Salted butter is back — even though for some cooks, it never went away
For centuries, really, butter was three to four times saltier
It was a night I will never forget.
After a round of pretzels, spaetzle and schnitzel, my friend Amanda Hesser, CEO of the website Food52, shared a disturbing discovery: for years, her mother, Judith, had baked with salted butter. I nearly choked on my bratwurst.
People who write about food or cook professionally wouldn’t dream of using the salty kind in our sweets and, since most of us don’t bother to keep it around at all, in our savoury food, either. Why not? Conventional wisdom says we should use only unsalted butter so we can control the salt, adding it separately.
Since that dinner in 2014, as I flipped through so many new cookbooks full of flaky salt-sprinkled brownies and observed fancy restaurants offer two types of butter — one with salt, one without — with their bread, I thought back to Hesser’s disclosure. It wasn’t until earlier this year, when cookbook author Alison Roman’s recipe for salted butter and chocolate chunk shortbread went viral, that I began to investigate the state, past and present, of what I once presumed the “other” butter.
Those of us who have made a big deal about salting our sweets in recent years have assumed that our predecessors liked saccharine desserts, but Hesser’s theory is that the ingredient had been excluded from old recipes because it was already incorporated into the butter.
From there, I reasoned, as unsalted or “sweet” butter became more accessible and came into fashion, people continued to rely on those old formulas, swapping out salted butter — without accounting for the salt. Cooks “just forgot that not using the same butter is going to affect the final taste,” said pastry chef Olivia Wilson, co-owner of Chairlift bakery and Brenner Pass in Richmond, Virginia. Perhaps, I concluded, the current trend for salty or salted desserts is simply a reaction to a lack of balance created when the salt was written out of recipe history.
“For centuries, really, butter was three to four times saltier than our salted butter because it was used as a preservative,” Elaine Khosrova told me. In “Butter: A Rich History” (Algonquin Books, 2016), she explains that the mineral would extend the fat’s shelf life and, in turn, the butter could be applied as a coating to cooked food to make leftovers last longer.
In the late 19th century, butter making became big, centralized business with the rise of commercial creameries. According to Khosrova’s book, this also yielded a fresher, milder-tasting product labelled “sweet cream butter” — sweet in the sense that the cream is not cultured or fermented so is missing the related sourness; some salt was added, but not as a preserving agent. This was the prototype for the salted butter found in modern-day grocery stores.
France was one of the only places where unpreserved — and therefore drastically less salty — butter existed, dating back to pre-industrial society, if not earlier. It held on, and Khosrova says it became popular in the United States when its citizens started emulating the French after the Second World War. Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” is where I found one of the earliest references to unsalted butter in an American cookbook: “Except for cake frostings and certain desserts for which have specified unsalted butter, American salted and French butter are interchangeable in cooking.”
Judith Hesser was married in 1961, the same year “Mastering” came out; not long after, she discovered her passion for cookbooks and found her “true enjoyment” was baking. “I do not know if unsalted butter was even available in the grocery store,” Hesser said in an email. “I simply bought butter (salted) and used it for baking and everything else.”
Should you wish to develop your own recipes or replace the unsalted butter with salted in those you already trust, keep in mind that 1 stick of the latter has approximately ¼ teaspoon salt.
Almond Financiers Makes 60 pieces (48 pieces when baked in a mini muffin pan)
Classic tiny French cakes made with browned butter and finely ground nuts, financiers are named for their shape; they’re intended to look like bars of gold and, accordingly, baked in small rectangular moulds. If you don’t have such a mould, you can use a mini muffin pan instead. (In fact, we liked the muffin-pan financiers better.)
There are lots of ways to dress them up: Richmond, Virginia, pastry chef Olivia Wilson places a small piece of fruit on top of each before baking, or, after they’re out of the oven, dips them in tempered chocolate and sprinkles them with chopped almonds.
We have included measures in grams, for precision.
Make ahead: The batter needs to be refrigerated for at least one hour, and up to several days. The financiers are best enjoyed the same day they are made. 13 tablespoons (190 grams) salted butter, preferably a high-fat, European-style brand 1⁄4 cup plus 2 tbsp (50 g) all-purpose flour 3⁄4 cup plus 3 tbsp (90 g) sugar 1⁄4 cup plus 3 tbsp (135 g) almond flour or almond meal
5 large egg whites (150 g)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (may substitute scrapings from 1⁄2 vanilla bean)
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; cook until it stops bubbling and has turned a golden nutty brown, being careful not to burn the milk solids (if you do burn it, it’s best to start over). Cool to room temperature.
Combine the all-purpose flour, sugar and the almond flour or almond meal in the bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer. Beat on low speed until well blended.
Slowly whisk in the egg whites, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Mix until everything is incorporated and smooth. Slowly mix in the brown butter and vanilla extract. Transfer to a piping or large zip-top bag (for easy portioning) or bowl. Seal/cover and refrigerate for at least one hour, and up to several days. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter or grease the moulds or muffin pan with cooking oil spray. Fill each well about two-thirds full. Bake (middle rack) for five to 10 minutes or until evenly browned. Dislodge the financiers while still warm. Per piece (based on 60): 45 calories, 3 g carbohydrates, 4 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 5 milligrams cholesterol, 25 mg sodium, 2 g sugar
Milk Chocolate and Raspberry Jam Blondies Makes 24 blondies
Here, using salted butter instead of adding salt to a batter separately tends to yield a more muted salinity and, in less capable hands, can lead to a saccharine baked good. When you pair it with something tart, like a fruit — or, as it is done here, raspberry jam — you curtail some of that sweetness and wind up with something beautifully balanced.
If you like a more pronounced salty effect and enjoy the crunch that flaky salt provides, sprinkle some of those grains on top of the bars before baking. It’s not necessary here, but it’s all the rage right now.
Make ahead: The blondies can be stored in an airtight container for up to five days.
1 1⁄2 cups packed dark brown sugar 2 large eggs
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) salted butter, melted and cooled but still pourable 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
8 ounces milk chocolate, chopped into slightly smaller than 1⁄2-inch chunks
1⁄2 cup raspberry jam
1 tsp flaky sea salt (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray the bottom and sides of an 8-by-12-inch baking pan with cooking oil spray, then line the bottom with parchment paper so that two of the sides hang over the edges (for easy lifting when the slab of blondies is done).
Whisk together the brown sugar and eggs in a medium bowl until the mixture is smooth and lightened in colour. Carefully whisk the melted butter into the sugar mixture a little at a time so it does not slosh out of the bowl, then whisk in the vanilla extract.
Whisk together the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl. Use a flexible spatula to blend the flour mixture into the butter mixture, followed by the chopped milk chocolate, until well incorporated. Scrape into the pan, spreading it evenly into the corners.
Drop teaspoonfuls of the jam across the surface of the blondie batter, and then gently pull the tip of a paring knife through the jam in one direction and then the other, creating a zigzag/grid pattern on the surface. Sprinkle the flaky salt on top, if using. Bake (middle rack) for 32 to 35 minutes, rotating the pan front to back halfway through, or until crisp edges form and the top is just set.
Cool in the pan, then lift out the slab and cut into 24 equal pieces.
Per piece: 220 calories, 2 grams protein, 30 g carbohydrates, 11 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 40 milligrams cholesterol, 80 mg sodium, 0 g dietary fibre, 20 g sugar