When it's on sale....Land O Lakes. But I've found even my supermarket unsalted bakes very well.

I use unsalted butter for baking and for regular table use, always. My mother always used Land O Lakes, but I never really liked the taste as much. I've discovered Plugra European Style butter and it's my favorite. Tastes like what you expect butter to taste like.

PSA: I use Whole Foods brand (non-organic) because it costs $.50-1.00 less than anything I can find at generally more affordable stores. (Their tofu is similarly cheaper than anywhere else except Trader Joe's, where it is the same price.) Never noticed much variation in my baking based on brand, and butter has gotten really expensive in the last couple years, so I go on price.

For most baking, I also use Land O'Lakes. The quality is good and the performance is consistent. It's not the cheapest butter, but it's a decent price point.

I do find that it's a very mild flavor, which is fine (even good) for most baking, but I will pay extra and buy Plugra or, better yet, Vermont Butter & Cheese Company if I am making something like puff pastry or croissants, where lower water content is helpful and the flavor really shines.

I use Costco's Kirkland butter for all my baking & cooking. Biscuits, too. It does have a higher water content, so it's not good for things like toffee (ugh- made that mistake once & won't do it again). A 4 lb package runs between $8-9, depending on time of year, so it's usually the best deal in town.

A great butter is Kate's out of Maine. It makes fantastic biscuits, along with her buttermilk. Yummy...... It's not always available in unsalted, so whenever I come across it, I buy, despite it's $3.50/ 4/ lb price.

I use salted butter for everything. I just can't be bothered to buy two types, to be honest. But I've never experienced any problem with it. It has always worked perfectly fine for me and my cakes and cookies turn out great :)

Eh, I think it's a big fuss about nothing. If you use unsalted butter, the recipe says to throw in a pinch of salt anyway, so what's the difference?

I've been baking with unsalted butter my whole life, and so have most people I know. Everything turns out great.

I use salted butter for everything. I've never had a problem and I bake often. I just reduce the salt that it calls for in the recipe.

i agree with mimer - i can't be bothered to buy two kinds of butter. i stick with salted butter for everything and i never have a problem.

*Whoops, sorry - typo! I meant, 'I've been baking with SALTED butter all my life...'

(And a bit of googling reveals that salted butter, in Australia at least, usually contains about 1.5% salt, with the maximum allowable being 2%. Unless you bake extremely buttery things or have the world's most sensitive palate, it's hard to see this making much of a difference.)

I like Organic Valley butter. I don't use butter for much besides baking (I cook with olive/vegetable/coconut oil) so buying just unsalted isn't a big deal. You can usually get a coupon for it.

I always use unsalted butter and used to buy whatever was on sale. Then, my baker friend informed me that butters produced in the U.S. have a higher water content than European butters. Now, I use Plugra or Kerrygold if I'm making a pie crust, tart shell, or flaky pastry. It's pricier but I do see a difference.

Until this year, I always just used the supermarket brand unsalted butter, but this year I started experimenting, first with Land O Lakes, then Plugra and, at present, I have a batch of pumpkin snickerdoodle dough made with Kerrygold waiting to be baked tonight. Just tasting the butters by themselves, I find anything to be preferable to the supermarket stuff, with Plugra and Land O Lakes both have a pleasingly rich, creamy slightly tangy taste. As far as using them in baking though, I haven't been able to discern that there's much difference. I know Plugra supposedly has a higher fat content and less water, but according to the Nutrition Facts, it has the same amount of fat per serving as Land O Lakes (11g), so the difference must be pretty minimal (I suppose with rounding one could be as little as 10.5 or as much as 11.4 grams). Kerrygold has 12g of fat, so that one is definitely fattier than Land O Lakes. I'm going to keep experimenting. Maybe I'll try making several batches of the same thing using different butters to see what happens.

I think Cook's Illustrated rates Land O' Lakes the best supermarket butter. I usually use that or Harris Teeter (grocery store brand) unsalted butter. Never salted though- too much room for error!

Also, things like Kerrygold are really excellent in places where the butter flavor is important, like butter cookies.

I was hoping this piece would explain WHY I should use unsalted butter + the dash of salt that's common in cake and cookie recipes alike. Perhaps explain the science of it or something. Instead it just reiterates 'do it.' Not super helpful. I think I'll obstinately continue using salted butter and leaving out the pinch of salt because no one has told me why not to yet.

