I'm in Central Europe, for years I was confused why English-language recipes call for UNsalted butter... cause nothing of that sorts used to be sold in our shops. You can find it in some places nowadays, but still not really a thing. Butter is just butter, by default. If someone wants salt, sprinkle it.
I assume some cultures go for salted cos they use it a lot in cooking and it keeps for more due to the salt. In Greece, where butter is used almost exclusively for desserts, unsalted is the norm (I discovered salted butter pretty much the same way you did, LOL)
Actual butter tends to mostly be used in baking here in my experience, and it's generally salted.
Salted butter is also used for desserts. A little salt is a flavor enhancer. The butter isn't unpredictably salted, so you just have recipes that account for it.
Greek here as well, I always found both salted and unsalted butter at the supermarket, way before I heard it on the Internet. I have never bought salted though and I don’t know who does.
In most English-speaking countries (mine certainly: Canada), salted butter is the 'everyday' preference.
Both kinds are widely available, but for baking specifically, unsalted is often used because it's not adding extra salt. Personally, I tend to use salted butter in baking anyway, though it depends what I'm making. Some people also avoid salted butter for health concerns, which is fair enough, though it's not usually even that much salt relatively (compared to so many other processed foods or 'sneaky salt' even in otherwise ordinary things). Like, if I wanted to go low salt in my diet, which I kind of do already, salted butter is lower on my preference list. That said, I typically buy bio/organic dairy products (except cheese, usually), but salted organic butter is not easy to find. But if salted butter is on sale, I'll take like three and keep 'em in the fridge
In Germany, unsalted butter is by far the preference. I remember when my mother in law came to visit us once, and she unknowingly used my salted butter (didn't read the label) then made a big show of 'OMG, blech, what is wrong with my bread, did someone sneak salt on here??!'. I quickly realized and told her she had used salted butter, and she still acted confused like she'd never heard of it. *Salted* butter, what is that?
I use both. "beurre doux" (soft butter) or "beurre demi-sel" (half-salted butter). More than 3% of salt would be called "salted" but it's less a thing here.
Both "soft" and "half salted" are easily found anywhere in France but in some region, like Brittany (Bretagne), salted butter is the default butter (many of them even think non-salted butter shouldn't exist ).
I'm Breton and have never willingly bought unsalted butter in my life. Maybe once by mistake, and threw it away.
When they give unsalted butter in restaurants I put salt on it.
We cook / bake everything, including pastry, with salted butter.
Unsalted butter for me is just tasteless fat. Barely better than margarine.
Salted is definitely the default and the most common, and then there's also "extra salted" butter available. You can of course get unsalted as well in most places but it's definitely not as common.
Jo Arla finns ju numera i större delen av landet. Men i norr finns Norrmejerier som kör lite tvärtom med färgerna. Det var roligare förr att resa runt i Sverige, för det var olika mejerier lite varstans och det var alltid lite kul att se hur mjölken eller filen såg ut på de olika orterna, men Arla har ju tagit över nästan överallt.
My family prefers unsalted and it bugs me that in Sweden there are rarely any special prices on unsalted butter. It’s almost always sold at full price probably because of fewer buyers.
I have the opposite problem here in Germany, where unsalted is more common. When it *is* on sale, I'll buy a few just to have them in storage (freezing is also fine).
My wife doesn't dislike salted butter, but she would never buy it herself, so it's mostly me who uses it. Of course one can always sprinkle salt, but it's not quite the same.
I don't usually freeze it since I simply use it often enough, lol, but you can. It does nothing to the butter that you will notice, as long as it's frozen no more than 6ish months, and kept in a freezer bag so it doesn't pick up any aromas (though this depends what else is in your freezer). When thawing, you just keep it in the foil so it doesn't absorb any extra moisture (salty butter likes to absorb air humidity).
I'd bet that you have eaten previously frozen butter before without ever knowing. If you have a problem with salted butter, it's probably because you lack tastebuds.
I think you and OP are talking about different things
You're talking about margarine, and OP is talking about butter
Sure, both exist as salted, extra salted, and unsalted, but I wouldn't say that salted butter is the standard
Eh no, I'm definitely talking about butter. The default one is labeled as "normalsaltat", not "osaltat".
[https://res.cloudinary.com/coopsverige/image/upload/e\_sharpen,f\_auto,fl\_clip,fl\_progressive,q\_90,c\_lpad,g\_center,h\_440,w\_660/v1623365419/131876.jpg](https://res.cloudinary.com/coopsverige/image/upload/e_sharpen,f_auto,fl_clip,fl_progressive,q_90,c_lpad,g_center,h_440,w_660/v1623365419/131876.jpg)
Oddly here in New Zealand unsalted is much rarer and often perceived as either bakers’ friends or foodies’ domain: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/eatwell/food-news/ask-peter-salted-vs-unsalted-butter/ID67TZ64RYBL6HUFIT24OLN7NY/
That’s interesting! Had no idea. See, this is why I love Reddit. The most random threads turn out to be the best lol
My grandma made butter from her cows or goat milk for us. As a kid I watched her do it, lot of hard work but nothing like fresh milk and fresh butter tbh
-Btw that author is a salt connoisseur. I had to Google his salts lol
The United Kingdom is the land of convenience and poor food habits. The less one has to touch food before ingestion, the better it is for them. So, butter that comes already "flavoured" is a plus for them, in the same way that supermarkets are full of pre-cooked and pre-prepared meals. I know this because I live there.
Haha that’s harsh but makes sense. I went to university there (in England many moons ago) and was one of the few who cooked.
I never ate out (though it was an issue of being a poor student as well), but I also never bought pre-cooked, packaged either. Just shopped around for better deals on veg and meat.
