I know this is the general concensus now. The line is that it will “insult the cook” that you don’t trust her to add the “correct” amount of salt.
I also recall, as do most of you, when this was not a concern for anyone. Everybody salted whenever they felt like it and nobody cared.
I ask for two reasons:
There must be a salt shaker sitting out in order for this faux pas to even occur, so there is some admission that people may prefer more salt.
Since I am thus allowed to salt, isn’t it more “insulting” to the cook after I taste it than before?
Why is hot sauce different? And butter, and sugar for coffee. I can still add those without hearing people gasp.
Not relevant. Since people’s tastes vary, it is recognized that some people might want to add more salt than the cook has, especially since the cook may go light to help those on low sodium diets.
No, since adding before just assumes the cook didn’t salt to your taste, as opposed to testing first.
butter you can see. Coffee usually comes without sugar or cream by default, so you know how much is in. (Would you add sugar without tasting to a coffee regular that comes with sugar?) Hot sauce I taste first if the dish usually comes hot.
The real reason is that Admiral Rickover wouldn’t hire you if you salted first. I know someone who did work on nuclear subs who claimed he was tested in this way - but I’m not totally sure I believe him.
If you salt first by default, the cook is going to assume one of two things:
That the guest expects that the food will have not been salted enough, which casts doubt upon the cook’s skill.
That the guest, by salting everything by default, has a poor palate and isn’t able to appreciate good food anyway. Any future efforts to create a decent dish for the guest will be wasted.
This was a particular bugbear of mine living in Ireland, where many, many people do this to every dish.
How do you know if the dish you’re given is salty enough? Some people have told me that without exception everything they’re given isn’t salty enough. I guess it’s personal taste.
However, I am a hypocrite because do find it acceptable to salt stuff like an unsalted egg without tasting, since everyone knows how that tastes without salt.
Just ch8iming in to agree with GargoyleWB’s assessment. Most host/guest social interactions involve a compromise between a host’s dignity and a guest’s comfort. You’re trying to maximize both.
Usually, this doesn’t bother me. The exception is my mother-in-law: when my MIL does it (which is only all the time), it drives me so batty I can’t stand it.
As a cook, I don’t take it as an insult - I’m fully aware that I probably don’t use enough salt in my cooking, so the foods I cook (while tasty) are more likely to be under-salted than anything else. I know this. But she doesn’t even taste it first! She just assumes it needs more salt! And she does it everywhere - my house, restaurants, even her own damn cooking. I can’t take it! Drives me insane! The woman would salt corned beef! Gah!
Someday I’m gonna make something that’s really salty, then just sit there and grin when she salts it a second time. Someday.
Michaela does this all the time. Adds salt and pepper to just about everything. Sheesh. Nine years old and she’s got a palate like she’s been smoking for aboiut twenty-five of 'em.
It’s like a having a ship’s helm attached to my crotch.
Basically because you don’t know how salty it is before you put the salt on it. As others have said - some of your counter examples don’t work, since most people don’t dose your coffee or tea for you.
As for hot sauce… I always taste first there, too. Unless it’s my own cooking.
I hadn’t heard that story. However, given what I’ve heard about Rickover, I don’t doubt it. Rickover was a egotistical, controlling, mean-spirited, demanding, whimsical bastard. (With no offense meant to his parents.) He’s reported, by persons whom I trust, to have kept an interview chair in his office with the front two legs sawed two inches shorter than the rear two legs, to put interviewees off balance.
Yes, I don’t think it’s necessarily rude. I just think it’s odd to salt something before you’ve tasted it. The only really logical course of action is to taste your food and then add salt or pepper to accommodate your palatte.
I’ve never heard that it was rude not to do this, but I do remember in the 80s this being somewhat of a personality assessment technique for HR people interviewing potential candidates for a particular position. Supposedly, HR would take someone out to dinner, and if the candidate salted their food before tasting it, this would indicate that they are apt to jump to conclusions without first considering the situation thoughtfully, or something like that. At the face of it, it does somewhat make sense, but it’s rather stupid to hire or not hire someone based on their eating habits.
The comments about it being impossible to know something needs more salt before you taste it are just wrong. Take this poster:
What you don’t seem to be noticing is that she likes it with extra salt. All the time.
Believe me, if you had put too much salt on something you would know it. So if she doesn’t complain, why would you?
If I ever salted something and it got too salty I would know, and be more squeemish about it next time. But since that hasn’t happened yet, it’s safe to say I just like things saltier than other people.
You know how some people always like everything hotter than you? And add hot sauce to hot chili and also to mild things like eggs? Well salt is like that as well, very much a matter of taste.
The Romans had a phrase for it “De gustibus non disputatum est” You can’t dispute taste.
And I wonder how much of it is a self-fulfilling prophecy (sp? never liked that word). I presume that a familiarity with salty foods will make you notice subtle salting less and less. In which case, adding a little salt to everything means that a delicately-salted item tastes bland. So you get into the habit of adding a bit more. And then a well-salted item tastes bland. Repeat until coronary interruption.
Oh, and I agree with GargoyleWB. It’s an insult. Imagine if you cooked a spicy meal, and without tasting it someone disappears to the kitchen to fetch a habanero sauce to pour over the top? Or you make a cocktail, and they top it up from a hipflask?
Is it rude if the food isn’t something that everyone adds salt to anyway? I only put salt on two things: a. pasta (I can’t have tomato sauce, ftr) b. corn on the cob.
No one who cooks these two things for me, besides me, puts any salt on them, which I find a little odd; pasta with just butter is nearly tasteless without salt. So I do, before I even taste them. Rude or not?
[urban legend, I’m sure]
Thomas Edison used to take potential job candidates out to lunch during their job interviews. If they salted their food before tasting it, he would not hire them. This, he said, was because they did not know how to conduct a controlled experiment.
[/urban legend, I’m sure]