. He did do that for a couple of years, before coming back over the pandemic, but has gone offline again since.

I just googled Joe Pastry because it sounds interesting and an alert came up that the website might be impersonating Joe Pastry and trying to steal personal and banking information and advised to go back a page. So, please be careful.

Thank you Griz.I have never bought cultered butter only whatever salted butter was on special the week I shopped.I do love butter as a spread and will now try the cultured butter for this.The red shed seems to have the cheapest salted butter at the moment,so I will bake with this.

I haven't bought unsalted butter for years, I just use salted.
Cultured butter is a very special treat and as I am going to Sydney for a few days next month I fully intend to buy some Pepe Sayer cultured butter to bring home as am curious to see what it tastes like. I will travel with a small chiller bag in my suitcase.

I only use unsalted butter - made this choice years ago, and I think it was because I preferred the flavour. Most of the time I just use it for baking, not as a spread, and I buy it when it's on special and freeze it, cutting pieces off as I need them. Seems to work!