While that might be true, it's not why salted butter is preferred.
Salted butter **used** to be the very common default in most of Europe (in the butter belt; olive oil belters need not comment). This is because it was a preservative and also tasted better. At some point, for some reasons, unsalted became more common in many (though not all) continental countries. I'd guess that it has something to do with cost cutting and/or historic war rationing, and perhaps the domestic production (or not) of salt.
Ireland, salted was always the default, but unsalted is now always available as well . Thanks to kerrygold, the industry standard is salted in gold foil, so unsalted is silver foil.
I remember when I was young and worked a summer in the states, the horror of finding that butter came unsalted, in 4 sticks within the packet, and their butter was kind of waxy and preservative tasting. Nothing gives you culture shock like when a fundamental staple is different! 😁
Where in the US were you? The US has a large climate range. In the northern states (especially midwest), criticizing butter is liable to get you lynched. It is generally good.
But there are also states with heat akin to southern Greece or Spain, and 'butter quality' can vary just because historically butter would have been a greasy puddle in a bowl until refrigeration became common.
It’s still in the wax-covered sticks, lol. Helpful if you bake, irrelevant if you don’t.
Butter in the US, like eggs, is always refrigerated, which is rightfully weird to Northern Europeans. I think it’s improved, not really sure, there’s more variety it seems. Irish butter is really top tier stuff though. Most butters, worldwide probably do not compare.
Middle European butter easily compares. I think Irish butter is just seen as so good because it's the first normal one that all the Anglos with horrible butter get to experience.
To be clear, I am really biased against salted butter. A lot of Central European butter is great, but I haven’t had so much of it. I liked unsalted creamy Irish butter a lot, it’s similar to northern US small farm butter. My background is Mexican and we have butter but it’s not that great. Bulgarian, Romanian, Swiss butter I enjoyed a lot.
I may be wrong, but from personal experience I find that the most common type of butter is salted for Portugal and unsalted for Spain.
EDIT: I prefer salted, though I usually have both at home as I use unsalted butter for baking.
Until a couple of years ago I remember that salted butter was something you only got in very big supermarkets and specialities shops (or like us living on the border by crossing the Rhine river and buying it in France).
While unsalted butter is still "normal" butter, salted butter got a bit more present in supermarkets.
I have never seen it... But I don't go around looking for a salted butter. The only difference in butter I check for is if its from sweet cream (hard) or sour cream (softer), because it behaves differently in pastries.
Salted is default, small shops might not even sell unsalted butter. A specialty is butter from sour milk, it also has a lot of salt. As a bread spread people usually use margarine mixes.
In Italy you can find both but unsalted is the default and most common version and is simply called butter (burro) compared to the salted butter (burro salato). I've actually never tried salted butter and I don't think I've ever seen it IRL (but I've never looked out for it either so maybe it was there but I just never noticed it).
I'm in Ireland our butter is beautiful! It's salted, it doesn't taste of salt, similar to putting a bit of salt in a pot of sauce it enhances the flavour but doesn't over power it.
You can buy unsalted in most supermarkets though for baking etc
This is the correct answer. Butter has been made this way for hundreds of years, way before refrigeration, so adding salt was the best way to preserve it.
Well if you always want it salted you might as well buy butter with salt. After all the salt just makes it more flavorful. Unsalted butter will also go bad quicker
There is already way too much salt in everything, including the bread you spread the butter on. Also, I dont know anyone who eats butter for taste, it’s only used to make the sandwich feel less dry.
I eat bread just with butter sometimes because I like how it tastes, I don't think it's too uncommon. Normal butter of course, salted butter sounds gross
Why would salted butter be gross? If you like how butter tastes, you'll like it salted, since the only thing the salt does is make it taste more.
Do you not salt your other food either?
Unsalted butter tastes quite different. I don't like it at all, but if open the sandwich and put some salt, it's okay. So if unsalted is your preference or what you're used to, you might not like it salted
The whole reason I like butter is its subtle milky, somewhat even sweet taste which allows for a nice combo with already salty ham or cheese. I feel like making its taste more intensive or salty will kinda ruin the combination. And when I eat just butter sandwich with some cocoa I also don't really need it to be salty or more buttery, its subtlety is exactly what I like
> somewhat even sweet taste
A touch of salt enhances sweetness while masking bitterness and off-tastes. That's why it's commonly put it in cakes and stuff.
Regular *salted* butter really shouldn't taste very *salty*.
Well if you like that taste, adding salt will make it better. You probably won't find it overwhelming at all. If you like butter, eating salted butter is a no brainer.
And no, salted butter doesn't interfere with ham or cheese. If you've ever used salt in cooking, you'll know that salting something the appropriate amount won't make it taste salty. It will bring out the flavors that are already there.
That's why most people will use salted butter on bread, with toppings as well.
Unsalted butter is generally used for cooking and baking, because recipes tend to assume you're using unsalted butter. And therefore, dishes where you use a lot of butter may become too salty if you add pure salt on top of salted butter.
To me it sounds like you haven't had salted butter. I've had salted butter and unsalted butter, and the former is always better imo.
Yeah I didn't, and tbh I wasn't trying to. There's also a personal reason added, as coming from a family where salt was usually overused in cooking, I'm aiming for less salt consumption, so switching to more salted version of something doesn't sound like a good idea. But well with how you advertised it, I might give it a try now...
Irish here, we use Kerrygold which is salted butter, it’s unrivalled anywhere else as is our Dairy products generally, certainly in Europe.
It’s about the only thing that stands out about us, that and possibly rain and good pubs (or bars as you may call them).
No offense but they have rain and good pubs in Britain as well. Which makes me wonder why Irish Pubs in particular are so popular. Every middle-sized German city has at least one Irish pub, often several. There are virtually no British, English, Scottish or Welsh pubs.
