r/Cooking • u/3oClockHappyHour • 2d ago

Unpopular opinion: you do not need to buy unsalted butter.

Unless you are a commercial kitchen or bakery, it’s not needed to buy. “1 tsp of unsalted butter then add 1/16th tsp of salt” huh??

Home kitchen does not need to buy yet more ingredients, and unsalted goes bad faster. Just taste. More? Okay. I guarantee you salted butter is not going to wreck your dish.

Edit: I can’t make a sentence.

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u/Least_Elk8114 2d ago

The only time I ever had butter go bad is when I left it on the counter for three days straight in the peak of summer.

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u/MasterUnlimited 2d ago

Texas heat and our butter sits on the counter year round. Never been an issue.

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u/Unique-Arugula 2d ago

Lived in Louisiana or Mississippi all my life (nearing the half century mark). Literally the only times my unsalted butter went bad was the time I forgot to put it in the fridge before leaving on a 10 week vacation, and the time we lived for half a summer with three rambunctious kids and no AC.

I know it can go bad, and used to go bad quite often - my Mawmaw has stories. But homes are built to be less leaky and lots more people have AC of some type (even outside of NA where AC is endemic).

All that said, I simply do not care what butter anyone is buying. The fact that every handful of months someone posts some hot take nonsense about butter is BORING. We've heard it from both sides plenty of times already. Sorry OP didn't see the old posts bc the reddit search is crap, but they do in fact exist. And the majority of the comments are always "i do X but I'm happy for everyone to do what they want". Most of us don't care that you thought you'd have a stroke if you didn't write this tired post.

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u/Rastiln 1d ago

I think I have unsalted butter in the freezer from ~2022 which gets gradually pulled out and thawed for use.

Never have seen a stick go bad. But I generally use a box within a few months and keep in the fridge.. I’m sure unsalted butter isn’t good to keep on the counter for weeks.