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sweet butter, then adding salt...

post #1 of 5
6/11/06 at 8:55am
Thread Starter 
if a recipe calls for sweet butter, then adds salt, can't I just use reg butter & cut back on the salt added?

if so how much?
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post #2 of 5
6/11/06 at 10:18am
Salt is added to butter as a preservative. I guess you could use regular butter and cut back on the salt by 1/4 Tsp. Better wait for someone else to verify my thinking though.

Best Rgds Cakerookie...aka Rook
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post #3 of 5
6/11/06 at 11:18am
Well, you could -- but the salt level may vary in different brands of butter, so you might not get the same result all the time. Plus, even if you always use the same brand of salted butter, it could take a lot of experimentation until you get a salt level you like.

From the professional recipe writer/editor's viewpoint: the recipe was tested with unsalted butter. The person who wrote it meant it to be made that way, and knows that the outcome should be as promised. Once you start changing things, don't expect the recipe to be what the author intended.

PS: if you normally have only salted butter in your kitchen, try using unsalted for a change: it tastes a lot fresher, and allows you to adjust the salt level in all your food much more easily.
"Notorious stickler" -- The New York Times, January 4, 2004
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post #4 of 5
6/12/06 at 5:30am
sweet butter is a reference back to the fifties and prior when most dairies cultured their cream before churning, much the same as yogurt. Sweet butter was the industries label for butter that was made without culture added and made in a highspeed continuous churn. You can still buy cultured butter in small artisan dairies. Salted and unsalted butter is an entirly diffferent issue. Buy Unsalted and adjust salt in your forumula. Salted butter is made with cream that is on average 2 weeks older than unsalted butter. Salt effectivly masks any off flavor and acts as a perservative allowing wal*mart to keep it on the shelfs much longer.
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post #5 of 5
6/12/06 at 8:38am
Exactly.

:lips:
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