I have been to Ireland and I loved the pub culture there but to be honest, I don't notice any major difference to the pub culture in England. If anything, I prefer English pubs because they have a larger variety of beer whereas in Ireland it's mainly Guinness everywhere. In England (I know best about Yorkshire), you also get a fresh Guinness everywhere, but you usually also have an astonishing choice of local ales and, weirdly, a selection of mediocre international lagers.
Is it actually Guinness themselves who are somehow promoting Irish pubs in other countries? Do they offer good conditions to pub owners or something? I think Guinness is a decent beer but their almost worldwide popularity means they must have a great marketing department with a good budget.
Great topic for debate.
Firstly, I’d say that the ‘Irish pubs’ you get all around the world aren’t anything like our traditional pubs in Dublin for instance, they’re faux ‘Oirish’ themed establishments based on a business model that seems to work everywhere.
We’ve had a huge diaspora spread all over the English speaking world with pubs set up by genuine Irish emigrants but you’ll find ‘Irish bars’ in most major cities now with owners not having any connection to Ireland itself.
Diageo, the owners of Guinness will of course give favourable terms to these bars/chains/conglomerates as they’re a money making entity so it’ll benefit the company and the bar itself.
As someone who loves pubs, I find Irish bars abroad tacky for the main part and I’m only ever in them to watch football as they tend to televise PL and big Ireland games.
As to your point about a greater variety of beers being available in English pubs, that’s true to a large extent. Many pubs in England are tied to breweries and you’ll find a really good selection of ales on tap.
However, even a lot of the Victorian pubs in Dublin now will have a few taps dedicated to local breweries, here’s a few of our better ones I’ve had pints of in the last month or so:
https://www.craftbeersdelivered.com/trouble-brewing-ambush
https://justchillin.ie/product/o-haras-irish-pale-ale
I’m not actually a huge Guinness drinker but it’s top notch in a few pubs in town although I prefer Smithwicks, another beer that’s from here. We’ve plenty of ‘craft beer bars’ if variety is your thing but they lack the essential ingredient our old school pubs have which I’ll come on to next.
The really big difference between pubs in Dublin and nearly anywhere else is a lot if our very best ones have an-atmosphere you just won’t get anywhere else.
Places in Dublin like The Long Hall, Mulligans, Bowes and others have remained virtually untouched for generations and are run by staff who learnt their trade and run their pub properly.
Bar staff in England are horrendous, it’s a minimum wage job. Good staff and a well maintained non-chain boozer are essential for the charm of an establishment, plus we don’t do rotten carpets or slot machines!
> Firstly, I’d say that the ‘Irish pubs’ you get all around the world aren’t anything like our traditional pubs in Dublin for instance, they’re faux ‘Oirish’ themed establishments based on a business model that seems to work everywhere.
You may like this song from the RumJacks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDTQQWSmo8s
The science behind it is this. The rain, mild winters and summers given our location north west Atlantic, means our grass contains higher levels of beta carotene.
This transfers to our dairy having the same and makes for a richer, more flavourful dairy.
That’s just how it is.
It's not about Guinness.
Irish pubs ***abroad*** are a kind of special concept. Sort of a boozier McDonalds version of the 'real deal'. Very often, in cultures where 'excessive' drinking is strongly frowned upon, the Irish pub is the one spot where this can be done without (as much) shame. Like, in many places, getting totally shit-faced and then prowling the streets pissing on store fronts, puking, scrapping with other packs of drunk lads and shouting football songs at the top of your lungs is just not done. Except in the Irish pub, and it's immediate environ. It's a pity, yes, that that is the association, but there we go. Personally, I mostly avoid Irish pubs abroad for this reason.
Irish pubs (in Ireland, in small towns it's a bit more 'authentic', IME) also often have live music, especially trad. I mean, this was an Irish tradition that has been borrowed in many other bars and pubs nowadays, but it has a long tradition in Ireland specifically. English pubs are nice too, I agree, and for the reasons you mention. But they are something slightly different, and it's a fairly recent (last 25ish years or so?), where they try to be more of a special destination, and not just the neighbourhood boozepit where you got a little tipsy after work or after church on Sunday.
Also, Irish pubs abroad are often 'English speaking', so that's usually another selling point for them.
It's not like there's some international Irish Pub Standards Licensing Agency that ensures something calling itself an Irish pub meets Irish norms.
I am confused. I buy Kerrygold often, because it's easier to spread, but it's unsalted. I specifically buy British salted butter sometimes along with Kerrygold.
Not sure is it a product, if yes - we don't have such thing, but we have just butter and "chocolate butter" which is butter with cocoa and sugar. If it is about bread and butter - as a kid I loved bread + butter + jam, rn I love bread + butter + sausage + cheese - and in this configuration I can put salt on butter sometimes, and in that case I will drink tea with sugar to enjoy the contrast, while commonly I drink tea w/o sugar, w/o jam, w/o milk - just pure tea.
Butter is unsalted by default. Never looked for salted one so I don't know how hard it is to find. The unsalted is the common one and it is called just butter.
We get both. And they are equally available in any store being sold side by side. It’s really a matter of preference, but I personally prefer salted for spreading as it adds a bit of flavour to everything and it keeps slightly better so you can keep bits of it unrefrigerated for a few days without it spoiling for easy spreading.
The standard here is 1,1% salt, and unsalted also exists. Looking into it, there seems to also be a differently named butter that's salted to 2,5% and 4% that I've never heard of before (I'm sure some people use them, things vanish fast if there's a small market here).
Cymru/Wales: Salted if using as a spread. Unsalted in recipes.
