I've always used salted butter. But my spouse prefers unsalted. It seems to be far more prevalent in Europe.
Salted butter or not?
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I've always used salted butter. But my spouse prefers unsalted. It seems to be far more prevalent in Europe.
I tried using unsalted butter but have a problem with it for baking because it doesn't soften. Say, if I'm making cookies, I can put out unsalted butter to soften for hours, and it's still hard as a rock and doesn't work. If I put out salted butter, it softens nicely. So, I prefer salted butter for that reason.
perc-o-prince
Well-known member
because it doesn't soften.
Very strange! I make many batches of biscotti leading up to the holidays and only use unsalted. I leave them out when I decide today's the day and they're ready to go for me a few hours later!
Chuck
Very strange! I make many batches of biscotti leading up to the holidays and only use unsalted. I leave them out when I decide today's the day and they're ready to go for me a few hours later!
Chuck
Hint for Softening Butter
Place a cube (stick) of butter from the fridge in the MW oven, set the power to 10% and nuke it for 1 min, then check to see if its soft enough. If its still not soft enough nuke for another 15-30 secs at 10% power. If you need more than one stick just increase the time to 1 min 30 secs for two sticks, place them end to end on the turntable. If the butter is straight out of the freezer turn the sticks over 1/2 way thru the time. I’ve been doing this for 35 years since I got my first MW oven and it works like a charm. Just be sure to use only 10% power! Its one of the best time savers around.
Eddie
Place a cube (stick) of butter from the fridge in the MW oven, set the power to 10% and nuke it for 1 min, then check to see if its soft enough. If its still not soft enough nuke for another 15-30 secs at 10% power. If you need more than one stick just increase the time to 1 min 30 secs for two sticks, place them end to end on the turntable. If the butter is straight out of the freezer turn the sticks over 1/2 way thru the time. I’ve been doing this for 35 years since I got my first MW oven and it works like a charm. Just be sure to use only 10% power! Its one of the best time savers around.
Eddie
I had an old Coldspot years ago refrigerator that had a hard-soft in the butter compartment that did work. I buy salted butter, maybe a a package of 4 sticks every other month. I dont really bake anymore just for me
I don't use much butter any more. For cooking I use EVOO. Get it in a 10 liter box. Good stuff.
I do have some butter that I vacuum packed and keep in the deep freeze. It's good for popcorn.
I do have some butter that I vacuum packed and keep in the deep freeze. It's good for popcorn.
Unsalted for baking, salted for everything else. Assuming one can consume a stick a week, it keeps very well at room temperature.
I like to use salted when making shortbread.
I like to use salted when making shortbread.
Butter here in Ireland's usually salted.
If you said 'butter' here in Ireland and didn't specify what type, you'd get salted Kerrygold. It's just the default option. Unsalted is widely available, but it's not the norm.
There are other brands too, but they're all pretty much the same grass-fed butter. Because of the climate here, non-grass fed milk is pretty unlikely (you're still mowing the lawn until December in some parts of Ireland) so dairy products are made with grass fed milk.
There's an increasingly vast array of artisan butters, sometimes including things like butters flavoured with seaweeds and smoked butters and so on.
There's also an absolutely vast array of dairy spreads, often made from butters but blended with oils either for spreadability or fat reduction. Actual margarine never really had much of a market here, but it's more or less disappeared as a product entirely.
Serving up something with margarine here would be tantamount to heresy!
Serving a hot, fruit scone with margarine is offensive, at least to the taste buds, and making them with margarine should probably be a felony.
If you said 'butter' here in Ireland and didn't specify what type, you'd get salted Kerrygold. It's just the default option. Unsalted is widely available, but it's not the norm.
There are other brands too, but they're all pretty much the same grass-fed butter. Because of the climate here, non-grass fed milk is pretty unlikely (you're still mowing the lawn until December in some parts of Ireland) so dairy products are made with grass fed milk.
There's an increasingly vast array of artisan butters, sometimes including things like butters flavoured with seaweeds and smoked butters and so on.
There's also an absolutely vast array of dairy spreads, often made from butters but blended with oils either for spreadability or fat reduction. Actual margarine never really had much of a market here, but it's more or less disappeared as a product entirely.
Serving up something with margarine here would be tantamount to heresy!
Serving a hot, fruit scone with margarine is offensive, at least to the taste buds, and making them with margarine should probably be a felony.
jerrod_six
Well-known member
I use KerryGold unsalted. This butter is from grassfeed cows and I find that there is a big difference in taste from cows fed with corn or whatever they are being fed. It actually has a great taste without the salt. I used to use Presidents unsalted but it is hard to find probably because It is from France but man what a great taste. KerryGold is a good replacement for it.
This all reminds me of a movie I recently watched: Inherit The Wind, an allegory for the McCarthy era.
In it, Gene Kelly plays a cynical newspaper reporter. When called on his sarcastic approach, he quips,
"I may be rancid butter, but I'm on your side of the bread".
