To wonder why no one seasons food anymore

I've got terrible low blood pressure so am under doctor's orders to eat more salt as it seems to work in stopping me fainting. I therefore salt pretty much everything I eat, however I still can't hack eating at MILs who uses more salt than anyone I know in absolutely everything. Every time I eat there I am chronically parched for days.

I season everything pre cooking/whilst cooking depending on what it is, does it need salt, pepper, herbs, spices, acid etc, then cook. I add salt after if I haven't used it in cooking, it's up to everyone else how they season at the table.

Should have been 980 milligrams… I was out by a factor of 1000!

I got out of the habit of adding salt to most things when DS was going on to solids but things like soy sauce, stock cubes, nam pla are salty enough and I use those so I suppose we don't have a salt-free house.

I don't salt meat unless the salt was part of a wider herb/spice blend as a rub. Same with veg - though roasted veg does benefit from a small sprinkle of salt

My aunt salts her cooking heavily. And when she's dishing up will salt her plate heavily again before actually tasting it. Her cooking is far too salty for me. It's all you can taste on the whole plate and I'm thirsty for hours afterwards!

I stopped adding salt when DD was weaning and haven’t missed it at all. She is only 2 now and I still don’t add salt as she will get enough from other ingredients like soy sauce and cheese. My DH doesn’t like pepper so I tend to just leave salt and pepper on the table to be added if someone wants it.

I always though it was oversalted processed food that was bad for you. Whereas a bit of salt in a home cooked meal is fairly necessary I think.

I can't imagine steak without some salt on it, or dal without salt, or chips without salt.

Agree that using soy, fish sauce, parmesan, bacon or all ways of using salt and I'd taste before adding any more.

I find when people are served food in restaurants to cover the plate with salt, before tasting a mouth an insult.

Nearly a kilo of salt per serving? Are you sure you weren’t just drinking seawater?

I rarely add it.
I ate a packaged soup the other day. I couldn't finish it - the amount of salt was ridiculous and overwhelmed the taste (980 gms per serving according to the packet!!).

What I do find highly amusing is that it only seems to be countries that are stereotypically consider to be crap at cooking (eg England and USA) that seem to tie themselves in knots about salt. I grew up abroad, in a city well renowned for having a diverse population of migrants from countries typically considered to have very tasty ethnic food (eg Greece, Italy, Middle East, South East Asia). None of my friends at school (or their families) gave 2 tosses about salt, unless they were specifically told to by their Dr, and regularly seasoned their food. There wasn't rampant salt related high blood pressure or strokes in these communities

Unfortunately in countries like England & the UK, where highly processed takeaway food is common and similarly cooking with processed or salty foods is common as part of their cuisine, the gov feels it necessary to warn about salt content (which they should). But that then gets interpreted as "Any amount of salt, even if you cook from scratch at home is the devil" when really it ought to be interpreted as "The amount of salt in takeaways is bad, and you should limit intake of highly salty foods like bacon or spam, but regular seasoning in your home cooking is totally fine"

Can't stand pepper and salt is just a crisp flavour as far as I'm concerned.
But I do cover everything in paprika and garlic instead! (To the point that all my containers have an orangey hue!).

And I wouldn’t eat it without

@CheeseSandwichRiskAssessment no idea, I would hazard a guess at dietary requirements/ health advice or a bit of both. We do cater for vegetarians, vegans, gluten free and halal plus anything else anyone requires.

I’m just a minion support staff not a chef! but I agree with salt etc not being outright bad, like a lot of things in life, a little is good, a lot … not so much.

Sorry what? Pepper is banned from a school? Why Salt is essential in small quantities too.

yup I cook from scratch and yes I sometimes use seasoning mixes that contain salt. What I don't do is put salt on meat before I roast it or salt the water that I cook vegetables in. I find a lot of the seasoning mixes though, whether bought made or made from a recipe, are way too salty for my taste.

I don’t season meat but I do put salt in potatoes when I boil them

Depends what you're making too and the other ingredients

I made cottage pie today
The mince had stock cubes and marmite added so no extra salt
I salted the potato water for the mash and then added whole grain mustard and some cheese

Tea was a chicken wrap thing
Chicken seasoned with a seasoning that already has salt in
I added a little to the salad as the recipe included grated cucumber and salting it to draw out the moisture

I don't add loads but I do season including salt, pepper, herbs etc
Blood pressure is fine

We don't add salt because it's all you can taste, but we use pepper and herbs and spices to add flavour.

I am 60 and I rarely use salt in cooking, i don't like how it tastes. You definitely dont need it on a roast if you are having gravy with it, thats full of salt. I would put it on chips though.

I HATE pre seasoned food, if I want seasoning, I’ll do it myself.
I can’t tolerate black pepper and everything these days seems to be full of it, even sandwiches.

I’m at the point now where I can’t enjoy going out to eat, the last carvery we visited had fucking garlic in the gravy - WHY?

Yes, I cook from scratch. Thinking of some things I've made this week:

quiche - has mustard (contains salt?) and lemon juice, and hard cheese is already salty/salted

broccoli gratin - again, has mustard and hard cheese so I don't feel it also needs salt, plus the butter was salted

lasagne - butter for the béchamel was salted, used store bought lasagne sheets that are surely salted, and used red peppers in the tomato sauce (homemade, with herbs) with the minced beef which seemed sufficiently flavoursome without salt

salmon fillets - just added lemon juice and black pepper

Not read the thread but in my experience it's the opposite way round - people cover their plates in salt before they've even tasted the food, so how can they know if it needs salt or pepper?

Exactly this. I also have to ask when eating out that they don’t add salt. Italian restaurants seem especially bad at adding salt.

I cook from scratch (mostly), yes. I'm not a no salt person and I would probably use it in a rub, but I find many herbs and spices enough really and if not, I'd season the food at the table.

People who don't use salt when cooking, do you cook from scratch ? Because for example, the pulled pork I just made was cooked using a spice rub that if it hadn't included salt would have been tasteless!

I wonder if the no salt people drink alcohol?

I occasionally do. But not regularly or in large quantities. Much like salt, it's not banished from my diet altogether, I just don't add it to my cooking.