To wonder why no one seasons food anymore

[heydiddlysquat]

Visiting my daughter for lunch - cooking a roast. I remarked that she hadn't added any salt and pepper to the meat before cooking. She looked at me as if I was mad and said of course not - salt is bad for you.

I'm in my 60's and growing up all meat was seasoned before cooking (no other way of doing it) and of course people could add more afterwards to suit their taste.

But it seems everyone wants their food to be unseasoned (tasteless) nowadays.

Or am I out of touch?

If I roast a chicken then I want it to taste of chicken, not salt and pepper.

I do, too. Covid ruined my sense of taste.

Forgetting salt for a minute. Are there really so many people literally only putting salt and pepper on their meat?

Yuck. There's a million and one spices and herbs available to make your food taste good. Salt is the least of your problems

Salt is a flavour enhancer if used in the right quantity. It doesn't make a roast chicken, to use an example from a PP, taste salty unless you use too much. It makes the chicken itself taste more 'chicken-y'

My mum used to oversalt boiled veg to the point I stopped eating it so she cooked without and adds after . I also had a thing about it being bad for you.
For the past 25 years I've not added salt to boiled veg or pasta but I do season meat, roast potatoes etc etc without even questioning it
It's the boiled stuff I feel I can taste it
I have recently started putting a bit in pasta as I know you should but it's probably half what a normal person does

Are there really so many people literally only putting salt and pepper on their meat?

We don't even have salt and pepper in the house lol. I do add other herbs and spices sometimes though, or cook in things like garlic butter.

If I was cooking a nice steak, then yeah. I would only add salt and pepper because they bring out the flavour of the meat and that's what I want to taste. If I'm doing a roast chicken, I'd likely put a lot of other herbs with it.

That’s literally the basis for a good steak along with high heat. So yes, people are doing that.

https://thehawksmoor.com/news/how-to-cook-the-perfect-steak/

I definitely season meat before cooking as I use the meat juices to make gravy. If they're tasteless, it's a harder job to get the gravy to taste good!

Most people I know I have salt and pepper on their tables. I don't think seasoning has gone out of fashion at all.

People are health nuts. I agree it is annoying and leads to very bland food. Food needs to be properly seasoned.

Bingo!

Really, cringe? What are you 15?

I mean they obviously don't know though because loads of people are saying they don't use salt because it makes everything taste salty. Used correctly that's not what it does. So yeah, I'd say on the whole a lot of people don't understand the purpose of salt. If pointing that out makes me superior then oh well.

I certainly don't use as much salt as my mum did, I can't over salt the food as the kids are having it.
Granted, you need some salt but not the amount my mum used!

I’ve had high blood pressure and understand rhe issues the health issues that salt causes. It doesn’t make me a health nut, just educated,

Kosher salt is sea salt. It is just an Americanism that has been spread by social media.

Anyone ever tried salt-crusted chicken? You cook the chicken packed in salt. Not sure where it originates but there's a French version and a Hakka version of the dish.

It's surprisingly unsalty. Worth a go if you're not afraid of the salt...

But you can “season” (I.e. add flavour) to food in hundreds of ways without always adding salt and pepper. As others have pointed out, if you get used to eating really salty food then your taste buds become desensitised.

Kosher salt is just what Americans call cooking salt - ie coarser than table salt. So both large crystal rock salt or sea salt could be so described.

I’ve heard some Brits describing it as ‘kosher salt’ presumably from reading American recipes online. Similar to ‘apple cider vinegar’ (which makes me irrationally gross for some reason).

Yeah it's the health thing for me.

My DH seasons everything, I season very very little. It's a bone of contention and he gets the salt out every meal. He's currently got high BP and has to reduce salt in his diet.

I honestly am not that bothered about seasoning daily home cooked food. It has other stuff like herbs, spices, cheese to add flavour. But I do definitely enjoy a properly seasoned steak when I'm out. So can see why people do it. It's just not that healthy.

I don't think anyone on the thread is saying that they only flavour meat with salt and pepper, nothing else!! So all the people pointing out that there are a million other herbs, spices, etc, can stand down. It's just a linguistic convention in loads of recipes to use the term 'seasoning' specifically for salt and pepper, though plenty of people use the term to refer to the wider range of seasoning options.

I hate food that is cooked without salt it tastes so bland to me and adding it at the table just isn't the same imo. 2 of the healthiest people I know The Happy Pear even advise adding salt when cooking cos it brings out the flavor especially if you're sauteeing veg (these guys are vegan). Vegan and vegetarian food tastes so much better to me now I've started adding a pinch of salt as I go along. My sister adds salt to nothing even pasta water or boiled potatoes. I find it so bland but she's used to it now I guess . I know too much salt is bad but i think a pinch here and there brings out flavor . All the best chefs season?

If you like salt, use salt. Pepper even.

Hope that is helpful.

MSG makes meat taste better than salt and has lower sodium levels 😉

You can season your food without adding salt to it. Herbs, spices, flavoured butters, stuffing with vegetables or using rubs etc.

Did you really criticise the cooking that someone else - whom you weren't paying - had done for you?

Seasoning issues aside, I thought it was meant to be the height of bad manners to do that, especially when you can so easily add salt and pepper at the table.

My mum doesn't season food much. It isn't how I cook, but it'd be bloody rude to tell her that she should be cooking differently, surely?