QUESTION: I’m puzzled by recipes that call for unsalted butter but include salt as an ingredient. Can’t I just use salted butter?ANSWER: Salt is added to butter as a a flavor and a preservative. Now that stores have reliable refrigeration and inventory control, preservation is less important. But salted butter remains because some people prefer it.Baking experts almost always prefer unsalted butter, partly because it has a purer butter taste, and partly because of the belief that unsalted butter may be fresher.The trouble with swapping the two is that the amount of salt varies widely from brand to brand. So there’s no way to know how much salt you’re replacing with the salted butter.