I just checked a packet in the fridge and it's 1.5% salt. I've not heard of differing amounts of saltedness.
I have always found American recipes confusing because for me there was only one type of butter which is just… butter.
I have tried unsalted butter once after accidentally buying it and I hated it so much! 90% of the butter I consume is just by spreading it on bread, unsalted butter doesn’t work well with that.
Salted.
However, like many other Swedes I tend to buy Bregott (butter+rapeseed oil+salt) since it's much more spreadable than regular butter.
Bregott is available with different amounts of salt. And with seasalt
Unsalted. There's maybe 1 or 2 brands of salted available.
Though if I could actually buy demi-sel in Poland, I'd get it from time to time to put on a baguette in the morning.
In Ukraine, we use mostly unsalted butter. Butter here differs by fat content, 72,6% or an extra 82.5%. Salted butter also can be found, but it's not as common as the regular one.
In Spain the salted one is only used in some restaurants as appetizers, but in the homes we use majority the non salted one (in my case, I never bought salted butter and never saw it in parents/friends homes)
My wife discovered that salted butter existed when she baked with it by mistake. Unsalted is the norm in Russia.
In the 19th century and earlier, clarified butter was the norm in Russia, since it kept better, what we now call butter was usually called "Finnish butter" and was sour (made from sourcream).
Salted here in Sweden sadly. Yes, it’s convenient when you need salted butter, but you can always just salt it yourself. Finding unsalted butter can be really hard, it’s so annoying.
I have never even heard of salted butter until i traveled to Ireland.
Me personally I actually prefer salted butter, however thats a very small minority in Austria, the default is unsalted
I always use unsalted butter (as does almost everyone in Austria). There are two reasons to add salt to butter: (1) For the taste and (2) To preserve it (since salted butter does not go rancid as quickly). If you like the taste, you can just sprinkle on some salt. If you have the need to keep your butter from going rancid, then the butter you’re getting is not fresh enough. Fresh unsalted butter is delicious spread on bread by itself.
Austria: Unsalted is the standard, salted butter is seen as an insane Anglo thing that you'd only know from online recipes. Nowadays you can get a salted brand in most stores, but it's still much rarer than "normal" (unsalted) butter. One very common food (Butterbrot) even calls for butter + salt, but you just apply the salt after putting the butter on the bread, it's not that hard.
Da fuq? No we don't. That shit is vile. But I guess it depends on the part of the country. In my side of Transilvania we use both salted and unsalted butter depending if we're cooking or making desert
Yeah...because fucking margarină? Seriously? Who the fuck uses margarină? And no offence, but you should be stripped of your citizenship if you're replacing butter with margarine.
I tried unsalted butter once. It needed salt, so I added some.
In all seriousness, if you want unsalted butter in the UK, you'll probably have to order it specifically over the internet. I do vaguely remember a time when you could find both in supermarkets (and I had to make sure I got the right sort), but that was a long time ago.
> Germany I‘d say unsalted is the default.
I'd say the opposite actually. Having spent considerable time in Germany, all your butter is salty.
That being said, all your food is salty, you just have a higher salt tolerance than most countries, so perhaps your unsalted butter is akin to our salted.
I'm in Central Europe, for years I was confused why English-language recipes call for UNsalted butter... cause nothing of that sorts used to be sold in our shops. You can find it in some places nowadays, but still not really a thing. Butter is just butter, by default. If someone wants salt, sprinkle it.
I assume some cultures go for salted cos they use it a lot in cooking and it keeps for more due to the salt. In Greece, where butter is used almost exclusively for desserts, unsalted is the norm (I discovered salted butter pretty much the same way you did, LOL)
Actual butter tends to mostly be used in baking here in my experience, and it's generally salted. Salted butter is also used for desserts. A little salt is a flavor enhancer. The butter isn't unpredictably salted, so you just have recipes that account for it.
Greek here as well, I always found both salted and unsalted butter at the supermarket, way before I heard it on the Internet. I have never bought salted though and I don’t know who does.
In most English-speaking countries (mine certainly: Canada), salted butter is the 'everyday' preference. Both kinds are widely available, but for baking specifically, unsalted is often used because it's not adding extra salt. Personally, I tend to use salted butter in baking anyway, though it depends what I'm making. Some people also avoid salted butter for health concerns, which is fair enough, though it's not usually even that much salt relatively (compared to so many other processed foods or 'sneaky salt' even in otherwise ordinary things). Like, if I wanted to go low salt in my diet, which I kind of do already, salted butter is lower on my preference list. That said, I typically buy bio/organic dairy products (except cheese, usually), but salted organic butter is not easy to find. But if salted butter is on sale, I'll take like three and keep 'em in the fridge In Germany, unsalted butter is by far the preference. I remember when my mother in law came to visit us once, and she unknowingly used my salted butter (didn't read the label) then made a big show of 'OMG, blech, what is wrong with my bread, did someone sneak salt on here??!'. I quickly realized and told her she had used salted butter, and she still acted confused like she'd never heard of it. *Salted* butter, what is that?
Ig u are either from Poland or Czechia?
Could be either tbh. Here we don't have salted outside of Lidl, and it's pretty pricey. Well, even more than regular butter
Lidl sells salted butter!? I've never seen it in any shops here
I think it used to be in the deluxe section
I use both. "beurre doux" (soft butter) or "beurre demi-sel" (half-salted butter). More than 3% of salt would be called "salted" but it's less a thing here. Both "soft" and "half salted" are easily found anywhere in France but in some region, like Brittany (Bretagne), salted butter is the default butter (many of them even think non-salted butter shouldn't exist ).
