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?

Well no it's not crack cocaine. It's likely to give you high blood pressure though. Strokes and heart attacks are not nice.

And of course it is possible for food to be too salty. Many soups and stews and processed foods are; probably to disguise their lack of any other flavour.

Cheese in moderation is not particularly unhealthy. Dousing salt on salty bread and salty cheese is. Can people really not see that?

Salty food can also trigger headaches and nausea. (I've thrown up after drinking ludicrously salted salt lassi at a restaurant. Not much fun, and I'd certainly not go back there.)

I don't think anyone's arguing that salt is one of the major contributors to high blood pressure, are they?

If you automatically add salt to cheese (good source of calcium and protein btw, perfectly ok in moderation) then you're probably accustomed to crap cheese. Salt is no substitute for the lovely umaminess of good cheese.

Adding salt before tasting is as disrespectful to the cook's efforts as pissing about and not being at the table before the food gets cold and congeals.

When someone cooks cooks for others, they generally hope the food will be enjoyed. Oversalting to the point where that food becomes inedible is extraordinarily rude. As was the comment about the op's stew (I mean, Wtf brought that on?!?!).

I don't believe that cheese - even salty cheese - is an unhealthy food, unless you're eating silly amounts of it.

It's far more healthy than an equally salty bag of crisps, for instance. And i'd bet that sweet treats have far more to do with the obesity epidemic than cheese does.

Worra I don't think anyone's arguing that salt is one of the major contributors to high blood pressure, are they? No, but someone's trying to argue that cheese isn't unhealthy.

Cheese is a relatively unprocessed natural food. No I don't think it's unhealthy in moderation. I don't think a bit of butter is unhealthy either, or the odd rasher of bacon.

Stuff like coke, either with sugar or chemical crap. Stuff like ready meals and cakes and biscuits containing all sorts of weird crap. That's what I consider unhealthy.

Home made cake, orange juice, I'm fine with.

Cheese isn't an unhealthy food.

We really have been brainwashed into thinking the slightest bit of fat = unhealthy.

FFS! There is no such thing as a healthy and unhealthy food.

There is a variety of foods, that make up a diet.

A diet can be healthy or unhealthy. Individual foods can't.

Even fucking carrots are bad for you, if you eat only carrots.

-Rant over-

Carrots are clearly of the devil.

But so is cheese. The brainwashing that's been done is that which has resulted in people thinking that up is anything other than Bad News (and calling it unprocessed is a bit rich too, it's one of the most processed things there is!)

I was taught as a child that salting the food before tasting it was an insult to the chef.
I thought this was just accepted etiquette.
I'm quite surprised at the response to this thread.

Yes - but not many people eat too many carrots.

Too much salt contributes to conditions that don't necessarily kill you, but certainly increase the likelihood of living a very incapacitated old age.

I possibly eat more carrots than are good for me. They're my second-favourite vegetable after peas.

Yes, since you ask, I do lead an exciting life.

You can make cheese by adding lemon juice to simmering milk and straining it through a cloth.

I think that places it firmly within the "relatively unprocessed" category. Clearly Kraft cheese slices are another matter, but claiming cheese as a singular foodstuff is one of the most processed foods there is isn't strictly fair.

Massa but that isn't how commercial cheese is made.

GentlyBenevolent Pretty much is, although not normally with lemon juice, but rennet or other acids are used... What do you think they're doing in a cheddar (say) factory that's different to that fundamental thing?

Cheese is made out of milk, something to separate the curds and whey, add a bit of salt, squash curds together.

I would genuinely like to know if I'm missing something here, as I'm very partial to a bit of artisanal Lancashire.

The word 'salt' now looks really weird to me.

I do enjoy the current trend of declaring a food either entirely healthy or utterly harmless by virtue of its having few ingredients.
Its actually nonsensical.

However, i do like cheese

I have no idea how you make cheese or what curds and whey are. But I refuse to think it's poison. Much like butter, or salt or sugar.

I rarely eat dessert, because I'm always stuffed after half a starter with DH (it's not even half) and a main course.

But I always make room on holiday in a particular Spanish restaurant for green cheese, almonds and honey.

It's lovely. I think it's probably sheep's cheese. It's a bit wet and comes in slices and is a bit salty.

I've asked in a proper posh cheese shop but they couldn't help me. These people must make it. Ricotta is nearly the same but not really.

limited that cheese and honey thing sounds divine. Mmmmm