LOL.
In it, Gene Kelly plays a cynical newspaper reporter. When called on his sarcastic approach, he quips,
"I may be rancid butter, but I'm on your side of the bread".
LOL.
Easily salted for me, there’s more taste even when with some toast I’m wiping off a plate, however I baked some cookies and I believe given that the inherent ingredients in what was a mix had their own native salt, found that unsalted had the edge there...
— Dave
— Dave
The strangest one I've had over here in Ireland was a US friend of mine complaining constantly that the milk is "too grassy" and the steak is "too grassy". She wouldn't drink Irish milk at all and claimed it tasted 'weird' and that it made the coffee taste weird and that she could 'smell the grass in her latte'
Also milk here is pasteurised, not UHT. It has to be stored in a fridge. A french guy I know seems to find the milk 'bizarre' and prefers to use the UHT stuff which, in France is often just bought in bulk and stored in the garage! For a country that is so obsessed with food quality, that's something that always surprised me. The same guy would have a major problem with cheddar cheese for example, even really good stuff.
I always found UHT milk something that I'd struggle to drink and sort of associate it with strange tasting breakfast cereal.
I guess you just get used to what you grow up with.
Also milk here is pasteurised, not UHT. It has to be stored in a fridge. A french guy I know seems to find the milk 'bizarre' and prefers to use the UHT stuff which, in France is often just bought in bulk and stored in the garage! For a country that is so obsessed with food quality, that's something that always surprised me. The same guy would have a major problem with cheddar cheese for example, even really good stuff.
I always found UHT milk something that I'd struggle to drink and sort of associate it with strange tasting breakfast cereal.
I guess you just get used to what you grow up with.
Well, I believe most US cattle are "finished" off by being grain fed in feed lots. So that is the taste we are used to. "Grass fed" beef meat commands a premium price here. I think the grain feed lot practice is largely because it's a way for the cattle to gain more weight faster, so there is more profit per animal. There is no need for them to roam around eating grass, so more of the incoming calories go into beef, not exercise.
You’d get a fairly strong consumer reaction to that here. There’s probably a lot more focus on animal welfare. The expectation is that cows live in a nice farm with lots of grass and there’s a lot of traceability, to the level that the individual farmer is identified in the pack in a lot of cases.
Just as an example: veal is something you’d typically never see here as there’s just no market for it due to the production methods involved.
Generally though you’ll get outstanding steak but, it’s grass fed and things like growth hormones etc are all illegal.
Pretty much all meat sold here, except maybe specialist cured meats would trend to be locally produced. It’s relatively unusual to encounter non Irish beef, pork, lamb, chicken, eggs etc and I’ve literally never seen non Irish milk sold here. It’s not that there’s any barrier to trade - EU single market etc, but just consumers are a bit paranoid about production.
Even McDonald’s uses entirely Irish beef & chicken as they had a huge PR issue and consumers being a bit put off back in the 70s/80s as they were using commodity beef and chicken. So even a Big Mac is 100% grass fed beef here and their eggs are free range.
Just as an example: veal is something you’d typically never see here as there’s just no market for it due to the production methods involved.
Generally though you’ll get outstanding steak but, it’s grass fed and things like growth hormones etc are all illegal.
Pretty much all meat sold here, except maybe specialist cured meats would trend to be locally produced. It’s relatively unusual to encounter non Irish beef, pork, lamb, chicken, eggs etc and I’ve literally never seen non Irish milk sold here. It’s not that there’s any barrier to trade - EU single market etc, but just consumers are a bit paranoid about production.
Even McDonald’s uses entirely Irish beef & chicken as they had a huge PR issue and consumers being a bit put off back in the 70s/80s as they were using commodity beef and chicken. So even a Big Mac is 100% grass fed beef here and their eggs are free range.
Quite honestly you wont find veal around here much either. I recall growing up my mother would make a veal pocket stuffed with rice, every now and then I get a taste for it but have not seen veal in the market ever.
perc-o-prince
Well-known member
Matt, must be regional
I see veal in different forms here regularly. It's a staple at most supermarkets here, though not a huge section; mostly chops and scallops or as 1/3 of a "meatloaf mix" package of ground beef, veal and pork.
Chuck
I see veal in different forms here regularly. It's a staple at most supermarkets here, though not a huge section; mostly chops and scallops or as 1/3 of a "meatloaf mix" package of ground beef, veal and pork.
Chuck
kenmoreguy89
Well-known member
Unsalted most of the times.
I will use salted only when I need to season something like corn or sweet potatoes. It is great on whole baked potatoes when baked I just cut them in the middle and put the butter and let it melt.
But other than that it will sit in my refrigerator and be only occasionally used, in fact I tend to purchase the small package of little cubes of salted butter.
The normal butter I will use it for baking or whatever else and I buy the big package.
