[Sca-cooks] Butter- salted vs unsalted

[Lilinah]

Alexa <mysticgypsy1008 at yahoo.com>
>   I was wondering, in many recipes butter is  called for,  often not 
>specified salted or not.  What is the prefered or what would have 
>been more used in our sca time frames?
>
>   I know I would rather put salted butter on my bread but wouldn't 
>use it when making frosting.

 From what i have read, salted butter would be the thing most of the 
time. Without refrigeration, salting helps butter keep longer. I know 
i've read recipes that call for washing the salt out of it before 
using for particular purposes. A few recipes specify fresh or sweet 
butter, but if recipes don't so specify, i assume salted.

I also have read a number of recipes that indicate that for serious 
frying, the butter has previously been clarified. Since clarified 
butter keeps longer without those milky particles, it's possible that 
a fair amount of butter was clarified before storage. However, i'm 
not a dairy specialist, so i don't know for certain.

-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita