Discussion
I'm an OK home cook, never had any training. I like to cook and watch cooking shows. One thing I've never been able to fully get my head around is seasoning. I know you need to do it and I'm always putting salt and pepper on things. But when a recipe says check the seasoning and adjust if necessary I've no idea what I am looking for when I taste the food.
I've eaten in Michelin starred resturants before and the predominant seasoning in them mostly seemed to be salt. Is that what I am looking for? What's pepper do?
I knownthat is a noddy question buy I've never got my head round it.
I've eaten in Michelin starred resturants before and the predominant seasoning in them mostly seemed to be salt. Is that what I am looking for? What's pepper do?
I knownthat is a noddy question buy I've never got my head round it.
21TonyK said:
I shall reply in the morning. It's nothing too difficult but it does have be explained. I did three years formal training at catering college and only in year 3 were we taught how to season food correctly.
As a precursor... have you lots of potato's to hand?
The only reason one puts potatoes in mashed potato is so the butter and double cream do not split.... :-)As a precursor... have you lots of potato's to hand?
Potato is a classic example of what seasoning does and why its required. We have just started to wean our 5 month old and mashed potato with no salt, butter, pepper or cream tastes like crap.
I’ll qualify this by saying taste is subjective. Everyone’s sense of taste is different and influenced by a huge number of factors most people aren’t even aware of. But, the basic principal of seasoning food “correctly” applies to all.
This is how I was taught the basics of seasoning with salt and how I have taught it to others since.
First off peel a few potatoes, simmer in unsalted water until soft and then mash until smooth. You now have a pan of mashed potato.
Take out a few spoons into a bowl and taste it. It’s bland and relatively tasteless.
Add a tiny pinch of salt and mix thoroughly. Taste again. Probably much the same.
Add another pinch of salt and taste again. Might start tasting a bit more of potato.
Repeat again. You should find the potato flavour increasing slowly.
Repeat until you will hit the point it starts to taste salty. That’s when you have over seasoned it for your taste.
This is the very basic principal of enhancing flavour with seasoning.
The next step is to look at seasoning as you cook and the principals are different for different things but for boiled potatoes it means adding salt to the water. How much is not dependent on how many potatoes you are cooking but the volume of water they are cooked in. This is going to be something you have to play around with until you find your preferred level of seasoning. Start with about 3g of salt per litre of water to begin with and work up or down from there. For pasta or rice you will probably find you want more. For me, a lot more.
The other factor is the amount of time the food being cooked remains in the water. For example blanching broccoli needs a much higher salt content than simmering root vegetables.
The only real way to find your preferred level of seasoning (with salt) is to experiment. Once you find it try to stick to it and be wary of “salt creep” as you will soon become accustomed to it and that’s when your seasoning levels start to increase to the point others may not enjoy it.
Once you get this bit right you can start introducing other seasonings which are added after cooking, the usual one is ground white pepper which again is a neurological flavour enhancer.
Theres a huge amount of science behind food flavour, anything by Prof. Charles Spence is worth a read.
This is how I was taught the basics of seasoning with salt and how I have taught it to others since.
First off peel a few potatoes, simmer in unsalted water until soft and then mash until smooth. You now have a pan of mashed potato.
Take out a few spoons into a bowl and taste it. It’s bland and relatively tasteless.
Add a tiny pinch of salt and mix thoroughly. Taste again. Probably much the same.
Add another pinch of salt and taste again. Might start tasting a bit more of potato.
Repeat again. You should find the potato flavour increasing slowly.
Repeat until you will hit the point it starts to taste salty. That’s when you have over seasoned it for your taste.
This is the very basic principal of enhancing flavour with seasoning.
The next step is to look at seasoning as you cook and the principals are different for different things but for boiled potatoes it means adding salt to the water. How much is not dependent on how many potatoes you are cooking but the volume of water they are cooked in. This is going to be something you have to play around with until you find your preferred level of seasoning. Start with about 3g of salt per litre of water to begin with and work up or down from there. For pasta or rice you will probably find you want more. For me, a lot more.
The other factor is the amount of time the food being cooked remains in the water. For example blanching broccoli needs a much higher salt content than simmering root vegetables.
