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?

Op isnt saying her cooking is perfect, just that assuming it isnt is pretty rude.

YANBU. Its an insult to the cook to add seasoning BEFORE you have tasted the food.

lucy are you going to remove everything you don't want your child to see as 'the norm' or instead will you educate them and allow them to make their own informed decisions.

Removing and banning stuff just makes it taboo and exciting. Her tastebuds will scream with joy when she gets hold of a salt cellar at schools.

YANBU. It is rude to the cook & foolish not to taste your food first. Then put as much salt as you want on - it's you who is eating it.

YABU for telling your father not to put salt on, however.

Is it an insult after tasting too?

My MIL does this too - before we have even tasted the food she covers it in salt. I find it rude. But I don't know why, it's her food, I think because it feels like a criticism "Nancy doesn't season properly" - but she hasn't even tasted it!
Anyway, it seems the consensus is YABU but I TOTALLY get where you are coming from OP!

Lucy if you never use salt in cooking then your food (especially your veg) must be really bland - which is fine if that's how you like it, but how bloody rude of you to stop your mum seasoning it herself. And just because your mum sprinkled salt on first doesn't mean your DS will, that's bonkers! My mum and dad both used to sprinkle salt and pepper on their food before eating - my sister and I never did.

All you have shown your son is that you're dictatorial and rude!

Fucking hell, people have instructed another adult not to put salt on their food and have wrestled a salt mill out of their hands. Christ almighty! Have people spent so long with their children thst they've started yo infantalise the adults in their lives?

I like salty cabbage, I like salty chips and I'll continue to add salt without performing a taste test first. Probably more so as I get older as taste buds become less acute with age. So something that is very salty to a 30 year old could be as bland as hell to a 70 year old.

Yanbu - it's rude and silly to season something without tasting it. Eatshitderek - it's also bloody rude to put ketchup etc on a meal that someone has cooked for you unless it is sausages, fish fingers or burger etc.

yes my dd does this , and I find it a bit annoying but she says it is because she is half Polish, and they are all salt fiends. And I used to be so health conscious with my cooking!

Lucy your son might taste food one day that's really tasty because it's being seasoned and what would you do then? You sound very controlling tbh.

You know what eatshitderek thinking about it: I would find it rude if someone doused their food in ketchup or brown sauce apart from chips natch

Again, not sure why! I think its just that the condiment has to be seen to be COMPLIMENTING the delicious food I have cooked rather than masking it!!

Is it an insult after tasting too? no it isn't

I don't agree. DH had spent time and effort cooking something delicious, and he wasn't about to watch her render it inedible out of habit, and then sit sighing and stirring it around and complaining about being served (I quote) 'foreign muck'. All he was asking her to do was to taste it before she salted it, it wasn't some kind of confiscation of the salt!

(I actually sympathise with the salt-lovers, as my holier-than-thou BIL and SIL don't use salt at all in their cooking 'because of the children' (though said children are 11 and 15), and I do feel a great desire to keep one of those little cafe sachets in my pocket at their house... But then, I know in advance there won't be any salt in anything of theirs.)

Taking offence at someone putting a bit of salt on their food without tasting it (oh, the horror!) is about 50 miles up the road past howpettycanyougetville.

Yeah but the omelette was really salty already! I was doing him a favour.

I didn't shout at him or slap him across the chops, just said "you should try it first". I'd tried mine in the kitchen and knew that he'd sprinkle salt onto it, so thought I'd tell him to avoid him wasting it like he did my stew before Christmas...

I had a friend-flatmate who would immediately cover any food given to her in Linghams Chilli Sauce. Not so much rude as downright eccentric!
How I miss her and her violent red bottle now....

Wait - ketchup is rude?

It's weird what people clutch their pearls about

My DH doesn't like dry food so if it doesn't come with it's own sauce or gravy, he'll ask for ketchup.

When our local restaurant first opened, the waiters would look visibly 'shocked' if my DH asked for ketchup...like he'd just ordered a contract killing or something.

They'd bring it over almost hiding it behind their backs, and then slip it to him quietly, like there was a drug deal going down

YABU. There is not enough salt in the world to satisfy my craving, I just like salty food and I am entitled to do what I want with my food.

I use salt. When I've tasted my food first.

I am a salt user.