Salted butter is not a big thing in Italy or southern Europe like it is countries up north.
In most supermarkets you only find costly scandinavian lurpak.
I will use salted only when I need to season something like corn or sweet potatoes. It is great on whole baked potatoes when baked I just cut them in the middle and put the butter and let it melt.
But other than that it will sit in my refrigerator and be only occasionally used, in fact I tend to purchase the small package of little cubes of salted butter.
The normal butter I will use it for baking or whatever else and I buy the big package.
Salted butter is not a big thing in Italy or southern Europe like it is countries up north.
In most supermarkets you only find costly scandinavian lurpak.
kenmoreguy89
Well-known member
James you might be surprised but I guess France is like Italy.
They are obsessed with the quality of milk for the cheese making but the milk you get in stores is nothing but watered down ultra pasteurized cooked garbage. It taste like it has been boiled for ages skimmed and watered down.
They don't know what they're talking about when it comes to milk to drink right away. And I'm talking about fresh milk, the UHT kind doesn't even taste like milk over here.
The best milk I drink is the one I drink in the United States the fresh milk you get in the big jugs..ahhhh
I only get one decent milk over here it is the one from our province's dairy and it is not a case it is sold even in other regions and supply restaurants and cafès throughout northern italy.
I never happened to taste Irish milk but I guess it's similar to what I drink in the States.
Also they never heard of half and half.
About butter you have differences based on making process, some say European butter taste better in my opinion is not so, I tasted far more better butters in America than here, but again in USA you have get a plethora of every kind of butter and brands each one got its own taste over here you just get three brands/kinds..litterally.
Lidl use to sell Irish butter and it's very good.
Looks like they don't give much importance to milk cream and butter but more to milk for cheeses and cheesemaking.
They are obsessed with the quality of milk for the cheese making but the milk you get in stores is nothing but watered down ultra pasteurized cooked garbage. It taste like it has been boiled for ages skimmed and watered down.
They don't know what they're talking about when it comes to milk to drink right away. And I'm talking about fresh milk, the UHT kind doesn't even taste like milk over here.
The best milk I drink is the one I drink in the United States the fresh milk you get in the big jugs..ahhhh
I only get one decent milk over here it is the one from our province's dairy and it is not a case it is sold even in other regions and supply restaurants and cafès throughout northern italy.
I never happened to taste Irish milk but I guess it's similar to what I drink in the States.
Also they never heard of half and half.
About butter you have differences based on making process, some say European butter taste better in my opinion is not so, I tasted far more better butters in America than here, but again in USA you have get a plethora of every kind of butter and brands each one got its own taste over here you just get three brands/kinds..litterally.
Lidl use to sell Irish butter and it's very good.
Looks like they don't give much importance to milk cream and butter but more to milk for cheeses and cheesemaking.
jerrod_six
Well-known member
I think Europe requires a higher fat content in their butter than what is required in the USA.
As for drinking milk- I stay as far away from that as possible. I don't mind butter but I really can't stand the sight of milk.
What does UHT mean? I see this term in the posts above.
As for drinking milk- I stay as far away from that as possible. I don't mind butter but I really can't stand the sight of milk.
What does UHT mean? I see this term in the posts above.
kenmoreguy89
Well-known member
UHT
Ultra High Temperature processed.
As the name says it consists of a process where milk gets heated at an ultra high temperature for a brief period of time virtually killing all the bacteria and spores inside milk (and IMHO much of the nutrients as well as its taste) and rapidly cooled.
That way you can make it last months and months with out refrigeration.
I think UHT represents over the 50% of milk consumption in this country many people are not even accustomed to the taste of fresh milk finding that it tastes weird.
They basically don't know what the real flavour milk is or anyways they are accustomed to this other kind of milk which shouldn't even be called milk in my opinion.
Talking about butter yes more fat percentage is required by law but that doesn't mean all butters sold elsewhere got less.
The taste anuways depends on the quality of the cream and the process used also aging and fermentation.
Longer churning also changes and whip the butter more but is not necessarily a good thing at it may kill or vary the taste of the finished product.
Ultra High Temperature processed.
As the name says it consists of a process where milk gets heated at an ultra high temperature for a brief period of time virtually killing all the bacteria and spores inside milk (and IMHO much of the nutrients as well as its taste) and rapidly cooled.
That way you can make it last months and months with out refrigeration.
I think UHT represents over the 50% of milk consumption in this country many people are not even accustomed to the taste of fresh milk finding that it tastes weird.
They basically don't know what the real flavour milk is or anyways they are accustomed to this other kind of milk which shouldn't even be called milk in my opinion.
Talking about butter yes more fat percentage is required by law but that doesn't mean all butters sold elsewhere got less.
The taste anuways depends on the quality of the cream and the process used also aging and fermentation.
Longer churning also changes and whip the butter more but is not necessarily a good thing at it may kill or vary the taste of the finished product.
