Salt & Pepper on the table?

[21TonyK]

Simple question, just pondering how many people actually have salt and pepper on the table? We don't but there's a salt box on the side in the kitchen from which I grab a pinch for chips or rice. Other than that we don't add salt or pepper to food once its on the plate. Only exception is a pepper grinder but that's normally added to the pan.

[Shaw Tarse]

If the food is properly seasoned you shouldn't need salt, though many will add it before tasting!

[Mobile Chicane]

I put S&P on the table, but this is mostly out of habit.

I rarely use the salt myself, but fling black pepper over almost everything purely because I like it.

[Don]

I like my food very well seasoned. So much so that my tastebuds cannot be trusted for anyone else.

So I add little or no salt in cooking deliberately. Then I season the food for ME...and my tablemates can all add just what they want and no more.

There are some foods like mashed potato, or pasta that need salt adding during cooking. Even then I deliberately under salt the food - so I can season it the way I want it and so can others.

I don't feel that "chef" naturally knows best. They are my tastebuds. I'm the one experiencing the food. I'll eat it how I damn well like. When in restaurants I will always try the food without any additional seasoning, mind. Pro chefs use a LOT of salt...

[hman]

Shaw Tarse said:

If the food is properly seasoned you shouldn't need salt, though many will add it before tasting!

this.

My FIL bangs the salt on pre-taste, luckily for him I have never had to cook for him because I would salt the living fk out of his dinner on purpose.

[Hoover.]

living on my own.... it doesn't make it to the table, as I season to taste in the pan......... only recently realised why some of my food seemed lacking, despite good ingredients..... was missing salt, always used to skimp due to the salt police telling me it was bad.

Always bought up with it on the table though, so out of habit I guess it would go on the table.

[paolow]

hman said:

this.

My FIL bangs the salt on pre-taste, luckily for him I have never had to cook for him because I would salt the living fk out of his dinner on purpose.

And this again. Drives me crazy when it happens.
Although she doesnt do it with my food, Mrs Paolow has a habit of 'pre-taste' waving her mums salt pot over the food her mum cooks for us on Sundays every single time.
I say 'waving over the food' because the hole has been blocked (by me) for months now yet she continues to persist...
I don't know whats worse - that she keeps doing it or that I'm sad enough to have considered the experiment to see if she'd notice in the first place....

[ambuletz]

I've never had the need to add extra salt or pepper to many peoples home-cooked meals. Only time ive ever really added salt to a food is if its a plate of chips... which should always be cooked without salt.

[Cheese Mechanic]

Always have salt/pepper on the table. Table owner may not wish it, but others may.

From a persoanl perspective,I rarely add salt, but do add small amounts to some things when cooked, rice, spuds, etc. As for pepper, entirely a different thing. I have a grinder with 4 kinds of peppercorns , black, white , green and red, in roughly similar proportions. Add pepper to virtually everything that can be termed "main course" , but thats just me. Love the stuff.

ETA . Pepper added after cooking.

[Sticks.]

Don said:

There are some foods like mashed potato, or pasta that need salt adding during cooking. Even then I deliberately under salt the food - so I can season it the way I want it and so can others.

Pasta's nice with a little butter mixed in after draining rather than adding salt.

I was brought up with salt added as normal, but never use it now, even on chips. It's just what you get used to, or not.

[Murph7355]

"...properly seasoned..." is surely subjective to a point? (e.g. to the OP, I totally agree that chips need salt...but then I have never, ever felt the need to put salt on rice).

Not tasting food first is daft, but having the option to hand once tasted is fine IMO.

[Some Gump]

Deffo S+P on the table.

Everyone knows fish and chips go with salt. I use over double the amount my wife does. How can chef possibly know best on the amount of salt to put on a plate?

Meanwhile, she likes white pepper, which we all know is the work of the devil. I like black pepper (in quantity). Again, how can chef know best?

Some claim that when you get to Fine Dining (TM), it'd be disrespectful to the chef to request salt. I wholeheartedly disagree. If you consider the most recent Masterchef tP, the 3 god awful food experts hated the geordie lads food. The chefs loved it. Since it's a given that both are the epitome of Fine Dining (TM), then it shows that induviduals have different tastes, so it's not disrespectful to anyone to like the food you've just bought to taste like you want it to.

I might be a heathen though - I've done the fine dining thing a few times and always think it's too busy being fancy to be a proper portion...

[sleep envy]

The in-laws season on the plate, both S & P pre-taste.

Annoys the fk out of me.

Edited by sleep envy on Saturday 29th November 22:16

[threespires]

I noticed a number of Brits in restaurants in N France last week pile the salt on before tasting.
I always find that an odd thing to do.

[jimbop1]

Murph7355 said:

"...properly seasoned..." is surely subjective to a point? (e.g. to the OP, I totally agree that chips need salt...but then I have never, ever felt the need to put salt on rice).

Not tasting food first is daft, but having the option to hand once tasted is fine IMO.

Salt on rice is essential!

[Don]

Sticks. said:

It's just what you get used to, or not.

I don't believe so. Your taste buds tell you what you need. (Admittedly this can and does go wrong for people).

So if you crave salt your body most probably needs it. But this does mean one should taste the food first! When out I will always taste first. At home I don't have to because I cooked the food and I know exactly how much salt there is in it - none.

[Bill]

I've got used to a low salt diet since we've had kids but put I on the table when we have adult guests eating. I now find KFC unbearably salty.

[Sharted]

Salt'n'Peppa on the table?

Ladies, all the ladies, louder now............

[RYH64E]

We don't have salt on the table but always have a pepper grinder, the reason being that my wife and I both like lots of pepper with our food but the kids hate it, so I cook with very little and add at the table. I don't put salt on the table because I don't want the kids to add too much.

[Bullett]

My MIL is a pre-taste adder which annoys me.
The wife used to be but I've beaten that out of her and it was always pepper not salt.

My cooking was revolutionised what I learnt not to be afraid of the salt police.