How to Adjust a Recipe for Salted or Unsalted Butter

by Diana Rattray, July 13, 2017

Salted butter is a flavorful choice for buttering biscuits or toast and for general cooking, but in baking, many recipes require or recommend unsalted butter.

Here are the sodium amounts in some popular brands of salted butter:

• 920 mg in 1 stick Horizon Organic Salted Butter
• 720 mg in 1 stick of Land O Lakes Salted Butter
• 760 mg in 1 stick of Hannaford's store brand "My Essentials"
• 800 mg in 1 stick of Kerrygold Salted Butter

If you must substitute salted butter for unsalted butter, you can often adjust the amount of salt which is added to the recipe. In some cases there is very little added salt in a recipe so the flavor difference might be noticeable if you substitute. 1 teaspoon of salt contains about 2300 mg of sodium. So, for each stick (1/2 cup) of salted butter that you substitute for unsalted in a recipe, reduce the added salt by roughly 1/3 teaspoon.

If you are using unsalted butter in a recipe which calls for salted butter, increase the salt amount using the same measurement.

See Also
How to Make a Substitute for Buttermilk
Flour Types and How to Substitute
What is Half-and-Half?


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