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?

Don't put salt on the table?

I do tell waiting staff waving their pepper grinders that 'I haven't actually tasted the food yet so I have no idea if I need pepper' or 'Did the chef not season it?'. bitch

my auntie does this. Never occurred to me to care, she's 70 years old and more than capable of knowing how she likes it. I daresay it could well be automatic but whom am I to care or say anything?

You were very rude and patronising in your comment.

YANBU. Rude and a bit stupid, unless you know, for instance, that the person who cooked it didn't use salt, or consistently underseasons. My MIL does this wherever she eats, whether it's our house or a restaurant, before she tastes even a morsel. DH once had to grab the salt out of her hand as she was starting to sprinkle it copiously on a Stilton soup she hadn't tasted.

Obviously do whatever you like in your own house, and in a restaurant it's just mad, but yes, it's rude to potentially render inedible food someone you know has gone to the trouble of cooking for you. It's not just you having to deal with the consequences of over-salting your food to the point of being inedible, it's rubbishing the effort someone has made for you. Again, fine if you taste it, decide it's under seasoned, and salt it then.

Worra Exactly. I like the crunch of salt on rice and pasta particularly.

But derek - how do they know if it is seasoned to their taste or not if they haven't tried it? Surely you try it first then add seasoning?

I don't think it's rude to season food, but I do think it is ridiculous to assume that the food will not have been seasoned to your taste and put stuff on without even trying it.

I suppose though, that that is a bit rude because you are saying to the cook that you are so confident that their cooking is not to your taste that you don't even need to check

TBF I don't really like salt so I never add any when cooking but often use stock in dishes which is very salty

Okay so you never season with salt but don't like people adding their own. How ridiculous. Not every meal includes stock, and stock might be salty to you as someone who doesn't use it but not others.

wow, that's rude Maid.You do realise he's probably been told by his manager to offer it at that point, don'you?

On things like pasta I don't need to taste it, I always like a bit of extra pepper.

Really don't see how it's rude for people to season the food they are eating how they like.

yes, but if you don't taste first how do you know you're doing that? I like my food quite salty - but I always check first. Except things like roast potatoes or chips where the salt always goes on.

I really can't imagine food being rendered inedible due to a quick sprinkle of salt on the top.

I think for that to happen, the food would have been far too salty and therefore inedible to begin with.

If you're a lover of salt, the chances are almost everything is under salted to your taste buds.

TBF I don't really like salt so I never add any when cooking but often use stock in dishes which is very salty

No it isn't.

Stock is only very salty to someone like yourself, who doesn't really like salt.

My Mum used to do this, without tasting her food first. I didn't want DS to see this as the 'norm', (as too much salt is bad for you) so I got rid of the salt.

I never use salt in cooking anyway, so it just went in the bin.

It was quite funny to see the fuss my Mum kicked up when she next came for tea and realised she couldn't ruin the nice meal I had cooked. She tried it, liked it and said it was tasty enough without more salt.

IME most people underseason food [to my taste] during cooking.

I like salt on my food, there are exceptions, like bacon etc.

If someone is cooking a meal for several people, they won't be able to do it to everyones tastes, because people are different, so I just don't get why people find it a personal insult.

I don't need to taste before I salt, I have never had a meal cooked for me that I didn't end up adding salt to.

Hey OP

Yabu and shouldn't control how adult people eat their food. Odd thing to find rude.

Fuck off Ainsley, you rude git.

I have my own sachets in my bag and I have no qualms about using them if someone removes the salt because they think their cooking is so magically perfect it's seasoned to everyone's tastes.

Because it was very salty already, Derek, which she'd been told five seconds earlier - and show me a non-salty Stilton dish - and she hadn't tasted it, it's a purely unconscious tic with her. It's not that she particularly likes salt, I think she must have absorbed the idea from somewhere that it was a 'genteel' thing to do when served food. And you'd have to be a saint to watch someone render inedible something you'd made for them out of habit.

My Mum used to do this, without tasting her food first. I didn't want DS to see this as the 'norm', (as too much salt is bad for you) so I got rid of the salt.

Bloody hell!

That has to win PFB of the month...

Fuck of Ainsley

Grays!!!