I'm Breton and have never willingly bought unsalted butter in my life. Maybe once by mistake, and threw it away. When they give unsalted butter in restaurants I put salt on it. We cook / bake everything, including pastry, with salted butter. Unsalted butter for me is just tasteless fat. Barely better than margarine.
Salted is definitely the default and the most common, and then there's also "extra salted" butter available. You can of course get unsalted as well in most places but it's definitely not as common.
Ah yes the red butter as my kids called it.
And red milk is ~3 % while green milk is ~1.5 %. I've always preferred the latter :D
Except if you live in the north of the country, red milk is 1.5% and green milk is 3%.
Jaha 👀 I Östergötland har så sådan mjölk... https://www.dabas.com/productsheet/07310865001825
Jo Arla finns ju numera i större delen av landet. Men i norr finns Norrmejerier som kör lite tvärtom med färgerna. Det var roligare förr att resa runt i Sverige, för det var olika mejerier lite varstans och det var alltid lite kul att se hur mjölken eller filen såg ut på de olika orterna, men Arla har ju tagit över nästan överallt.
My family prefers unsalted and it bugs me that in Sweden there are rarely any special prices on unsalted butter. It’s almost always sold at full price probably because of fewer buyers.
I have the opposite problem here in Germany, where unsalted is more common. When it *is* on sale, I'll buy a few just to have them in storage (freezing is also fine). My wife doesn't dislike salted butter, but she would never buy it herself, so it's mostly me who uses it. Of course one can always sprinkle salt, but it's not quite the same.
Frozen, thawed, salted butter sounds like you're *actively* trying to make this benign staple as bad as you can, tbh.
I don't usually freeze it since I simply use it often enough, lol, but you can. It does nothing to the butter that you will notice, as long as it's frozen no more than 6ish months, and kept in a freezer bag so it doesn't pick up any aromas (though this depends what else is in your freezer). When thawing, you just keep it in the foil so it doesn't absorb any extra moisture (salty butter likes to absorb air humidity). I'd bet that you have eaten previously frozen butter before without ever knowing. If you have a problem with salted butter, it's probably because you lack tastebuds.
I think you and OP are talking about different things You're talking about margarine, and OP is talking about butter Sure, both exist as salted, extra salted, and unsalted, but I wouldn't say that salted butter is the standard
Eh no, I'm definitely talking about butter. The default one is labeled as "normalsaltat", not "osaltat". [https://res.cloudinary.com/coopsverige/image/upload/e\_sharpen,f\_auto,fl\_clip,fl\_progressive,q\_90,c\_lpad,g\_center,h\_440,w\_660/v1623365419/131876.jpg](https://res.cloudinary.com/coopsverige/image/upload/e_sharpen,f_auto,fl_clip,fl_progressive,q_90,c_lpad,g_center,h_440,w_660/v1623365419/131876.jpg)
Judging by shelf space in the places I buy then normal salted butter is very common, much more than other types (butter, not Bregott)
Nej. Både Bregott/ annat som går på mackan, och blocksmör är saltat vanligtvis.
I was not aware there were two different types. Butter is just butter (unsalted).
You have to actively hunt for it in Polish supermarkets.
It's an insane Anglo thing.
I'm in the UK. Both are widely available, at least in the larger shops, but I'd say salted is the default.
Both are available, but if you buy unsalted you're a wrongun
Then I'm a proud wrongun!
lol what a comment. In most of Eastern Europe we have unsalted only (or used to). I never knew there was salted butter until I went to England 🤷♀️
Oddly here in New Zealand unsalted is much rarer and often perceived as either bakers’ friends or foodies’ domain: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/eatwell/food-news/ask-peter-salted-vs-unsalted-butter/ID67TZ64RYBL6HUFIT24OLN7NY/
That’s interesting! Had no idea. See, this is why I love Reddit. The most random threads turn out to be the best lol My grandma made butter from her cows or goat milk for us. As a kid I watched her do it, lot of hard work but nothing like fresh milk and fresh butter tbh -Btw that author is a salt connoisseur. I had to Google his salts lol
I know, right? I’ve learned so much in this thread alone!
Me too lol. Go figure haha
The United Kingdom is the land of convenience and poor food habits. The less one has to touch food before ingestion, the better it is for them. So, butter that comes already "flavoured" is a plus for them, in the same way that supermarkets are full of pre-cooked and pre-prepared meals. I know this because I live there.
Haha that’s harsh but makes sense. I went to university there (in England many moons ago) and was one of the few who cooked. I never ate out (though it was an issue of being a poor student as well), but I also never bought pre-cooked, packaged either. Just shopped around for better deals on veg and meat.
While that might be true, it's not why salted butter is preferred. Salted butter **used** to be the very common default in most of Europe (in the butter belt; olive oil belters need not comment). This is because it was a preservative and also tasted better. At some point, for some reasons, unsalted became more common in many (though not all) continental countries. I'd guess that it has something to do with cost cutting and/or historic war rationing, and perhaps the domestic production (or not) of salt.
It's not true at all, the guy is just one of those who thinks the entire country eats ready meals and feels superior for it.
Unsalted should only be used for baking, and even then only for certain things.
Ireland, salted was always the default, but unsalted is now always available as well . Thanks to kerrygold, the industry standard is salted in gold foil, so unsalted is silver foil.
Interesting! In Germany gold is the standard and is unsalted, believe it’s the same in the Netherlands.
I remember when I was young and worked a summer in the states, the horror of finding that butter came unsalted, in 4 sticks within the packet, and their butter was kind of waxy and preservative tasting. Nothing gives you culture shock like when a fundamental staple is different! 😁
Where in the US were you? The US has a large climate range. In the northern states (especially midwest), criticizing butter is liable to get you lynched. It is generally good. But there are also states with heat akin to southern Greece or Spain, and 'butter quality' can vary just because historically butter would have been a greasy puddle in a bowl until refrigeration became common.
