Does unsalted butter simply taste different than salted butter, or do they react when cooking/baking differently?

Unsalted butter does taste different from salted butter because salted butter contains salt and tastes salty. Some people do not find a big difference when they use salted butter in baked goods or other recipes, but I do find a difference in flavor and prefer unsalted butter. Quality wise there is little difference between salted and unsalted so long as you are comparing the same brand of butter.

There really isn't a different taste if you just scrape some of each off and eat it. Actually, unsalted butter does have 'some' salt in it-as a preservative. Just that salted butter has more.

for baking I'll mostly use unsalted,but for most other things I don't see much a difference.I get a laugh when I see TV cooks insist on using unsalted and then proceed to add salt while they cook.The amount of salt in salted butter is imo pretty negligable.

There is no reaction in cooking, but there is a taste difference. Obviously you won't taste salt in unsalted butter, which we mainly use in this household.

Butter is something that reacts very sensibly to temperature, you cannot use it to deep-fry anything. And it doesn't matter if it's salted or not; salted butter doesn't taste any better than unsalted.

When I fry something, I use vegetable oil (I like sunflower oil, it has a nice taste like hazelnuts), and shortly before things are fried, I reduce the temperature, add a piece of butter, and stir. It actually doesn't matter whether the butter has been salted before or I add the salt afterwards, the "buttery" taste stays the same. And if you don't like it, don't use it.

In terms of quality, unsalted butter is usually better than salted. The flavor is nicer. Unsalted butter is generally recommended for baking. Salt acts as a preservative, so salted butter will keep longer.

No, no reaction. Some recipes want you to control the amount of salt put in, not the maker of the butter.

Read the recipe, if there is salt added to it, it will likely say "unsalted" butter.

it just has a little salt in it. you might take away like, a pinch from the recipe if you really want but it really doesn't make a difference when baking.

The only difference is salt. It doesn't affect texture.

It's all taste