# On the omnipresence of food-snobbery in everyday recipes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [December 22, 2023, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007 "2023-12-22T20:28:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/161 "2023-12-28T14:38:37Z")
I found [two](https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/prevent-measurement-mishaps-with-this-simple-salt-conversion-chart-article) [websites](https://food52.com/blog/16824-you-re-not-crazy-there-is-a-difference-between-morton-s-and-diamond-crystal) that both say their recipes use Diamond Crystal unless otherwise specified. One also says you are less likely to oversalt if you use Diamond Crystal so you should always assume Diamond Crystal - after all, you can add salt later. I’m not sure if this was mentioned already - but the need to know if the recipe used Diamond Crystal or Morton’s only applies if the recipe uses volume measurements . In terms of saltiness, three grams of salt is three grams of salt whether it’s Morton’s or Diamond Crystal , kosher or table. It’s when you are measuring in teaspoons that it makes a difference. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/162 "2023-12-28T15:21:01Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > How on earth would I Google for recipes that don’t specify the salt they’re using, but they are secretly using diamond brand kosher salt? It’s in commentary, video dialog, background shots, pantry photos. Said or unsaid, Diamond is what people use. Edit: sort of like retail cream cheese is overwhelmingly Philadelphia. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/163 "2023-12-28T15:44:24Z")
Not sure you can easily buy Diamond salt in Canada. Yet we still use recipes and cookbooks. I always taste for salt, but find the recipes generally give a reasonable estimate. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/164 "2023-12-28T15:59:28Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > I always taste for salt, I always get my gf to do a quick taste test for salt. Going strictly by _my_ taste, I tend to under-salt my cooking. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/165 "2023-12-28T16:47:16Z")
Only Diamond brand salt I’ve seen is in 50lb bags for my water softener. 😳 ---
**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 28, 2023, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/166 "2023-12-28T16:53:33Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > different things. Some are observant, and others are not. I know at least one Jewish person who likes rumaki. In any case, I now know that bacon salt is kosher. I am a Jewish person who adores rumaki. Soooo much better than the “Jewish” chopped liver crap with onions and stuff in it. But i wouldn’t serve it to anyone who keeps kosher. And yeah, kosher is very much about the letter of the law, and the more observant someone is, the more this is true. > [@Voyager](#): > > 50 years ago - probably no olive oil at all unless you’re cooking Italian. 50 years ago when I was in grad school and cooking for myself I don’t think I even owned a bottle of it. 50 years ago my father bought olive oil in steel gallon tins. He mostly didn’t cook Italian. > [@Guapo](#): > > That said, using expensive salts is pretty much an affectation in recipes. Uniodized kosher salt is perfect for most uses. On the theory that they put the iodine in it because it’s good for you, i usually use iodized salt. I can taste the difference, barely. No one else in my family can. I do use kosher salt for making broth. Or when recipes call for it, because i don’t want to muck with converting the volumes. My kosher salt is diamond , not because i was looking for diamond brand, but because that’s what’s available. It’s a common brand here in the northeastern US. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/167 "2023-12-28T17:01:22Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > I found [two](https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/prevent-measurement-mishaps-with-this-simple-salt-conversion-chart-article) [websites](https://food52.com/blog/16824-you-re-not-crazy-there-is-a-difference-between-morton-s-and-diamond-crystal) that both say their recipes use Diamond Crystal unless otherwise specified Thank you, that’s really helpful! I noticed one of them also said that the majority of their Twitter respondents use Mortons, though, so I still don’t think it’s safe to assume that folks are using diamond. It really sounds like recipe authors should be specifying. And better yet, they should be using table salt when salt is dissolved in water. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/168 "2023-12-28T17:10:58Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > It really sounds like recipe authors should be specifying. What they probably should be doing is writing the recipe using weight (like the rest of the world does) , in which case brand doesn’t matter. But I don’t see that happening any time soon. ---
**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 28, 2023, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/169 "2023-12-28T17:11:45Z")
I assume table salt unless “kosher salt” is specified. But maybe my convos are older than what’s current. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/170 "2023-12-28T17:14:52Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > But i wouldn’t serve it to anyone who keeps kosher. I wouldn’t serve anything to anyone who has dietary restrictions against it. > [@puzzlegal](#): > > And yeah, kosher is very much about the letter of the law, and the more observant someone is, the more this is true. To a non-Jew, it sounds very complicated. Maybe we need a thread to explain it. By the ‘letter of the law’ (Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26, Deuteronomy 14:21), ‘You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.’ By the letter of the law, it’s perfectly acceptable to eat a kid that was grilled and have some goat cheese melted on top of it, because it wasn’t boiled in its mother’s milk. Technically, it could be boiled in another goat’s milk because it’s not it’s mother’s milk. And those passages say nothing about other animals. But from [here](https://www.jewfaq.org/kosher_dietary_laws): > The [Oral Torah](https://www.jewfaq.org/glossary?oral) explains that this passage prohibits eating meat and dairy together in any form. The [rabbis](https://www.jewfaq.org/glossary?rabbi) extended this prohibition to include not eating milk and poultry together, even though birds do not produce milk. In addition, the [Talmud](https://www.jewfaq.org/glossary?talmud) prohibits cooking meat and fish together or serving them on the same plates, because it is considered to be unhealthy. Most opinions hold it is permissible to eat fish and dairy together, and it is quite common (lox and cream cheese, for example), though some [Sephardic](https://www.jewfaq.org/glossary?sephardic) communities prohibit this, for the same health reason as fish and meat. All sources permit eating dairy and eggs together, so enjoy that cheese omelette! I don’t want to hijack this thread further, nor engage in ‘rules lawyering’. It’s just very confusing, especially with regard to ‘the letter of the law’ and the interpretations of that which is not stated. I’ll read a new thread though, in the interest of fighting my ignorance. (That prohibition of cooking meat and fish together really puts the kibosh on my Jambalaya! Not that it would be kosher anyway, because of the Andouille and the shrimp.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/171 "2023-12-28T17:16:55Z")
Yeah, here in Chicago, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Diamond. It’s mostly Morton’s or store brand. Hell, I never even heard of Diamond until maybe ten years ago. In most recipes, especially stews and broths, you can just taste as you go along. I never use salt measurements for this. I just add enough at the end so it’s salty enough. If I have to add before (like when sweating vegetables), I just sprinkle enough that it looks right and go from there, tasting at the end, erring on the side of under salting. My mom likes dishes under salted for my tastes. My wife likes dishes over salted for my tastes, so if I’m cooking for all three, I just aim for my mom’s taste and adjust at the table. There’s no one “right” salt level, so I don’t care what a recipe says. Taste and adjust. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/172 "2023-12-28T18:45:38Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > What they probably should be doing is writing the recipe using weight (like the rest of the world does) , in which case brand doesn’t matter. But I don’t see that happening any time soon. A teaspoon of salt is between 5 and 6 grams. Most kitchen scales aren’t accurate enough to measure amounts that small. I looked up some recipes on British web sites, like [bbcgoodfood.com](http://bbcgoodfood.com) and [greatbritishchefs.com](http://greatbritishchefs.com). For small amounts of ingredients like salt they use volume measurements. Here’s one that calls for a teaspoon of salt (along with volume measurements of other ingredients): > **[BBQ Fish Recipe](https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/grilled-pomfret-fish-chilli-lime-sauce-recipe)** > > Having a barbecue in your garden is one of the nicest ways to eat in the sunshine. You want it to be as fuss-free as possible - food that can be prepared in minimal time but still tastes delicious. Yen’s great recipe for grilled fish is a perfect... For other recipes, the same web site uses weight measurements for larger amounts of things like butter: > **[Cottage Pie Recipe](https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/cottage-pie-recipe)** > > Adam Byatt's cottage pie recipe is truly spectacular, being both homely and intricate Note that the cottage pie recipe uses volume measurements for liquid ingredients like milk and wine. The recipes I found on the BBC website don’t call for measured amounts of salt, but they do use both weight and volume measurements for other ingredients: > **[Cumberland pie](https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/crispy-topped-cumberland-pie)** > > This crisp, potato-topped beef and vegetable pie is slow-cooked and inexpensive to make. It's a great family meal but smart enough for entertaining too. > **[Beef & ale suet pudding](https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/beef-ale-parsnip-pudding)** > > A traditional steak and ale pie with parsnips and suet pastry. Make the filling the night before then steam the pudding the following morning for Sunday lunch I tried to find recipes on French websites, but all I could find were recipes for French food on English language websites. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/173 "2023-12-28T18:59:59Z")
Here you go (gift link): > **[What Happened to Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt?](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/01/dining/diamond-crystal-kosher-salt.html?mwgrp=a-dbar&unlocked_article_code=1.JU0.-_f7.35eUPp-tATPb&smid=url-share)** > > With minimalist branding and a higher price point, the salt brand is now chasing after “the aspiring home chef.” ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/174 "2023-12-28T19:03:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > > [@Chingon](#): > > > > Let’s say I need you to fill a 15 mL hemisphere with salt. Do you really think you’ll get the same mass if you have cubic crystals that are 1 mm on each side and 10mm? Do you think the mass would converge to some limit as the size of the salt crystal decreased? > > The mass would indeed converge to some limit as the size of the salt crystal decreased, and even large salt crystals are small enough compared to any measuring container that you can consider yourself to be at that limit. > > > [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > > > Ignore the difference at your peril. > > It’s literally impossible to ignore the difference, because you can’t ignore something that doesn’t exist. > > There are contexts where the size of salt grain matters, where it’s going to be on the surface of the food as solid grains (like pretzels). But in most recipes, it’s going to be dissolved anyway, in which case the grain size makes no difference whatsoever. Not directly food related, but I have enjoyed the discussion on the calculus of calculi 😁. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/175 "2023-12-28T22:10:03Z")
