Seems like most of the chefs on the cooking shows I watch insist on unsalted butter.
I used to have a subscription to Cooking Light magazine, still buy an issue now and then. They almost always call for real butter in their recipes, maybe not slathered in pounds of it ala Paula Deen, it but real butter. A lot of their recipes are very good BTW and healthy even with real butter.
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.
Land O Lakes Sweet Cream Unsalted Butter is the only thing I use. Delicious! A nice pat on a Triscuit. Yeah!
Salted butter was created to hid the flavor of rancid butter - an issue before the widespread availability of refrigeration, or so I have been told.
Yes. Because it messes up your seasoning as you cook. You should add the salt to taste. With already salted butter you can end up with a too salty dish because of the additional sodium in it to what is required for the recipe.
Unsalted butter simply tastes better, especially in a sauce like a buerre blanc. I only use salted butter in shortbread.