Butter is the most essential ingredient in our daily life, Whether we are baking banana-nut muffins or making caramelized onions on the stovetop we need butter in every recipe.
Of course, it is delicious too.
Whenever we go shopping at the grocery store we have always noticed one thing and that is name printed, salted and unsalted butter. But do you know the type of butter we use in recipes actually matter?
And is one healthier than the other? Let’s find out the nutrition and best uses for salted and unsalted butter so you can decide which one is right for your needs.
Salted butter is simply butter that contains added salt. For making it a saltier taste, the salt actually acts as a preservative and we can store this for a long time. Salted butter should use for spreading over crusty bread or melting over homemade pancakes or waffles.
Unsalted butter contains no added salt. This is the butter in its purest form, which means unsalted butter has a shorter shelf life than salted butter.
When we talk about the flavor, unsalted butter has a more fresh and pronounced mellow sweetness than salted butter. It’s best used in baking, or in situations where straying from exact ingredient amounts can make or break a recipe.
Both kinds of butter have different nutrition values, let’s take a look at how they stack up. Here is the nutrition information for a standard one tablespoon serving size of unsalted and salted butter:
Unsalted Butter
Calories: 100
Fat: 12g
Saturated Fat: 7g
Unsaturated Fats:
Protein: 0g
Carbohydrates: 0g
Fiber: 0g
Sugars: 0g
Added sugars: 0g
Sodium: 0mg
Calcium: 0% DV
Potassium: 0% DV
Salted Butter
Calories: 100
Fat: 12g
Saturated Fat: 7g
Unsaturated Fats:
Protein: 0g
Carbohydrates: 0g
Fiber: 0g
Sugars: 0g
Added sugars: 0g
Sodium: 90mg
Calcium: 0% DV
Potassium: 0% DV
Now you get the difference between salted and unsalted butter: It has 90 milligrams of sodium per tablespoon. Other than that, these two jars of butter are largely the exact same from a nutrition standpoint.
After seeing sodium intake, we recommend using unsalted butter because it gives you complete control over the amount of salt in your dish. If you like to use unsalted butter, look for the words “sweet butter” or “unsalted” at the grocery store. The term “sweet cream butter” is used for both salted and unsalted butter, so make sure to read the package label carefully.
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