# Oversalting Food = In Love? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 30, 2004, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oversalting-food-in-love/262309 "2004-08-30T21:59:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oversalting-food-in-love/262309/1 "2004-08-30T21:59:35Z")
Obviously, I don’t think this is true. I’m just curious about whether I’ve just somehow missed this saying. Today I was at a friend’s place and she was making rice. She offered me a bowl, commenting that she was afraid she may have put too much salt in it. When she tasted it, she said, “Yup, _way_ too much… I must be in love.” Apparently this is a proverb or maxim that I’d never heard. Is this a common saying, or was she yanking my chain? If so, what are its origins? ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oversalting-food-in-love/262309/2 "2004-08-31T05:44:46Z")
Where is your friend from? I’ve never heard of it, but it could be a regionalism. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oversalting-food-in-love/262309/3 "2004-08-31T05:57:14Z")
I’ve never come across that saying here in Australia. ---
**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:** [August 31, 2004, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oversalting-food-in-love/262309/4 "2004-08-31T06:20:56Z")
I’ve heard it. Mostly from Eastern Europeans. It’s a fairly common saying there. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oversalting-food-in-love/262309/5 "2004-08-31T06:21:25Z")
Maybe it has something to do with the movie cliche of someone staring off into space, wistfully thinking of the one they love, when suddenly they hear someone shouting at them and they’ve poured a whole pot of coffee into their mug, overfilled someone’s gas tank, or emptied an entire shaker of salt onto someone’s fries? ---
**Author:** ![Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stark_Raven_Mad)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oversalting-food-in-love/262309/6 "2004-08-31T10:14:12Z")
My mom (who’s Indonesian) will make this quip when the maid oversalts the food. ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_Holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oversalting-food-in-love/262309/7 "2004-08-31T12:33:35Z")
> [@Ace309](#): > > Is this a common saying, or was she yanking my chain? If so, what are its origins? It’s very common in southern Germany. Almost everyone says that the cook must have been in love if the food is too salty. As to the origins … I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oversalting-food-in-love/262309/8 "2004-08-31T16:18:34Z")
Interesting. Because **GilaB** asked, the cook in question is from Southern Florida, of Cuban descent, and is religiously but not ethnically Jewish. (She refers to herself as pure Cuban on both sides, so I’m guessing she doesn’t have or acknowledge an Eastern European ethnic history.) ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oversalting-food-in-love/262309/9 "2004-08-31T17:29:55Z")
**Aesiron** , I believe that it was in a movie I first heard this expression. It was Iron Eagle - and Lou Gossett was explaining how the mission was going to go down, and the kid wasn’t getting something that should have been fairly obvious right, and Lou Gossett says “You must be in love” and then shows him the correct way in a kind of “DUH” like manner. I say it to my husband when he does something completely boneheaded. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SlyFrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@SlyFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlyFrog)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oversalting-food-in-love/262309/10 "2004-08-31T18:09:43Z")
Perhaps it could originate from the general tendency for men to like salty food while women like sweet food.