JimLane wrote:

> Bob Pastorio wrote:
>
>> Lena B Katz wrote:
>>
>>> On Mon, 12 Jan 2004, Bob Pastorio wrote:
>>>
>>>> JimLane wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Charles Gifford wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> "Fred" > wrote in message
>>>>>> t...
>>>>>> <snip>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> snip
>>>>>
>>>>>>> Why use unsalted butter? For the same reason one
>>>>>>> should always use unsalted butter and that is because it allows
>>>>>>> the cook
>>>>>>> to control the salt level, not the ingredients.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Nonsense. Most recipes using salted butter also call for added
>>>>>> salt. The
>>>>>> added salt can be adjusted.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Most of my cookbooks recommend in the front matter that unsalted
>>>>> butter
>>>>> be used. You might want to check that section once in awhile.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> This is one of the perennial discussions amongst foodies. The fact is
>>>> that there's a bit over two teaspoons of salt in a whole pound of
>>>> American commercial butter. I don't know a recipe where the salt
>>>> content is so critical as to demand unsalted.
>>>>
>>>>>>> Salt is added to butter to make it last longer.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> No. It isn't. It was before refrigeration, but not any more.
>>>>
>>>>>> Not always the reason. Many people prefer the taste of salted butter.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> However, the original reason salt was added was as a preservative. You
>>>>> have no position there.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> That was then, this is now.
>>>>
>>>>> That people became used to it and then salted
>>>>> became the standard is another matter.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> To be sure. But the amount of salt in butter today will make not a
>>>> whit of difference in just about any recipe I've ever seen. A whole
>>>> stick of butter has a tad over a half-teaspoon of salt.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thank you for the info! It's useful in baking, and other places where
>>> salt flavoring is rather... inappropriate.
>>
>>
>>
>> Well, I was mistaken in the figures that I quoted. I inadvertently
>> doubled the figure for the amount of salt in a pound of butter. Here's
>> the real info from an older post of mine where I did all the
>> calculations after weighing and measuring volumes of salt:
>>
>> "...the amount of salt in butter is rather trivial for most recipes.
>> Roughly 90 mgs sodium in a tablespoon of butter. 32 tablespoons of
>> butter in a whole pound or 2880 mgs of sodium (2.88 grams). That's
>> about 7200 mgs or 7.2 grams of salt. A tablespoon of table salt weighs
>> right at 0.6 ounces or 16.8 grams. A tablespoon is 3 teaspoons of salt
>> which weigh 5.6 grams each. A whole pound of butter will have about a
>> teaspoon and a quarter of salt in it."
>>
>> Most cake recipes include some salt. Look at German Chocolate cake or
>> spice cakes or pound cakes or even simple white cakes. At least 1/4
>> teaspoon salt (most start at 1/2) and on up to a teaspoon.
>>
>> There's so little salt in butter that I've never been able to taste
>> the difference in finished product, even tasting side by side. I made
>> hot milk sponge cakes for the holidays and used salted butter. My
>> daughter read the recipe and it called for unsalted. She asked what
>> the difference was and I said, "None." She asked why they'd specify
>> unsalted and I gave her a cynical answer. She said let's test it. We
>> did a test and made 4 cakes. Two with salted and two with unsalted.
>> Couldn't taste any difference. Nobody could who tried them - 12
>> people. The "testing" went on for two days until there were no cakes
>> left. (Filled them with a creme patissiere with Grand Marnier and
>> white creme de cacao, and topped with a dark chocolate ganache with
>> peach schnapps and brown creme de cacao - sorta an uptown Boston Cream
>> Pie.)
>>
>> The cakes each took 2 tablespoons butter, 5 eggs, 3/4 cup of flour,
>> 1/4 cup milk, 3/4 cup sugar, teaspoon baking powder, 1/8 teaspoon
>> salt, teaspoon lemon extract. The butter (if I had measured it
>> exactly) contained 0.45 grams of salt (28 grams are an ounce), 1/62nd
>> of an ounce or 0.08 teaspoons of butter. Eight hundredths of a
>> teaspoon. Less than 1/10th of a teaspoon. That's a Scroogy pinch for a
>> whole cake intended to serve 8. Combining 1/8 teaspoon salt the recipe
>> calls for with the 1/12th teaspoon from the butter makes the amount of
>> salt leap from 3/24 of a teaspoon to 5/24 of a teaspoon. All the way
>> up to just under 1/5 of a teaspoon in a 9-inch cake.
>>
>> Meaningless.
>>
>> Pastorio
>
> You did a great job of covering any salt flavor with your filling. Why
> did you not test them plain, cake to cake no extras?

It's the finished products that we were comparing. But years of
critical measuring and tasting the results says that it's a fruitless
search at these quantities. I knew it wouldn't make any difference
from experience.

But can anyone seriously believe that an additional 1/12 of a teaspoon
of salt will show up as even a remote flavor determinant in the 9-inch
cake described above? I daresay that folks measuring with spoons will
make an error within that range while trying hard to be accurate. And
given that kitchen measures are in the "close enough" category, it's
hard to imagine that a variation this small wouldn't fall invisibly in
the cracks.

The pile of salt that makes up 0.45 grams is a small pinch. It simply
disappears into the other flavors, even without the filling and glaze.
That ratio of additional salt to the volume of the whole cake is way
more subtle than anybody I know can pick up.

Pastorio