On Tuesday, July 19, 2016 at 12:27:08 PM UTC-5, Brooklyn1 wrote:
>
> Originally butter was salted as a means
> to preserve it, with modern refrigeration nowadays there's no reason
> to add salt to butter at the dairy except that people got used to the
> salt (addicted) and are too lazy to sprinkle salt.
>
>
Salt still acts as a preservative today. Salt is why you can
leave a stick of butter out on the countertop and it doesn't
go rancid. Unsalted butter left out becomes nasty (rancid).
Adding salt at the dairy/creamery is why butter can be wrapped
in paper. Whereas unsalted butter must be enclosed in foil
wrappers so it doesn't pick up funky flavors and aromas either
in the refrigerator or the freezer.

Using paper or foil is not so you can distinguish between
salted and unsalted sticks. Salted butter can be stored
frozen indefinitely, not so with unsalted.