Damn, Home economics teacher for pushing them measuring cups and spoons on me. Not to mention _The Joy of Cooking_ and about a gazillion other cook books. Man. My life was ruined by those Pyrex people. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/176 "2023-12-28T22:38:26Z")
FYI, [here](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/dining/tipping-the-balance-for-kitchen-scales.html?unlocked_article_code=1.JU0.GHp1.-iNXz_gxOpS_&smid=url-share) is a gift link to a twelve-year-old New York Times article suggesting that measuring ingredients by weight is more accurate and easier than doing so by volume. For one thing, a “cup of flour” can vary by several ounces. It might be easier as well. > “The greatest feat the kitchen scale accomplishes is that it turns almost any recipe into a one-bowl recipe,” said Deb Perelman, who writes the blog Smitten Kitchen. “You’re not hunting for six cups and six spoons to make a cake.” > > Instead, you place a bowl on the scale, then pour the flour straight from the bag until you get to the desired weight. Most kitchen scales let you bring the readout back to zero after each ingredient. Do that, then pour your next ingredient — and so on. With a scale you can get away with using nothing more than a bowl and one spoon. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/177 "2023-12-28T23:14:55Z")
But, but, _but!_ Where’s the fun in cooking if you haven’t gotten to play with 100 of your carefully curated and matched designer utensils? Most of which need to be hand-washed afterwards so the dishwasher doesn’t “ruin” them in some unspecified and unidentifiable way. As you might have gathered, I’m a one bowl one spoon guy. My new wife is … not. She does however, make a very tasty mess and considers clean-up her job, not mine. So it’s OK. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/178 "2023-12-28T23:21:05Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > considers clean-up her job, not mine. I often clean as I go. As for measurements, sometimes I’m very exact, and often I use the TLAR method. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2023, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/179 "2023-12-29T00:50:10Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > “The greatest feat the kitchen scale accomplishes is that it turns almost any recipe into a one-bowl recipe,” said Deb Perelman, who writes the blog Smitten Kitchen. “You’re not hunting for six cups and six spoons to make a cake.” > > Instead, you place a bowl on the scale, then pour the flour straight from the bag until you get to the desired weight. Most kitchen scales let you bring the readout back to zero after each ingredient. Do that, then pour your next ingredient — and so on. With a scale you can get away with using nothing more than a bowl and one spoon. Ooh, I use my kitchen scale every day, but I’ve never had the courage to do this. What would happen is I’d measure out the flour, sugar, butter, and whatever else just fine, then when adding the salt my hand would shake and I’d add half a cup, ruining everything else already in the bowl. (This applies whether it’s Morton’s or special dodecahedronic crystals or ice cream rock salt, which by the way is totally edible provided you have fresh ice cream to wash it down with.) Instead I do mise-en-place with little bowls of everything individually weighed. The exception is Nestle’s Toll House Cookies, where the recipe on the back of the package must be slavishly followed. It has no weights indicated, but 2 1/4 cups of flour is ALWAYS the correct amount, whether it happens to weigh one pound or ten that day. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2023, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007/180 "2023-12-29T01:01:33Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > On the theory that they put the iodine in it because it’s good for you > Prior to the 1920s, endemic iodine deficiency was prevalent in the Great Lakes, Appalachians, and Northwestern regions of the U.S., a geographic area known as the “goiter belt”, where 26%–70% of children had clinically apparent goiter. During the draft for World War I, a Michigan physician, Simon Levin, observed that 30.3% of 583 registrants had thyromegaly (including both toxic and nontoxic goiters), many of which were large enough to disqualify them from the military, in accordance with U.S. Selective Service regulations. Subsequent surveillance studies in the following year by Levin and R.M. Olin, Commissioner of the Michigan State Department of Public Health, demonstrated that the prevalence of goiter reached as high as 64.4% in some parts of Michigan. > > David Marine, a U.S. physician in Ohio, and his colleagues initiated an iodine prophylaxis program in over 2100 schoolgirls in 1917. Over the next few years, he and colleagues published a series of papers reporting a significantly decreased frequency of goiter in children treated with iodine (0.2%), compared to children who did not receive iodine supplementation (\>25%). In 1922, David Cowie, chairman of the Pediatrics Department at the University of Michigan, proposed at a Michigan State Medical Society thyroid symposium that the U.S. adopt salt iodization to eliminate simple goiter. His work with the Society over the next few years, through the development of the Iodized Salt Committee, was instrumental in the history of the U.S. iodine supplementation effort. > **[History of U.S. Iodine Fortification and Supplementation](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3509517/)** > > Iodine is a micronutrient required for thyroid hormone production. This review highlights the history of the discovery of iodine and its uses, discusses the sources of iodine nutrition, and summarizes the current recommendations for iodine intake... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-omnipresence-of-food-snobbery-in-everyday-recipes/995007.md?page=10)