Is that because of possible health problems from the salt or to keep it from adding unwanted taste attributes to the recipes? I only ask because the dangers of salt have been so overblown. I'm of the mind that most of the "health" food products aren't as healthy as what the "uninformed" used to eat - they just expanded the market to allow higher prices for a bunch of commodities.
I don’t know about the dangers of salt, but it may be. They always throw in a handful of salt, but if the stuff you are using already has salt there is no need to add more. And most of the admonitions are to add ingredients to taste. My doc told me with my high blood pressure I could eat all the salt I want/s . The issue I have between butter and oleo is the price. But I prefer butter.
You have to ask what the reason is for having two kinds of butter. Salt was originally added to butter when it became rancid, to cover up the nasty rancid taste. I guess that the quality of butter these days is such that the stuff with salt isn't rancid anymore, and therefore salt is unnecesary, but salted butter is still available for people that are used to the taste. I prefer unsalted butter, but my lovely wife makes me buy salted butter because of the taste of salt. She has no problem with blood pressure. To me, it isn't worth marital disharmony over the difference.
I think the chefs calling for unsalted butter do so because of the taste, and how it would affect the final product, rather than anything against using salt per se. I use unsalted because I prefer that but usually keep some salted butter in the freezer for the recipes that call for it.
Agree, the dangers of salt have been exaggerated.
But I always buy unsalted, aka "sweet" butter. Years ago I read that it's a better grade of butter. Poorer quality butter can have its off-taste disguised by the addition of salt.
Usually stores sell salted and unsalted butter for the same price, so there's no downside to buying the unsalted.
Unsalted butter is used in cooking (by purists) because it does not add salt to the recipe. Butter varies in the amount of salt it contains; if you add additional salt, the recipe can turn out too salty.
How can margarine be better? Have you read the list of ingredients? Put me in the ‘duh’ vote here.
The reason chefs prefer unsalted butter is they want to control seasoning.
I have two friends who are CIA Grads and one went to Cordon Bleu.
I wondered about their use of unsalted butter when I first met them and that’s what they told me.
I prefer unsalted butter to control sodium but, if all I got is Pluguer butter, then I’ll use it and skip the salt shaker.
Luv Pluguer...