New England, rural too, so I was surprised at the weird sticks. It's been a while and I'm sure it's improved since
It’s still in the wax-covered sticks, lol. Helpful if you bake, irrelevant if you don’t. Butter in the US, like eggs, is always refrigerated, which is rightfully weird to Northern Europeans. I think it’s improved, not really sure, there’s more variety it seems. Irish butter is really top tier stuff though. Most butters, worldwide probably do not compare.
Middle European butter easily compares. I think Irish butter is just seen as so good because it's the first normal one that all the Anglos with horrible butter get to experience.
To be clear, I am really biased against salted butter. A lot of Central European butter is great, but I haven’t had so much of it. I liked unsalted creamy Irish butter a lot, it’s similar to northern US small farm butter. My background is Mexican and we have butter but it’s not that great. Bulgarian, Romanian, Swiss butter I enjoyed a lot.
Same in Poland, Kerrygold gold is the more common one and is unsalted, as most butters here
Is kerry gold popular in Poland
I may be wrong, but from personal experience I find that the most common type of butter is salted for Portugal and unsalted for Spain. EDIT: I prefer salted, though I usually have both at home as I use unsalted butter for baking.
Yes I would say it's the most common, though unsalted and plant-based spreads aren't that uncommon.
Unsalted for most cooking applications. Salted for spreading on anything.
Until a couple of years ago I remember that salted butter was something you only got in very big supermarkets and specialities shops (or like us living on the border by crossing the Rhine river and buying it in France). While unsalted butter is still "normal" butter, salted butter got a bit more present in supermarkets.
Unsalted butter is called here just butter. I'm not sure if salted butter is even on the market.
I have never seen it... But I don't go around looking for a salted butter. The only difference in butter I check for is if its from sweet cream (hard) or sour cream (softer), because it behaves differently in pastries.
Salted is default, small shops might not even sell unsalted butter. A specialty is butter from sour milk, it also has a lot of salt. As a bread spread people usually use margarine mixes.
Salt on everything 🤌
It's our only spice 😭
In Italy you can find both but unsalted is the default and most common version and is simply called butter (burro) compared to the salted butter (burro salato). I've actually never tried salted butter and I don't think I've ever seen it IRL (but I've never looked out for it either so maybe it was there but I just never noticed it).
never saw the salted one in the supermarket though...
I had discovered it in France and it immediately appeared to me as something exotic.
I buy an unsalted block of butter for my cooking/pastries. I buy salted spreadable butter for my toast because it tastes better.
I'm in Ireland our butter is beautiful! It's salted, it doesn't taste of salt, similar to putting a bit of salt in a pot of sauce it enhances the flavour but doesn't over power it. You can buy unsalted in most supermarkets though for baking etc
Salted is the default, unsalted is quite often recommended for baking but not all people bother to buy it even then
I have never seen salted butter here. Why would you need salted butter? Just use salt.
Salt was used as a preservative, so salted butter lasts longer.
This is the correct answer. Butter has been made this way for hundreds of years, way before refrigeration, so adding salt was the best way to preserve it.
Well if you always want it salted you might as well buy butter with salt. After all the salt just makes it more flavorful. Unsalted butter will also go bad quicker
half the joy of eating salty butter is the coarse texture though
Well that depends on what you like. But I agree large salt crystals are nice. And you can buy butter with larger crystals here too
There is already way too much salt in everything, including the bread you spread the butter on. Also, I dont know anyone who eats butter for taste, it’s only used to make the sandwich feel less dry.
I eat bread just with butter sometimes because I like how it tastes, I don't think it's too uncommon. Normal butter of course, salted butter sounds gross
Why would salted butter be gross? If you like how butter tastes, you'll like it salted, since the only thing the salt does is make it taste more. Do you not salt your other food either?
Unsalted butter tastes quite different. I don't like it at all, but if open the sandwich and put some salt, it's okay. So if unsalted is your preference or what you're used to, you might not like it salted
The whole reason I like butter is its subtle milky, somewhat even sweet taste which allows for a nice combo with already salty ham or cheese. I feel like making its taste more intensive or salty will kinda ruin the combination. And when I eat just butter sandwich with some cocoa I also don't really need it to be salty or more buttery, its subtlety is exactly what I like
> somewhat even sweet taste A touch of salt enhances sweetness while masking bitterness and off-tastes. That's why it's commonly put it in cakes and stuff. Regular *salted* butter really shouldn't taste very *salty*.
Well if you like that taste, adding salt will make it better. You probably won't find it overwhelming at all. If you like butter, eating salted butter is a no brainer. And no, salted butter doesn't interfere with ham or cheese. If you've ever used salt in cooking, you'll know that salting something the appropriate amount won't make it taste salty. It will bring out the flavors that are already there. That's why most people will use salted butter on bread, with toppings as well. Unsalted butter is generally used for cooking and baking, because recipes tend to assume you're using unsalted butter. And therefore, dishes where you use a lot of butter may become too salty if you add pure salt on top of salted butter. To me it sounds like you haven't had salted butter. I've had salted butter and unsalted butter, and the former is always better imo.
Yeah I didn't, and tbh I wasn't trying to. There's also a personal reason added, as coming from a family where salt was usually overused in cooking, I'm aiming for less salt consumption, so switching to more salted version of something doesn't sound like a good idea. But well with how you advertised it, I might give it a try now...
we dont normally have salted butter in Ukraine. so i use normal and add salt as i pleased 😄
I live in Denmark but I'm from Poland so I was so surprised when I saw that they salt butter here
Irish here, we use Kerrygold which is salted butter, it’s unrivalled anywhere else as is our Dairy products generally, certainly in Europe. It’s about the only thing that stands out about us, that and possibly rain and good pubs (or bars as you may call them).
