# Do YouTube chefs use too much salt? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 3, 2025, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-youtube-chefs-use-too-much-salt/1025377 "2025-12-03T22:54:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zoobi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/13edae/32.png) [@Zoobi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoobi)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2025, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-youtube-chefs-use-too-much-salt/1025377/21 "2025-12-04T19:28:06Z")
More likely it’s the issue of how the salt is measured. By volume, leads to trouble if the viewer uses regular table salt versus coarser kosher salt. Which brand of kosher salt is also important Recipes are not computer programs. They are guidelines to help you get started. ---
**Author:** ![hideousidiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/858c86/32.png) [@hideousidiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hideousidiot)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-youtube-chefs-use-too-much-salt/1025377/22 "2025-12-05T20:11:41Z")
> [@Zoobi](#): > > More likely it’s the issue of how the salt is measured. Parisi makes a ritual of stressing that the salt is NOT to be measured but rather poured over all six sides of the meat/fish./poultry from a great height to ensure that every surface micrometer is to be thoroughly covered by salt. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-youtube-chefs-use-too-much-salt/1025377/23 "2025-12-05T20:24:55Z")
They do tend to add quite a bit of salt; my peeve is that they will say “add a teaspoon of salt” while clearly adding much more than that. I prefer “taste, then add salt, then taste again”. Continue to do that until it reaches somewhat less than what you personally like, since others don’t have the same palate. Also, some umami foods like mushrooms add a saltiness, so that has to be considered, as does salted butter. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-youtube-chefs-use-too-much-salt/1025377/24 "2025-12-05T20:36:28Z")
> [@hideousidiot](#): > > I was told by my doctor to cut back on my sodium intake, (strange, because I don’t use a lot of salt so I became more aware of salt in dishes that I don’t prepare myself, canned soups or snacks) but Parisi is just insane in the quantities of salt he says are essential to almost every recipe. Some people do need to cut back, you are one of them. IIRC, most people do not, but yeah, too much is too much. > [@hideousidiot](#): > > Parisi makes a ritual of stressing that the salt is NOT to be measured but rather poured over all six sides of the meat/fish./poultry from a great height to ensure that every surface micrometer is to be thoroughly covered by salt. If i remember right, not a lot of that is absorbed? ---
**Author:** ![hideousidiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/858c86/32.png) [@hideousidiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hideousidiot)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-youtube-chefs-use-too-much-salt/1025377/25 "2025-12-05T20:37:56Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > not a lot of that is absorbed? How can it not end up in your gullet? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-youtube-chefs-use-too-much-salt/1025377/26 "2025-12-05T20:44:15Z")
> [@hideousidiot](#): > > How can it not end up in your gullet? When I cook a roast, it ends up on the bottom of the roasting pan. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-youtube-chefs-use-too-much-salt/1025377/27 "2025-12-05T20:51:08Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > Well, that brings us back full circle then. People’s tastes vary, and it definitely seems that like sugar, the more you become accustomed too, the more you expect. > > What my wife considers salty, I consider under-seasoned. But salt, sugar, and fat can improve a dish, and are reasonably cheap ways to do so. > > If something is too salty, too sweet, or too fatty for you or your diet you shouldn’t be afraid to _change_ the recipe, or to chose to follow chefs closer to your personal tastes rather than ones who are famous or popular (online or otherwise). > > I mean, I have friends who dislike some of my favorite dishes because I tend to be capsicum forward, so when I’m cooking for them, I tone it way down. Tinkering with a recipe to meet your exact taste or those of guests is a key (and fun!) part of home cooking. I’m pretty sure that you and i have mutually incompatible tastes, and anything i like would taste bland to you. (Also, capsaicins make me mildly ill, so i avoid them completely.) > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Much of the trick to flavor, IMO, is in the quality of the basic ingredients. Yup. I do like to start with good basics. Chickens that foraged in grass, ripe fruit, fresh vegetables. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2025, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-youtube-chefs-use-too-much-salt/1025377/28 "2025-12-05T20:52:14Z")
I guess they didn’t understand what the YouTube experts meant when they said to make the audience thirsty. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-youtube-chefs-use-too-much-salt/1025377.md?page=1)