to think putting salt on your food before you taste it is rude?

[KirjavaTheCat]

FIL comes to stay every couple of months and this is a habit of his. I cook, I place the meal in front of everyone at the table and before we've all picked up our knives and forks he's shaking salt onto his food.

He hasn't tasted it, he doesn't know if the seasoning is to his taste or not, he just goes ahead and does it.

On Saturday I made everyone cheese and pepperoni omelettes for breakfast. As he went to pick up the salt I stopped him and said, 'you should try it first, pepperoni tends to be quite salty' so he tried it, and lo and behold he didn't want any.

He's wasted food before, declaring he couldn't eat anymore because it was a bit salty. After he'd shaken a load on before tasting it

AIBU to find this really rude?

We dont add salt to the cooking and dont have salt at the table. I thought it was terribly old fashioned and have just never done it....

I'm now wondering what joys I'm missing out on .. and what meals would taste better either cooked wtih salt or with salt added....

And would people stop bandying about the word limited?

It's making me very insecure.

"Sunny as long as there was no salt use..."
oh no it was fine, I just liberally sprinkled the heroin over the pizzas and sat back all smug in my low salt consumption...
the children slept all the way to Bari, that is how calm not using salt made them!
FFS you lot......I am supposed to be working!

I'm just sitting here thinking but...

My inlaws come to Sunday dinnner every fortnight and I have never noticed their salting habits.

I have no idea whether they salt/don't salt, salt before tasting, salt after tasting or whether they snort it in a line off their knives?

I expect I've never thought about it because it's none of my business.

Sunny!

Oh my god. How has anyone got the energy to let themselves be the least bit wound up by this shit!

OR maybe it's because they never said after they'd salted "oh this is too salty to eat now, I can't eat it" (and nor can anyone else)>

Salt here is used only for cooking or chips.

I never put it on the table.

However, I wouldn't care if a guest wanted to use salt without tasting my food first.

Reminds me of the chef not so long ago (in the US I think) who stopped offering tomato ketchup as he felt it wasn't needed on his food.

Is it rude if you make a roast and they soak it in so much gravy it's swimming?

I would really struggle with a roast that didn't have enough gravy. Insufficient or poor quality gravy is one of life's greatest disappointments.

Haha limited - I was in Chez Nico about 20 years ago and had to stifle my snorts when Nico came out of his kitchen to have a hissy fit at another diner. I thought he was going to explode. Tbf to him though, his food for me (a salt fiend) was refectory seasoned

Biscetti whenever I saw programmes with proper chefs like Michael Roux, Raymond Blanc or Gordon Ramsay I was stunned by the amount of salt they'd add while cooking and tasting.

It made me think that I could try living a bit dangerously.

I think proper chefs do the same thing now, but they just don't show it any more.

Just like the way the only people you see smoking in films are villains.

I salt when I cook (kids add more salt if there's chips or on chicken or beef - both need salt!). Salt isn't inherently bad for you, it makes food taste better and you need a certain amount of salt to survive.

The problem is in, in my view, highly processed food that contains huge amounts of salt and/or sugar to disguise cheap ingredients or to give unfeasible BB dates.

Sometimes a bit of salt added at the table is good - unsalted butter, good bread and a sprinkle of salt - lovely.

MY FIL always adds salt - usually before tasting - I don't care. He never leaves the food though!

Is it rude if you make a roast and they soak it in so much gravy it's swimming?

I used to do that but have limited it because of my poor utensil skills, which I have confessed to.

It was too embarrassing to slosh gravy over myself, the tablecloth, innocent bystanders.

I feared never being asked out again so I limit myself to a couple of tablespoons and replenish if the potatoes are getting dangerously dry. And then I add salt.

DH thinks I'm an over-salter, which is rich coming from him, the man that adds hot sauce to almost every meal.

I don't add salt when cooking (except to roast potatoes and parsnips) as I got out of the habit when DD was born. I add salt and pepper to every meal, before I've tasted it and sometimes again once I have. I grate salt over bread and butter and chips are more salt than potato.

Green and Blacks Salted dark chocolate is heaven and I often have to fight DD for it - she's inherited my taste buds.

