Never. I have a friend who always does without fail, but myself I’ve never found anything that already tastes good that would taste better with more salt, and I’ve never found anything that tastes bad that would taste good with more salt.
Yes, pasta. I’m assuming that Alice the Goon meant salt the water where one will cook his/her pasta. If the water is not salted, the pasta is flat and no amount of overseasoning in the sauce will compensate. Salted water seasons the pasta evenly - every piece will have the exact sale amount of salt. Same with rice and boiled potatoes (including mashed).
No doubt some people are sensitive to the taste of salt (or other ingredients). As I said, my wife is more sensitive than I am, so I tend not to add as much to my cooking as I would like. I will properly salt the pasta water, but will not salt the sauce as much. I cook as much as possible from fresh foods to compensate for the amount of salt in processed foods, and I look for low salt alternatives where possible. I’d love if manufacturer’s would make a no-salt broth - it is how I make mine (so I can control the salt in the final application).
The science is that salt plays an important part in most cooking. Most baked goods will not taste right without a little salt, as salt mellows bitter flavors. Salt breaks down proteins in meat, making it both more tender and juicier. I can understand if one is hyper-sensitive to salt (or cilantro or whatever), but without any salt, one would literally die.
Almost never. The salt on french fries vary a lot. If I get some completely unsalted, I’ll salt them a little. More often, I’m scraping salt off of them. I can’t think of anything else I salt.
If you don’t douse pasta in a sauce, and maybe just use a little butter like I do since I can’t have tomato sauce, salt is nice.
Almost never, except for popcorn or french fries.
I frequently salt my food; I only use Murray River, or Himalayan Crystal salts. If I’m somewhere where neither is available, ain’t no saltin’ goin’ on, since I don’t like the taste of any others. They’re all too salty!
We make up for your lack of use. We typically have six or so bottles of assorted hot sauces and buy more as they run out.
As I’m one of the ones to post about “hot sauce” I would enjoy exploring the topic in a separate thread – if somebody wants to start one. My knowledge of the varieties, brands, contents, etc. is limited and I’d love to know more.
(I have yet to check if such a thread/poll already exists.)
In my experience, restaurants have become so wary of salt-restricted diets that they horribly under-season the food they serve.
Okay. I did a search on “Tabasco” looking for earlier threads on “hot sauce” and finally located…
Hot Sauce recommendations
02-27-2009, 01:35 PM
phungi
…after noticing these that are more recently started:
So what’s your favorite condiment or spice that you are adding to your food?
09-15-2010, 11:41 AM
Omar Little
What are the “standard” table condiments in other countries?
06-30-2010, 12:49 PM
StarvingButStrong
Make your own Tabasco Sauce?
06-26-2010, 12:16 AM
Johnny L.A.
I quit looking after finding that first one since whatever additional posts go up for them would most likely be treated as zombie resuscitation.
Would a more knowledgeable “hot sauce” aficionado mind starting a new thread/poll on the topic?
I’ve been known to salt toast, so yeah. But I’ve always gravitated to salty snacks. Salt is the miracle spice of all time. Those who never use it (either in cooking or on food) are missing out, IMO. I’ve cut back quite a bit on adding it to cooked foods, though.
I don’t cook, so salting during cooking is not an issue. But for food that comes to me prepared, really, I’ve tried salting it, because I’d always heard the heavens would open or something equally bodacious. But no. All it did was make it taste a little salty. So I gave up.
I infrequently salt my food, and when I do, usually use only a small amount of salt. About the only thing I regularly put salt on is mac and cheese, and only then if it’s bland right off the bat.
About the only things I add salt to are meat and eggs. Pepper, though, goes in or on everything.
Infrequently. When I’m cooking, I add it during the cooking phases, so my food tends to come out seasoned enough. Not always, though, and I guess I’d rather undersalt during cooking and have people add their own than oversalt. It won’t offend me if guests add their own.
At restaurants, I’ll taste my food first and only add salt if I think it needs it. The exception seems to be breakfast - when we go out to breakfast, I’ll always add salt to the eggs and hashbrowns without tasting them first. That said, these are foods that generally stand up to salt anyway. It seems like higher-end or fine dining restaurants are better about seasoning food; I rarely ever need salt at these places. But at a Perkin’s or Denny’s or whatever diner? Yeah, you’ll need salt. Especially if you’re ordering what passes for pasta with cream sauce there.
I will say this: yes, it’s my MIL, but it drives me absolutely crazy-out-of-my-skull bonkers that she never, ever tastes her food first. She always salts it first, always. Just like it’s automatic that it’ll need salt. I haven’t done it yet, but one of these days I’m so making a dinner where everything is very nearly oversalted, just so that it’ll be too salty when she eats it. But I like food, and I don’t know that I can torture myself and my husband like that. But still, it annoys. (Well, much about her annoys me, but that’s another thread.)
There’s a scene in The Joy Luck Club where the Anglo boyfriend of one of the Chinese matriarch’s daughters puts salt on the food the matriarch has so imperiously presented to him. He’s almost beheaded on the spot.
I salt at home while cooking and occasionally afterwards. I never, ever salt in a restaurant unless kosher or sea salt is available. Table salt tastes horribly metallic to me.