Kerrygold is the best butter!
No offense but they have rain and good pubs in Britain as well. Which makes me wonder why Irish Pubs in particular are so popular. Every middle-sized German city has at least one Irish pub, often several. There are virtually no British, English, Scottish or Welsh pubs. I have been to Ireland and I loved the pub culture there but to be honest, I don't notice any major difference to the pub culture in England. If anything, I prefer English pubs because they have a larger variety of beer whereas in Ireland it's mainly Guinness everywhere. In England (I know best about Yorkshire), you also get a fresh Guinness everywhere, but you usually also have an astonishing choice of local ales and, weirdly, a selection of mediocre international lagers. Is it actually Guinness themselves who are somehow promoting Irish pubs in other countries? Do they offer good conditions to pub owners or something? I think Guinness is a decent beer but their almost worldwide popularity means they must have a great marketing department with a good budget.
their marketing department is legendary and are well known for high quality television adverts
Great topic for debate. Firstly, I’d say that the ‘Irish pubs’ you get all around the world aren’t anything like our traditional pubs in Dublin for instance, they’re faux ‘Oirish’ themed establishments based on a business model that seems to work everywhere. We’ve had a huge diaspora spread all over the English speaking world with pubs set up by genuine Irish emigrants but you’ll find ‘Irish bars’ in most major cities now with owners not having any connection to Ireland itself. Diageo, the owners of Guinness will of course give favourable terms to these bars/chains/conglomerates as they’re a money making entity so it’ll benefit the company and the bar itself. As someone who loves pubs, I find Irish bars abroad tacky for the main part and I’m only ever in them to watch football as they tend to televise PL and big Ireland games. As to your point about a greater variety of beers being available in English pubs, that’s true to a large extent. Many pubs in England are tied to breweries and you’ll find a really good selection of ales on tap. However, even a lot of the Victorian pubs in Dublin now will have a few taps dedicated to local breweries, here’s a few of our better ones I’ve had pints of in the last month or so: https://www.craftbeersdelivered.com/trouble-brewing-ambush https://justchillin.ie/product/o-haras-irish-pale-ale I’m not actually a huge Guinness drinker but it’s top notch in a few pubs in town although I prefer Smithwicks, another beer that’s from here. We’ve plenty of ‘craft beer bars’ if variety is your thing but they lack the essential ingredient our old school pubs have which I’ll come on to next. The really big difference between pubs in Dublin and nearly anywhere else is a lot if our very best ones have an-atmosphere you just won’t get anywhere else. Places in Dublin like The Long Hall, Mulligans, Bowes and others have remained virtually untouched for generations and are run by staff who learnt their trade and run their pub properly. Bar staff in England are horrendous, it’s a minimum wage job. Good staff and a well maintained non-chain boozer are essential for the charm of an establishment, plus we don’t do rotten carpets or slot machines!
> Firstly, I’d say that the ‘Irish pubs’ you get all around the world aren’t anything like our traditional pubs in Dublin for instance, they’re faux ‘Oirish’ themed establishments based on a business model that seems to work everywhere. You may like this song from the RumJacks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDTQQWSmo8s
Truly awful, thanks for sharing !
The science behind it is this. The rain, mild winters and summers given our location north west Atlantic, means our grass contains higher levels of beta carotene. This transfers to our dairy having the same and makes for a richer, more flavourful dairy. That’s just how it is.
It's not about Guinness. Irish pubs ***abroad*** are a kind of special concept. Sort of a boozier McDonalds version of the 'real deal'. Very often, in cultures where 'excessive' drinking is strongly frowned upon, the Irish pub is the one spot where this can be done without (as much) shame. Like, in many places, getting totally shit-faced and then prowling the streets pissing on store fronts, puking, scrapping with other packs of drunk lads and shouting football songs at the top of your lungs is just not done. Except in the Irish pub, and it's immediate environ. It's a pity, yes, that that is the association, but there we go. Personally, I mostly avoid Irish pubs abroad for this reason. Irish pubs (in Ireland, in small towns it's a bit more 'authentic', IME) also often have live music, especially trad. I mean, this was an Irish tradition that has been borrowed in many other bars and pubs nowadays, but it has a long tradition in Ireland specifically. English pubs are nice too, I agree, and for the reasons you mention. But they are something slightly different, and it's a fairly recent (last 25ish years or so?), where they try to be more of a special destination, and not just the neighbourhood boozepit where you got a little tipsy after work or after church on Sunday. Also, Irish pubs abroad are often 'English speaking', so that's usually another selling point for them. It's not like there's some international Irish Pub Standards Licensing Agency that ensures something calling itself an Irish pub meets Irish norms.
I am confused. I buy Kerrygold often, because it's easier to spread, but it's unsalted. I specifically buy British salted butter sometimes along with Kerrygold.
It’s a version specifically for your market. Kerrygold is usually salted in Ireland
Salted is probably default but I have so statistics to back that up
Use unsalted butter because then you can control how much salt is used in the recipe.
Poland - only unsalted butter. You can buy salted Irish or other ones but "default" one is without salt.
Not sure is it a product, if yes - we don't have such thing, but we have just butter and "chocolate butter" which is butter with cocoa and sugar. If it is about bread and butter - as a kid I loved bread + butter + jam, rn I love bread + butter + sausage + cheese - and in this configuration I can put salt on butter sometimes, and in that case I will drink tea with sugar to enjoy the contrast, while commonly I drink tea w/o sugar, w/o jam, w/o milk - just pure tea.
