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Please just click on the heading that usually appears in blue. It will take you directly to my blog and with any luck at all … PICTURES! I do always try to have one or two pictures in the beginning of the blog. If you didn’t click on the blog title and link to my post yesterday you may have missed this picture:
Or possibly this one:
Okay, moving one. This week I was reading a blog post from Joy The Baker. titled “Why We Use Unsalted Butter.” This immediately got my attention because … well, I don’t always use unsalted butter. Ooops! So I read through her post and was amazed at what I didn’t know! So, I am going out on a limb here … thinking maybe there is something about unsalted butter that you don’t know. So, from Joy The Baker, here is what she said.
Why do we use unsalted butter in baking? Is it really that important? YES. Yes, it is. Butter is my go-to fat in the kitchen. Olive oil is nice. Coconut oil is lovely. Butter gets the job done!
Butter is typically made from cow’s milk and consists of mostly butterfats. Low fat butter is suspicious, at best. Butter is generally about 80% fat, with the remaining 20% consisting of water and milk solids.
You have a choice when you go to the grocery: salted or unsalted butter. If you’re thinking about slathering your butter on a baguette, perhaps you’ll reach for the salted butter. If you’re baking a cobbler, perhaps you’ll reach for the unsalted butter. If you’re bargain shopping, perhaps you’ll reach for the cheapest butter on the shelves.
Buy unsalted butter always!
Here’s why:
- Unsalted butter ensures that you can control the amount of salt you add to your cakes, cookies and Strawberry Cream Puffs. Different companies add different amounts of salt to their butter. How are you to know how salty your butter is, and how you should adjust the salt in your recipe? It’s too much of a guessing game. Removing the salt from the butter equation puts you in charge of your cookie salting.
- Salt is a preservative. Salted butter has a longer shelf life than unsalted butter. That means that unsalted butter is typically fresher.
- Salt can mask flavors! You may not be able to taste or smell if your butter is off because clever clever salt can mask funky taste and odors. Tricky.
Does butter reeeaaallllyyy go bad?
Heck yes it does! Unsalted butter lasts about 3 months (although I really don’t like to let it sit around the house this long). Salted butter lasts for just over 5 months (that’s so long, right?). If you think your butter might be off, give it a good sniff. The nose always knows. Also, slice your butter. Is the inside the same color as the outside… or is the outside a darker casing around the butter? Bad butter is two different colors.
What happens if I use bad butter? The world will end…
Thank you Joy for sharing this info. I know I have had butter in the frig that was dark on the outside, light inside … ooops. I am quite certain I have “over-salted” in the past and didn’t even know it From now on … ONLY UNSALTED BUTTER FOR ME!
From Kale Chips to French Strawberry Cake to Fresh Asparagus Puff Pastry Pinwheels and a bit of canning on the side, my little kitchen has seen a lot of activity this week. Here are a few pictures as I sign off for the weekend!
~ Blessings, Catherine
Week 21 reading plan Job 14 through Job 42
Click on the colored link to read each day’s scripture.
Monday Job 14-18, Tuesday Job 19-22,
Wednesday Job 23-28, Thursday Job 29-32,
Friday Job 33-36, Saturday Job 37-39,
Sunday Job 40-42
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