to think, no, you cant taste if the salt and pepper is freshly ground....

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I really really cant. Other people tell me they can. I think they've just heard the grinder in the kitchen. What do you think? Do you use freshly ground salt and pepper? and can you tell?

Salt not really, can distinguish by the size of flakes only ( or if it's smoked, or similar). Definitely once in food could not tell you what type of salt has been used.

Pepper absolutely can tell.

What do people mean by telling the difference between freshly ground salt and not? A tub of table salt tastes different to Maldon flaky salt, which tastes different to ground rock salt. The size and origin of the salt crystals are important, especially when finishing a dish. But (unlike pepper) salt doesn't have any volatile compounds in it so as long as it's stored properly, salt doesn't need to be 'freshly ground'.

Of course you can tell.

I can taste the difference. I can also taste the difference between salt and LoSalt, sugar and sweeteners, butter and spread and cream and Elmlea type stuff.

Yes definitely, especially pepper because freshly ground smells in the air slightly and you can just tell it's not dried out and stale.

I wouldn't have been able to tell years ago, same as I wouldn't be able to tell the difference (for example) between polycotton sheets and ones with a high thread count. Back then I saw it as being just the same and people were just being pretentious to claim to know any difference.

Why does everyone assume that people on here are constantly being bitchy/judgemental/boasting/snobby?

Is nobody allowed to be idly curious?

I am ashamed to answer this as it is such an MN chasing class thread, but there is a difference when applied fresh but it is used on industrial scale even at high end restaurants that you cannot taste the difference when it is cooked (iswim), anyone pretending to know a taste difference applied at cooking stage is just pretending.

Being applied afterwards though does taste difference but does have visual clues, my dad was an avid cook who used to make fresh nan and milk tea for weekend breakfast and polo or mango curry for dinner just for us. He described it as difference between snow and sleet, it isn't that it tastes different per say but that one is blanket covering and the other is small pellets of flavour.

I really, really can. YABU.

Powdered black pepper is nothing like freshly ground black pepper. I can tell and so can my eldest daughter. As it turns out, she's a teen food snob

And nice chunky bits of rock salt from the grinder are much tastier in certain dishes than normal fine table salt (which I don't mind at all.)

I can tell the difference between sea salt and table salt but not between ‘freshly ground’ sea salt and crushed sea salt flakes. I don’t like table salt at all.

Ground pepper tastes completely different but I don’t really care either way.

Agree - pepper you can absolutely tell. And salt, like a pp, needs to be decent quality - ideally Himalayan - I wouldn't put table salt anywhere near my food.

Can do both

Pepper I think so, I think it’s partly the smell of grinding it though.

Salt I’d have said no, but when I was having chemotherapy I couldn’t stand the taste of Himalayan pink salt (from a grinder). Really weird. We don’t add much salt to food but a tiny bit of it made me want to heave. DH did a test with adding tiny bits to food as he was convinced it made no difference and I could tell straight away. So on some level I must detect what different salts taste like - can’t tell the difference any more though. Stopped a few weeks after chemo stopped.

You can definitely tell the difference re pepper.

Not so much salt though.

Salt no, pepper yes - you can taste the ‘heat’ in it more.

Himalayan salt contains low quantities of various other minerals, so maybe you can detect some of those.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_salt

Right then, epicures... about salt-

I use very little. I never add it when I cook, only to season certain foods at the table. I do use it in the form of soy sauce, and an occasional stock cube in a casserole.

As a result I find most commercial food too salty. When chefs claim food is under seasoned and needs more salt, are t they just too used to too much salt?

Anyone care to have a stab at explaining?

I'd like to know what's meant to be so special about Himalayan salt vs other rock salts vs sea salts. Is there something about the mineral mix other than the NaCl which is distinctive in a good way if you're not on chemotherapy? Or is it the pretty colour and name ('salt from the Salt Range of Pakistan' doesn't sound quite so appealing.)

You absolutely can.

Pepper probably not but salt I can