If you’re a home baker, you can never have enough butter stashed away in your fridge and freezer. Because who hasn’thit up their grocery store only to find that the entire stock of unsalted butter was—poof—gone? When all that’s left is the sad, rejected, salted sticks, should you be the one to give them a good home? More importantly, can you even use them to make that batch of blueberry streusel corn muffins you were craving? When it comes to salted or unsalted butter for baking, you can use them interchangeably, if you follow a few tips. Here’s what you should know before you preheat your oven.
Salted or Unsalted Butter for Baking: Which Is Better, and When Can You Swap?
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Published Jun 22, 2023
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Meet the Expert:
Katherine Gillen is a recipe developer and food writer with a Culinary Arts degree from the Institute of Culinary Education and professional experience working in the pastry departments of New York City restaurants. She’s spent countless hours baking in her home kitchen and is forever in search of the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Salted vs. Unsalted Butter: What’s the Difference?
Butter is your best friend in baking, adding flaky layers to pie crust, a tender crumb to cakes and richness to cookies. Besides the obvious (i.e., one tastes salty and the other does not), is there a real difference between unsalted (also called “sweet”) butter and salted?
Yep. Unsalted butter could be fresher than salted. Salt is a natural preservative, so it prolongs the shelf life of the butter. That means salted butter is potentially less fresh than unsalted when you pick it up from the store, but you should check the “use by” dates on the package either way.
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Should You Use Salted or Unsalted Butter for Baking?
If a recipe calls for something specific—whether it’s cake flour or a specific brand of chocolate—it’s because it was developed using that ingredient, and the final dish could deviate from the intended results if you make a substitution. In the case of butter, most baking recipes call for unsalted and include a separate measurement of added salt—that’s because the amount of salt can vary between butter brands. Using unsalted butter and adding your own salt allows for more control over the flavor of what you’re making. Swapping in salted butter willy-nilly could throw off the balance, making your baked goods taste too, well, salty.
Of course, if a recipe indicates salted butter in the ingredients (like these jammy shortbread bars), you should use salted! (And if you don’t have any on hand, you can use unsalted butter, but you’ll want to add at least ¼ teaspoon of salt to compensate.)
What Happens if You Use Salted Butter for Baking Instead of Unsalted?
Mistakes happen, and guess what? It’s possible you haven’t completely devastated your seven-layer bars. If you accidentally use salted butter, just reduce the amount of salt called for in the recipe: Per cookbook author Joy Wilson (aka Joy the Baker), “if all you have [is] salted butter, try cutting the instructed salt amount in half.”
This only works if you haven’t already added additional salt to that batter. If that’s the case, all you can do is hope for success. Best case scenario, you’ve created a sweet-and-salty new recipe; worst, well, you’ll never make the mistake again!
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What Is Salted Butter Best for?
So if unsalted butter is best for baking, what’s the point of keeping salted butter around? We’re partial to slathering it on toast and glazing roasted vegetables with it, plus who could deny the deliciousness of a bowl of buttered noodles? In general, salted butter is perfectly fine for recipes where you can taste as you go to adjust the seasoning, or for serving alongside warm bread and muffins. (Psst: It’s even better if you make sure it’s softened first.)
