Everything is flowing smoothly in my new life (which included moving to a new town and starting restaurant school, in the hopes of finally getting a career in things I care more passionately about than political science.) We’re getting ready for our first major presentation in pairs, a themed three-course menu to be judged by experts outside the school.
And now we’re coming to the problem. My cooking partner oversalts the food to the point where I can hardly taste anything else (the salinity overwhelmed chiles and 70 % Valrhona chocolate, if you want a frame of reference.) I’m worried that it may affect our overall score.
The thing is, for various health-related reasons I haven’t been working much with this young lady. During the autumn she’s been prone to a lot of the thousand shocks that flesh and mind are heirs to (chronic sinusitis, arthritis and bipolar disorder, and those are only the ones I know of. I have no idea which kind of medication she takes, but I know that she does.) I’m aware that at least the sinusitis affects tastebuds in general, but I wonder if there are other reasons too. Put succinctly, does anyone know any medical conditions, medicines, or drug interactions that gives you voracious cravings for extra-salty meals?
Or it may just be that she is just from a part of the country where sodium chloride has long been the only available way to add flavor, which has left an impression on people’s palates. But if it’s medically related, I’ll know to be more sensitive when I break the matter to her.
It could indicate a problem with thyroid, or problems with blood pressure/volume.
I have low blood volume and have been told to drink tons of water and eat more salt to compensate (but I can’t say that I have any sort of increased craving for either).
A person who worked for me began to have issues with passing out. He was diagnosed as having too little salt in his blood. Now he has to eat extra salt on everything.
I would confidentially bring this up with the instructor so that he/she can confirm that there is a problem with her use of salt. You don’t want to get dinged because she is oversalting for whatever reason…
Illness can affect you taste and salt is a taste. Have somebody else give you their opinion on the salt and if they agree with you mention it. Don’t let her kill your test because you didn’t mention it.
Some of the medication she’s taking for her other problems may be affecting her sense of taste.
I’d definitely take it to your instructor, particularly if it’s a consistent problem with her. Someone whose sense of taste is so altered that she can’t taste salt probably doesn’t belong in a kitchen.
For the past several years I’ve become super-sensitive to salt and sugar. Salty foods that I’ve eaten for years now seem way too salty; sweet foods that I’ve eaten for years now seem way too sweet. I’ve also been on several medications during these years. I wonder if there’s a correlation, and if you partner’s medications are having the opposite effect on her.
That sounds perfectly awful for you. I’m assuming you’re American. Is this mostly an American thing, because I’ve known people who do this too?
My blood pressure is exceptionally low. When I go for routine check ups a nurse or doctor will sometimes become alarmed and say, “Oh my, are you okay?” I’m a fainter and occasionally get that light-headed thing when I stand up too quickly. Doctors have told me to add salt to my diet to alleviate this.
So I do. And when I crave something salty, I usually give in to it, thinking that it’s probably a craving from necessity rather than a desire to eat potato chips. Maybe that’s her deal. Can you say anything to her about it? Has anyone else said anything?
Cystic fibrosis patients salt their food excessively. Something about the way their bodies work means that they lose salt in their sweat at a very high rate, and need to replace it. My son sometimes tastes salty to me when I kiss him, f’rinstance. When he can salt his own food, I’m to let him salt anything he wants to. Apparently some CF kids add salt to pepperoni pizza, which gives their mothers fits but is medically just what they need. For now, I add salt to one of his bottles every day.
Well, in a broad, holistic-medicine sense, generally when your sense of taste switches, your body is trying to steer you toward one thing and/or away from another thing. For example, I had type II diabetes, and one of the best indications that my sugars are too low is that anything sweet starts tasting RIDICULOUSLY good and anything else starts tasting boring and bitter.
“Hint hint!” say my body.
So it’s possible that your meds are messing with your sense of taste either directly, or by making you retain sugar and salt.
But, it’s also possibler that your tastes simply change with age. Happens to all of us. Remember the foods you loved as a kid? How do you feel about them now?
Perhaps the two of you could benefit from an exercise one of my Chef instructors taught me in Culinary school. Take a small amount of something you have made, and taste it completely unseasoned. Now, add a bit of salt, and taste it again. See how the flavor changed? Now add a bit more salt, and note the improved flavor. Repeat this process many times. Eventually you will reach the point of “proper seasoning.” Keep going with the salt, until you reach “over seasoned”, and eventually, “salty.”
Repeat this exercise with different types of foods. You will develop your palate to suppress your preference for salt and to recognize the actual level of seasoning in anything you taste, be it under- or over- seasoned.
Also realize that correcting “saltiness” can be as simple as adding sweet and/or sour ingredients to balance the flavor. Choose ingredients that are appropriate to the dish and cuisine.
It isn’t that bad, really. At this stage, it’s just too much salt. Too much coriander leaf, on the other hand - oh, where’s that pukeface when you really need it?
Not American, no. To give you a hint, I borrowed my handle from a Moomin valley character. The story goes that a Swedish-speaking Finnish actor once called a Swedish colleague. The colleague’s daughter answered and yelled, “Daddy, a Moomintroll is on the phone and wants to speak to you!”
It’s weird, because I have low blood pressure too and have always had the impression that I am at the upper end of allowed sodium intake. I throw almost a handful of sea salt into pasta water, where perfectly healthy friends of mine would add a judicious pinch of mineral salt. One of my teachers once thought I was weird for salting potato water.
Spinach, broccoli, green olives, Swiss cheese. Yup, still love them. Loved getting sips of Dad’s light beer too. It isn’t so much that likes and dislikes have switched, but the entire playing field has grown.
Wait, there’s one thing. Tomato ketchup. It always strikes me when I’m shopping for condiments that I’ve never once in my adult life bought a bottle of ketchup.
Proper cooking method for boiling potatoes is to salt the water until it tastes like the ocean, and adding no additional salt to them afterward. This allows the salt to penetrate the potato and season it inside and out. Inform your teacher that they are “weird” for not knowing how to boil potatoes.
