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?

I season food just not with salt unless its something like chips. I love pepper, I probably use far too much of that. Herbs are another thing I use a lot of. As someone else said most meat is quite salty by itself as is gravy if you use instant so salt really isn’t needed. I don’t season a joint of meat for a roast but I do add pepper to veg. I can’t say anyone has ever called my roasts tasteless including my salt loving son and he doesn’t add on.

wow such a furore over salt!

My mom cooked that way salt and pepper if yiu were lucky. Now I season everything and have a cupboard full of seasoning, spices and brings lol.

As a pp said, salt is not bad for you, too much salt is bad for you.
I have to laugh at a poster saying they don't use salt but use soy sauce!

Compared to a single take away or ready meal or pack of crisps, or even a slice of sliced bread, a sprinkling of salt in a home cooked scratch meal is really not an issue. I don't put salt on the table as I will season the food as I cook it. My food does not taste salty. If you can taste salt then there is too much!

I use a huge range of herbs and spices alongside salt and pepper and cook from scratch every day.

I never realised that there was such a panic around salt and pepper that schools were banning even pepper from the kitchens. A bit OTT if you ask me but I learn something new from Mumsnet every day.

And when you see chefs on TV, the AMOUNT of salt they throw into boiling water or sauces....
Apparently that's why lots of food in high class restaurants tastes so good!!

Oh come off it...surely a mother and daughter can be natural with one another and not behave as if they're at some 1950s cocktail party!!

Your daughter isn't "everyone".

Also, she's wrong about salt. Your body needs it (and it needs iodine, too, which is added to table salt in many countries).

You can add salt after cooking. I have a “salt tooth” so have never added salt to anything I cook before serving, as my preference is likely to be more salty than most.
Salt and pepper have table pots for this reason…

This is worth a read for all those who are suggesting salt is unhealthy:

amzn.eu/d/4MnnkC6

I don’t worry about the health aspect. My blood pressure is usually quite low. I just really don’t enjoy overly salty food. I like salt but less is more for me.

Salt is't unhealthy but too much is - like many materials the body uses there's a balance to be had ( little bit good but too much bad ) and as many PP said that varies as some people need more.

We cut down on salt - we didn't eliminate - when kids were small rather than cook multiple meals because their small bodies needed less of it and the too much level was much lower.

It's gradually crept up as the got bigger and we often these day instead of using salt directly use items with added salt with other stiff in cooking - like soy sauce. I do keep an eye on it for DH as his family has a bad history of high blood pressure and heart and stroke problems - my family it's much less an issue for.

I don't add salt all the time.
My mum and MIL add salt to everything they cook even all the veg. Boiling potatoes- salt. Peas add salt. Pasta & rice salt. It's too much and everything tastes of salt - they don't notice it.

I add as little as possible but my bp has been higher recently. It was low to start with and is still healthy but only just. Plenty in the cupboard for anyone who wants a bit more.

I don't know anyone who disn't season their cooking. I season lightly but have never had anyone other than my mother who eats salt by the spoonful practically, add salt to my cooking so it can't be too bad.
People have probably got confused with less salt and salty pre made food in general and ate not using it at all instead of understanding that we still do need some salt for our functioning (and a small amount is good for taste)

@HandyDandyNotebookWanker no I didn't offend or upset my daughter. We had a very pleasant discussion about the merits or not of salt.
But it's interesting to read the range of opinions here.
My parents once ate at a VERY high end restaurant (Michelin starred) and my dad asked for some salt to flavour his dish as there was none on the table 🙄. It did not go down well.

If you are boiling something (eg pasta or potatoes) you typically add quite a lot of salt because the food you're boiling won't actually absorb an awful lot of it. If it's something that will absorb all the salt then you use a lot less, like rice for eg you would salt much less than pasta because rice absorbs all the water in the pot, so would be horrid if you salted it the same way you're supposed to salt pasta water

I expect most people who virtuously announce they "Don't use salt in their cooking and its delicious" compensate by using a variety of salty ingredients instead like soy, fish sauce, bacon, olives, stock cubes etc

That's why so many people typically enjoy things like carbonara even though they "Never use salt!" Because it's full of bacon!

We stopped adding salt when we had kids so even normal amounts of salt added make food seem very salty to me.
For MIL, if an opportunity presents itself to add salt at any stage in the prep, or eating, she will take it!
I recently had a McDonalds and I accept that while chips taste better salted, they’ve started salting the burgers during cooking. Even to my salt averse palate it was too much. Like when you have crisps that turn your lips white 😂

Me too 🤮

I rarely season food before cooking, I think it can take away from the taste of the actual food. People can just season as they like after to suit their taste.

For me theres a bit of fear. I remember an elderly family member being told to stop adding to salt to his food who struggled. Said everything tasted disgusting and didn't want to eat a lot of things. Figured I'd best get used to not having so much salt before I get told that by a doctor.

I never add pepper before cooking but often add it afterwards. I don’t tend to add salt when cooking unless following a recipe which specifically calls for it and rarely add it to food after serving either, to be honest it just doesn’t occur to me to add salt and I’d be worried I would add too much, I don’t really like food which tastes obviously salty (apart from chips!).

I think sugar is worse than salt - and I also think both in moderation is fine

I rarely add salt when cooking but use plenty of herbs and spices. I'm late 50s so not much younger than you. I season at the table if I really need to.

Those are two quite separate things. Not everybody who adds salt to vegetables overcooks them.