The only real way to find your preferred level of seasoning (with salt) is to experiment. Once you find it try to stick to it and be wary of “salt creep” as you will soon become accustomed to it and that’s when your seasoning levels start to increase to the point others may not enjoy it.
Once you get this bit right you can start introducing other seasonings which are added after cooking, the usual one is ground white pepper which again is a neurological flavour enhancer.
Theres a huge amount of science behind food flavour, anything by Prof. Charles Spence is worth a read.
21TonyK said:
The only real way to find your preferred level of seasoning (with salt) is to experiment. Once you find it try to stick to it and be wary of “salt creep” as you will soon become accustomed to it and that’s when your seasoning levels start to increase to the point others may not enjoy it.
I've lost count of the number of times I have unsuccessfully tried to explain this to a (typically quite experienced) chef.Potatoes are a great shout. Roasties in particular benefit more than any food I can think of from quite a heavy seasoning.
thebraketester said:
Cook a curry and don’t add salt. There is nothing less satisfying than an unseasoned curry.
Pretty much any underseasoned meat dish makes me sad. Conversely I can't stand salty veg. Nothing worse than hiding the flavour of some beautifully fresh veg with too much salt, Gary Rhodes I'm looking at you.Bacon Is Proof said:
thebraketester said:
Cook a curry and don’t add salt. There is nothing less satisfying than an unseasoned curry.
Pretty much any underseasoned meat dish makes me sad. Conversely I can't stand salty veg. Nothing worse than hiding the flavour of some beautifully fresh veg with too much salt, Gary Rhodes I'm looking at you.Tomatoes need salt
I always make sure I have a good stock of seasoning. Cajun, turmeric, and paprika are what I seem to use the most. Pick up some plain chicken thighs, a selection of different seasonings and make a lightly season some a few hours before cooking. As others have said there is no set rule when it comes to amounts but something like turmeric is extremely potent so use small amounts.
Once you get to know them they can a 'normal' dish abit of a lift.
Once you get to know them they can a 'normal' dish abit of a lift.
21TonyK, that's a very good explanation, tks. Seasoning is quite subjective - when I eat in a good restaurant (remember those days?) I often find the food is overseasoned for my taste. Not so much that it tastes bad, far from it, just that if I used that much salt in everyday cooking I suspect my blood pressure would go through the roof!
So I probably underseason my cooking, but too much salt is bad for you and that's how I like it;)
Harold Magee is also v good on the science of cooking generally.
So I probably underseason my cooking, but too much salt is bad for you and that's how I like it;)
Harold Magee is also v good on the science of cooking generally.
I was tipped on a course that when chefs advise on a “pinch” of salt during cooking, they specifically refer to bog standard table salt and it is apparently as much as you can fit in a pinch with three fingers.
This initially feels quite wrong but it gets you on their mindset as a starter for ten. Certainly when making curries it has really helped things massively. Chefs don’t appear to deal in teaspoons for seasoning purposes, but pinches.
Now I would say the average pinch is significantly more than a teaspoon, but one pinch for me is usually pretty spot on as a starting point for pretty much anything I have cooked in a sort of standard sized pan in a domestic setting feeding 4-6 people!
Clearly seasoning yourself post cooking with your Maldon or extravagant pink salts etc is a different story, a full pinch of that sort of stuff could be really quite something!
This initially feels quite wrong but it gets you on their mindset as a starter for ten. Certainly when making curries it has really helped things massively. Chefs don’t appear to deal in teaspoons for seasoning purposes, but pinches.
Now I would say the average pinch is significantly more than a teaspoon, but one pinch for me is usually pretty spot on as a starting point for pretty much anything I have cooked in a sort of standard sized pan in a domestic setting feeding 4-6 people!
Clearly seasoning yourself post cooking with your Maldon or extravagant pink salts etc is a different story, a full pinch of that sort of stuff could be really quite something!
dontlookdown said:
Harold Magee is also v good on the science of cooking generally.
Indeed. Anyone with a real interest in cooking should pick up a copy of "The Science and Lore of the Kitchen"There's a reason restaurant food tastes so good.
The Chef doesn't love you.
They want your money. If you die early through unhealthy levels of salt, fat and sugar they don't care.
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