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 wonder if the no salt people drink alcohol?
I grew up in times where all boiled veg was salted. A little pile of salt would be on the edge of the plate to dip a quartered tomato or a hard boiled egg into.
A chip of course is not a chip without salt and vinegar.
Having watched a fair few series of Masterchef (why when I am veggie and don’t cook I am not sure) and contestants are frequently told their food is under seasoned.
There are bigger health issues to worry about than a bit of salt here and there.

I'm almost 66, my partner (who does most of the cooking as she likes doing it) is 68. We don't season most food when cooking and would never season a roast.

I still remember a thread years ago where the OP went to someone’s house (might have been her parent’s), and was outraged at being given an unsalted tomato.

The outrage compared to the supposed crime was off the scale. I mean, you could put the salt on yourself…

I never put salt on salad. Yuk.

I wonder if the no salt people drink alcohol?

I don't add salt or drink alcohol - but what's the connection?

I'm late 50's and have never added salt when cooking anything. Everybody's tastes are different and what might be fine for me may be too salty/not salty enough for others. I just add salt at the table.

In answer to the question I wonder if the no salt people drink alcohol? Yes I do thanks for asking.

I only use salt during cooking and find it very weird that people who season their food do it just before eating it, it definitely doesn't taste the same.

alcohol is a known factor in strokes, diabetes, liver diseases, arthritis etc., etc.
and no amount of alcohol is healthy.

I wonder if the no salt people drink alcohol?

I occasionally do. But not regularly or in large quantities. Much like salt, it's not banished from my diet altogether, I just don't add it to my cooking.

People who don't use salt when cooking, do you cook from scratch ? Because for example, the pulled pork I just made was cooked using a spice rub that if it hadn't included salt would have been tasteless!

I cook from scratch (mostly), yes. I'm not a no salt person and I would probably use it in a rub, but I find many herbs and spices enough really and if not, I'd season the food at the table.

Exactly this. I also have to ask when eating out that they don’t add salt. Italian restaurants seem especially bad at adding salt.

Not read the thread but in my experience it's the opposite way round - people cover their plates in salt before they've even tasted the food, so how can they know if it needs salt or pepper?

Yes, I cook from scratch. Thinking of some things I've made this week:

quiche - has mustard (contains salt?) and lemon juice, and hard cheese is already salty/salted

broccoli gratin - again, has mustard and hard cheese so I don't feel it also needs salt, plus the butter was salted

lasagne - butter for the béchamel was salted, used store bought lasagne sheets that are surely salted, and used red peppers in the tomato sauce (homemade, with herbs) with the minced beef which seemed sufficiently flavoursome without salt

salmon fillets - just added lemon juice and black pepper

I HATE pre seasoned food, if I want seasoning, I’ll do it myself.
I can’t tolerate black pepper and everything these days seems to be full of it, even sandwiches.

I’m at the point now where I can’t enjoy going out to eat, the last carvery we visited had fucking garlic in the gravy - WHY?

I am 60 and I rarely use salt in cooking, i don't like how it tastes. You definitely dont need it on a roast if you are having gravy with it, thats full of salt. I would put it on chips though.

We don't add salt because it's all you can taste, but we use pepper and herbs and spices to add flavour.

Depends what you're making too and the other ingredients

I made cottage pie today
The mince had stock cubes and marmite added so no extra salt
I salted the potato water for the mash and then added whole grain mustard and some cheese

Tea was a chicken wrap thing
Chicken seasoned with a seasoning that already has salt in
I added a little to the salad as the recipe included grated cucumber and salting it to draw out the moisture

I don't add loads but I do season including salt, pepper, herbs etc
Blood pressure is fine

I don’t season meat but I do put salt in potatoes when I boil them

yup I cook from scratch and yes I sometimes use seasoning mixes that contain salt. What I don't do is put salt on meat before I roast it or salt the water that I cook vegetables in. I find a lot of the seasoning mixes though, whether bought made or made from a recipe, are way too salty for my taste.

Sorry what? Pepper is banned from a school? Why Salt is essential in small quantities too.

@CheeseSandwichRiskAssessment no idea, I would hazard a guess at dietary requirements/ health advice or a bit of both. We do cater for vegetarians, vegans, gluten free and halal plus anything else anyone requires.

I’m just a minion support staff not a chef! but I agree with salt etc not being outright bad, like a lot of things in life, a little is good, a lot … not so much.

And I wouldn’t eat it without

Can't stand pepper and salt is just a crisp flavour as far as I'm concerned.
But I do cover everything in paprika and garlic instead! (To the point that all my containers have an orangey hue!).

What I do find highly amusing is that it only seems to be countries that are stereotypically consider to be crap at cooking (eg England and USA) that seem to tie themselves in knots about salt. I grew up abroad, in a city well renowned for having a diverse population of migrants from countries typically considered to have very tasty ethnic food (eg Greece, Italy, Middle East, South East Asia). None of my friends at school (or their families) gave 2 tosses about salt, unless they were specifically told to by their Dr, and regularly seasoned their food. There wasn't rampant salt related high blood pressure or strokes in these communities

Unfortunately in countries like England & the UK, where highly processed takeaway food is common and similarly cooking with processed or salty foods is common as part of their cuisine, the gov feels it necessary to warn about salt content (which they should). But that then gets interpreted as "Any amount of salt, even if you cook from scratch at home is the devil" when really it ought to be interpreted as "The amount of salt in takeaways is bad, and you should limit intake of highly salty foods like bacon or spam, but regular seasoning in your home cooking is totally fine"

I rarely add it.
I ate a packaged soup the other day. I couldn't finish it - the amount of salt was ridiculous and overwhelmed the taste (980 gms per serving according to the packet!!).