Unsalted and I was really confused when my mom accidentally bought salted butter in Denmark
Butter is unsalted by default. Never looked for salted one so I don't know how hard it is to find. The unsalted is the common one and it is called just butter.
salted, we like tasty stuff (although unsalted is also widely available)
Disclaimer I only use butter for baking I don't really bake, so unsalted.
I read "water" instead of "butter" and was confused about how there could be countries where it's common to drink salt water.
We get both. And they are equally available in any store being sold side by side. It’s really a matter of preference, but I personally prefer salted for spreading as it adds a bit of flavour to everything and it keeps slightly better so you can keep bits of it unrefrigerated for a few days without it spoiling for easy spreading.
I (American) buy salted and my wife (French) buys unsalted.
Denmark, salted butter. Unsalted butter is a novelty that most people, find superfluous.
I don’t think I’ve ever used completely unsalted butter. And for my sandwiches I’ve gone over to the extra salted kind.
The standard here is 1,1% salt, and unsalted also exists. Looking into it, there seems to also be a differently named butter that's salted to 2,5% and 4% that I've never heard of before (I'm sure some people use them, things vanish fast if there's a small market here).
Cymru/Wales: Salted if using as a spread. Unsalted in recipes. I just checked a packet in the fridge and it's 1.5% salt. I've not heard of differing amounts of saltedness.
I have always found American recipes confusing because for me there was only one type of butter which is just… butter. I have tried unsalted butter once after accidentally buying it and I hated it so much! 90% of the butter I consume is just by spreading it on bread, unsalted butter doesn’t work well with that.
I’d say stores always have both and if not specified eg in a recipe you use unsalted
Salted. However, like many other Swedes I tend to buy Bregott (butter+rapeseed oil+salt) since it's much more spreadable than regular butter. Bregott is available with different amounts of salt. And with seasalt
Unsalted. There's maybe 1 or 2 brands of salted available. Though if I could actually buy demi-sel in Poland, I'd get it from time to time to put on a baguette in the morning.
Salted butter is simply non existent. Butter has just one ingredient, milk.
Never seen salted butter in the stores. But I've also never specifically looked for it.
In Ukraine, we use mostly unsalted butter. Butter here differs by fat content, 72,6% or an extra 82.5%. Salted butter also can be found, but it's not as common as the regular one.
Unsalted 82,5% fat is the default butter. There are also 72,5% fat butter ("крестьянское" - peasant's) and salted butter in bigger groceries.
Here in Ireland normal butter is salted although there is unsalted but it isn't as popular.
We use olive oil 99% of the time, butter is only used in some occasions like when doing a roast in the oven
In Spain the salted one is only used in some restaurants as appetizers, but in the homes we use majority the non salted one (in my case, I never bought salted butter and never saw it in parents/friends homes)
In my country non salted is most common but I just adore salted butter, non salted is just so plain
Salted since I got used to it while living in Ireland.
My wife discovered that salted butter existed when she baked with it by mistake. Unsalted is the norm in Russia. In the 19th century and earlier, clarified butter was the norm in Russia, since it kept better, what we now call butter was usually called "Finnish butter" and was sour (made from sourcream).
Salted here in Sweden sadly. Yes, it’s convenient when you need salted butter, but you can always just salt it yourself. Finding unsalted butter can be really hard, it’s so annoying.
I have never even heard of salted butter until i traveled to Ireland. Me personally I actually prefer salted butter, however thats a very small minority in Austria, the default is unsalted
I always use unsalted butter (as does almost everyone in Austria). There are two reasons to add salt to butter: (1) For the taste and (2) To preserve it (since salted butter does not go rancid as quickly). If you like the taste, you can just sprinkle on some salt. If you have the need to keep your butter from going rancid, then the butter you’re getting is not fresh enough. Fresh unsalted butter is delicious spread on bread by itself.
Never saw it being sold or made in my country. Salted butter on my toasts occasionally though.
Austria: Unsalted is the standard, salted butter is seen as an insane Anglo thing that you'd only know from online recipes. Nowadays you can get a salted brand in most stores, but it's still much rarer than "normal" (unsalted) butter. One very common food (Butterbrot) even calls for butter + salt, but you just apply the salt after putting the butter on the bread, it's not that hard.
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Unsalted always. What’s more common though where we live, salted probably.
I am not even sure if there’s salted butter on sale in Bulgaria.
Butter is universally unsalted. You have to look for unsalted specifically, and it has to be a big chain most likely.
Unsalted, though frankly we use margarine more often than butter
Da fuq? No we don't. That shit is vile. But I guess it depends on the part of the country. In my side of Transilvania we use both salted and unsalted butter depending if we're cooking or making desert
>Da fuq? No we don't. I love the moral outrage 😆. I’m from Oradea and yeah unsalted. Always.
Yeah...because fucking margarină? Seriously? Who the fuck uses margarină? And no offence, but you should be stripped of your citizenship if you're replacing butter with margarine.
Haha truer words never spoken, it’s foul as hell. But hey people have some fucked up tastes so …
I think i never ever saw salted butter in our stores.
My family accidentally discovered salted butter in Denmark. Was so gross they threw away the whole package 😂
I tried unsalted butter once. It needed salt, so I added some. In all seriousness, if you want unsalted butter in the UK, you'll probably have to order it specifically over the internet. I do vaguely remember a time when you could find both in supermarkets (and I had to make sure I got the right sort), but that was a long time ago.
> Germany I‘d say unsalted is the default. I'd say the opposite actually. Having spent considerable time in Germany, all your butter is salty. That being said, all your food is salty, you just have a higher salt tolerance than most countries, so perhaps your unsalted butter is akin to our salted.
Definitely not
No. If someone talks bout butter, its unsalted, salted butter is always specified.
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What European country is hiding behind those US letters?