The most common reason for using unsalted over salted is that the salt content varies from brand to brand, and by using unsalted butter you can better control the amount of salt going into a recipe.

Another suggestion I saw was that salted butter typically contains more milk solids and water than butter fat, which, without the addition of salt as a preservative, would go rancid far more quickly. This seems plausible considering that most unsalted butter brands preferred by professional bakers tend to be swooned over due to their low moisture contents and therefore produce flakier products for things such as croissants, just to give one example.

A shortbread cookie that is make using just unsalted butter, sugar, salt and flour will likely be crisper and "sandier" than a shortbread cookie made using salted buter.

I've never bought salted butter - for anything, baking or otherwise. You can always add more salt, you can't always take away too much =)

I do the same thing and it works great pluss I love salt.

I tried unsalted a few times when I was in England, but couldn't tell the difference. At twice the price (sometimes more!) I just go with salted...

One time I accidentally bought salted butter, so I just calculated how many grams of salt there would be in how much butter I used based on the salt content in the nutrition facts section! I think it turned to be something like 1/4 tsp salt per stick of butter? in any case, it wasn't that problematic for me!

Actually, this is only partially true. And, if you're like me, a little extra salt in a baked good is tasty. However, the salt in butter is used as a preservative. So, often times, salted butter is older than the unsalted butter, simply because unsalted butter doesn't keep as long. So, if you want to freshest butter (and thus, the best flavor), use unsalted.

Lia Bia,
I am currently getting my PhD in Food Science and have a bachelor's degree in chemistry and a degree in Culinary Arts. My above comment is the science of it without all the jargon. As far as salt in baked goods goes, it is for flavor for the most part. Without the salt, sweet baked goods can be cloying; the salt adds balance. For yeast-leavened baked goods, salt also acts as an inhibitor to the yeast. It is still there mostly for flavor, but this is a side effect of it, so some recipes may not come out correctly without the addition of salt.

I've baked with both and never noticed a difference either way--perhaps my palette is not very discerning! But salted butter does seem naturally softer which I find convenient because I never have the patience to soften it at room temp (or a microwave).

I've been a fan of the Trader Joe's butter for a while. It's rBGH free and priced well (at least in Madison, WI) at $2.99/lb. The only drawback is that the sticks are short and fat instead of what I'm used to (thin and long). So, don't cut off more than you think you need accidentally when using the Trader Joe's butter!

I'm using Kerrygold for most of my baking, with the exception of a couple batches of shortbread that I'm going to make with some butter I got at Lazy Acres, unsalted, pastured and organic. It's damn spendy, but the butter really stands out in shortbread.

i live in a dairy community so of course i buy local - humboldt creamery. butter and milk.

I like using salted butter. Most cultured butters are salted and their amazing flavors are enhanced by the salt. They give baked goods an umami that can't be found elsewhere. Maybe it's just me, but I actually like a bit of saltiness in my sweets. And I'm not the only one:

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/08/salted-butter-chocolate-chip-cookies-recipe/

I use Costco unsalted butter - bought 4 lbs for $7.59 yesterday. It seems to be a good compromise between price and quality, though I confess that I've never tried a really premium butter. Maybe I just don't know what I'm missing.

I use unsalted butter for the reasons given, but then almost always add salt to baked goods. I do have one small beef about salt in sweet recipes: I wish that recipe developers would indicate whether the quantity given is for kosher salt or table salt. I prefer to use kosher salt and it's no big deal to convert quantities (I use 2:1) but it's annoying when you don't know what the starting point is.

This is good to know, thanks.

As someone else commented above, if you're any good at math you can calculate how much salt is in your salted butter based on the nutrition info. I use the fancier kind of my grocery store's house brand (PC FOR LIFE) and it's about 1/8 tsp per stick. It's not worth it to me to keep both salted and unsalted on hand, and since unsalted is unacceptable for spreading on toast salted is always my pick.

I always use the lowest price brand and for all purposes. Never use salted, even for the table.

I've always just used Salted, since unsalted here is about $1.50 more per pound and I've never been burned... UNTIL last night!! Lemon curd definitely needs unsalted butter!

Not a huge loss though I'll turn that lemon curd into icing and slather it all over earl grey tea cake!