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?

Same, I never had salt to my roast dinners and they taste just fine. There are loads of other ways to season foods.

I wouldn't consider salt and pepper to be seasoning tbh. I add flavours, I wouldn't just cook meat with its own flavour, even with salt and pepper.

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.

I agree with @HyggeTygge on P1 - you probably need to look up the meaning of the word 'everyone'.

My siblings and I are the same age as you - my Mum would be in her 90s if she were still with us. My Mum never added Salt and Pepper to meat when we were growing up, nor her Mum before her (and she was born in the 19th Century).

I'm 40 and season everything
Not to taste salty but to draw out water, intensify flavours etc
Salt, pepper, herbs, spices, pastes... I like to layer seasonings throughout the dish

I don't season ie use salt or pepper on meat or fish if I am roasting grilling or frying (in my 70's) I will slightly season sauces. I do add appropriate herbs and so on and other flavourings. I never have done. I don't salt the water that I cook vegetables in either. Its not for health reasons, I just don't like it and prefer to add salt and pepper to food when its on my plate.

I'm guessing people just weigh up whether they want salty food or to avoid a heart attack.

I like a sprinkling of salt on my chips and in a pasta sauce. But no, don't require it on meat. I don't eat dry meat though, always have gravy or a sauce.

We are a house of sea salt lovers too. Sea salt (or pink himalyan salt) is important source of trace minerals and make food taste delicious. We eat very little of upf and don’t use any table salt (which is processed and stripped from all the essential minerals).

If you said you’ll give up sugar, you’d get everyone here to tell you that life is for living, everything in moderation, just eat the cake and so on. But wanting to add salt is giving everyone vapours. Salt is essential for humans, refined sugars isn’t.

I’m 70 and never add salt to anything I cook. It’s on the table if people want it.

I don't add salt to the vast majority of things that I'm cooking, and definitely not if I'm roasting meat or cooking vegetables, although I add pepper to lots of things. I really don't think salt is necessary and I could never eat vegetables when my mum cooked them as they were always so salty. I also can't eat chips from places like McDonalds because they cover them in salt.

I hate food that tastes salty. Just add it to your meal if you wanted it.

Always season food

Yes, this! I gave up salt once quite a few years ago and very quickly felt like shit. I read up on how essential it is and what it does in the body, went back to it and never looked back. I love a wanky posh salt almost as much as a posh olive oil.

Thread has been interesting and may go some way to explaining why everyone who eats at ours raves about DH's cooking. He's a decent cook but not a chef or anything. Maybe they're all eating unsalted cooking at home and convincing themselves it tastes good.

No chef worth his salt would cook without it.

Generally I feel that if good food is well seasoned, it reduces the cravings and appeal of unhealthy snacks (crisps takeaways ready meals etc).
Nicer to eat an avocado with a little sea salt , lemon juice and pepper, than reach for a bag of crisps.

I don’t use salt often. Pepper sometimes but I’ll always have herbs and spices etc. you can season your food without salt and pepper there are other ways.

I'm guessing people just weigh up whether they want salty food or to avoid a heart attack.

er there’s a middle ground between no salt & heart attack 😆

I have noticed this too, big reductions in cravings. I hardly ever eat crisps for instance as I just don’t have a craving for them.

How old is your DD?

I think most people season their food.
It doesn’t need to be salt and pepper though.

My parents put salt and pepper on their roast after it’s cooked too but I always think that is overkill.

Also find it funny that PP thinks having to use salt makes you a shit cook. I guess all the professional chefs out there are shit cooks too

The reason restaurant dishes taste great is because chefs layer salt across every part of their cooking to bring out each individual ingredients flavours, use fat and oil liberally, and balance flavours with acid and sometimes a small bit of sugar/sweetness. A "fantastic" spaghetti bolognese from your local Italian would be cooked in generous amounts of olive oil, with a bit of salt added to the onions while cooking, and also to the mince, and then also to the tomatoes (which is the acidic aspect of the dish). A bit of sugar would be added to balance the acidity of the tomatoes, either as a pinch of white sugar or as grated carrot for example

Sweet baked goods taste far better with a pinch of salt added as it balances the sweetness and makes it less likely that you'll end up with a sickly sweet dish. Most sweet recipes call for 1/4 or 1/2 a teaspoon of salt in the entire mixture (eg an average cake recipe), which is really a tiny amount of salt in the grand scheme of all the other ingredients!

Many people who say they don't cook with salt actually do cook with salt because they inadvertently introduce it through other means, eg they'll say "I never cook with salt, can't stand it!!" But then throw in half pack of bacon to the dish instead

Unless you have a health condition, there really is no reason to restrict salt beyond normal, sensible levels. Chugging and entire jar of salty anchovies daily isn't good for anyone, but unless you've got kidney issues or high BP, a bit of salt in your cooking really isn't a big deal. Salt being evil, the devil, will kill you etc is hyperbole. The same way fat free yoghurt only tastes good because its got a shit load of sugar in it, when in reality it'd be healthier to simply have the fat in the yoghurt in the first place than adding refined sugar to make it palatable

Avocado spread on toast with a small drizzle of olive oil and salt makes a very tasty lunch!

It wouldn't cross my mind to put salt on an avocado. That's really weird to me.

You're just accustomed to salty food so lightly seasoned food would be a bit tasteless to you. The way to overcome this is going cold turkey and letting your taste buds recover, then you taste the natural flavours of food. Herbs and spices taste better to me than salt.

I'm 54 and have never added any salt to anything I cook for my entire life. It's unhealthy and I have always thought so.

Phew! Was so confused reading comment after comment saying 'well salt isn't good for you anyway' as if that all you use in seasoning?

I’ve been put on a high salt diet by my cardiologist-that is, not just cooking with salt but actually lots of extra salt and ,potentially, salt pills-and I would really struggle in some your households, let alone the school “salt ban”. I would have to bring in a doctor’s note to be allowed salt on pain of fainting all the time!

This reminded me of my parents always bringing their own salt when they came for dinner with me when I was in early twenties 😂 it just had never occurred to me to add salt when i was happy with my food without it.