I used to get the hump at DH and his hot sauce obsession, but quickly figured out that what he ate was none of my bloody business. He's a grown man and can eat what he wants however he wants.

(And I add a teaspoon of salt to every cake I make - it brings out the flavour. I can tell when eating other people's cakes who doesn't do this, and don't think they are a patch on mine)

People hate that I have mint sauce on any type of roast.

I have been told it is gross to put mint sauce on chicken and beef, but I love it!

My DB does this. Winds me up no end.

I always season food when cooking. I do not put salt on the table. He asks for salt every time before he tastes.

U2theEdge, that reminds me of the saying
"Mustard with mutton,
The sign of a glutton" .

oh I just remembered how the exH used to wind me up when we were married - the babies were being weaned so I would cook with no salt and put soy and salt on the table for us to add to our food as we liked.

He would taste the food and screw his face up and shout
'not enough salt!'
I would point out the soy and salt on the table...
he would add some and shout
'still not salty enough!'
at this point i would be rolling my eyes.
sirry irriot

I just liberally sprinkled the heroin over the pizzas and sat back all smug in my low salt consumption... the children slept all the way to Bari, that is how calm not using salt made them!

SunnyBaudelaire Italian mainline stations are pretty seedy in a way you don't see in Britain any more. I can remember Kings Cross being a byword for danger. Waterloo and Paddington too. They've been transformed. Particularly Kings X.

I've only travelled by train between Venice and Rome and stations in between. Never south of Rome so I've never been to Bari at all or Naples by train. I was shocked by the poverty I saw in Naples though and also parts of Sicily. There is obviously poverty all over the world, but this is Europe. I'm not saying people in other parts of the world deserve it, but I thought part of being in the EU was all about improving living standards for citizens.

Someone wise advised me not to use second class if I could afford the very reasonable first class rate and never, ever to contemplate third.

He also told me to punch my ticket in the yellow boxes on the platforms, which was a really good thing, because otherwise I'd have been caught for a hefty fine.

Anyway, whatever the faults of the Italians, I bet they don't fret about salt.

to be honest limited I was too scared to go down that route to Bari with the kids, and we got off at Ancona and took the ferry to Greece from there! you are right, they are really seedy in a way we do not see here.

Yes KingsX and St Pancras used to be well sleazy!

StP was the station we used to get home to the burbs.....it was small and dusty and rundown with fascinating ancient panelling and tiles...
The last time I walked through it I was gobsmacked!

YOu see how far ranging a convo about salt can be!

I like to put pepper on certain foods before I've tasted it.

I like pepper, I don't add a lot, but that little bit extra sitting on top of a bowl of soup (for example) just makes it perfect for me in a way that's not entirely related just to taste alone. I like how it looks as much as anything else, and I like those one or two spoonfuls that have that extra kick.

I'm sure the soup is lovely without it, but for me it works in the same way as making a cup of tea in my favourite mug. It's the same tea, but it makes me happier and I enjoy it more when it's in the right mug.

You should hear my parents arguing about vinegar though. My Dad likes vinegar. He puts it on cheese on toast, or on lettuce if they're having salad. And on lots of other things you might not necessarily think a person might put vinegar on. I've inherited the taste for it on certain odd things too. My Mother thinks it's the worst thing you can possibly do to food. I'm not sure why it annoys her so much.

"Anyway, whatever the faults of the Italians, I bet they don't fret about salt."

No, probably not - but you try adding the wrong sauce to your pasta and see how they feel about that!

YABU.

I wouldn't mind anybody adding salt before tasting! I'm an 'over salter' and will always add it to a meal, I'm the same though with chillies and black pepper, I'll add extra to my own meal everytime.

Don't stress the small things!

Or too much sauce Thumbwitch. Or cappuccino after breakfast.

An Italian friend who lived here adores Walkers crisps and we always have to bring him some when we go and see him.

The Italians do many things brilliantly - cars, architecture, luxury goods, interior design or just general swanning about looking good.

But they're rubbish at crisps.

OP, YANBU. It is rude. DH used to do this, I think he stopped after my years of eye-rolls. He still puts soy sauce on chilli con carne though.

U2theEdge, you are entirely correct to put mint sauce on all roasts. I do too