Unseasoned food

[ChangeAgainAgainAgain]

I've eaten at a few other people's houses in the last couple of months, and I've really noticed the absence of seasoning, and no salt or pepper mills on the table.

I grew up in the 80's, where salt was added in cooking to everything, so obviously it's great for health that we're no longer adding salt to vegetable water etc.

I don't generally add salt to cooking, but I always put salt and pepper mills on the table, and would generally add some to my plate.

I've recently been served meals such as grilled salmon, boiled baby potatoes, steamed veg, with no seasoning, no herbs, not even butter or EVOO on the potatoes. Or a roast dinner, no seasoning added in cooking at all, not even on the potatoes. No salt and pepper mills on the table. Honestly to me, these meals taste super bland.

Now, I'm an old fogie, and the people hosting me have been various ages, but all younger than me. Is this just how it is now? People's palates have changed?

So, AIBU to say that whilst not adding excessive salt in cooking is a great thing for health, it's normal/polite to have salt and pepper mills on the table?

IANBU - bring on the salt and pepper
IABU - times have changed. Cruet sets have no place in the modern world!

Why is it necessary to use black people as an example when there are plenty of other ethnicities that have spicy food?

Yabu for making assumptions.

Why assume OP complained to the hosts? If OP was a poor guest, doubt they would still be invited to meals.

Because the poster was using a colour so I did. What would you prefer brown, yellow? Your reply has emphasised my point perfectly.

I don't have any salt at the moment, I don't use it on food and usually the ready meals I buy do have some seasoning added.

I don't know where the idea that white people don't understand how to season food has come from or why it's acceptable and (evidently) 'funny' to suggest that when saying something similar about another race wouldn't be. Neither I nor any of the other white people I know eat food unseasoned. In fact, I'd struggle to choke down most meals without seasoning of some kind. Obviously things like fresh fruit and vegetables that you eat raw can be eaten unseasoned (though tbh, I usually eat the raw veg alongside seasoned food, because it tastes so much better that way than on its own), but it's a rare meal that doesn't have something that could benefit from a sprinkle of this or that or a flavourful sauce or drizzle of something. Meat always demands flavouring to taste its best, in my opinion, as do cooked vegetables.

I wouldn’t have said either including doing what you did.

I see jokes from plenty of other ethnicities about bland food yet it is always only one out of the several that is always used as an example.

Your message heading is about “seasoning“.

On reading your post, I find that you are merely talking about salt and pepper.

You aren't doing your heart any good.

Your taste buds definitely dull as you get older. If it’s happening everywhere you go, I doubt it’s people’s cooking that’s the problem!

My dad carries salt and a tube of English mustard around with him

No, your kidneys.

Also, it’s just a question of what your taste buds are used to. Once you adjust to less salt, it really tastes unpleasant when you eat salted food.

Also, please just steam / microwave veg. Boiling it is barbaric.

It drives me mad when my father adds salt to food I've cooked for him before tasting it. I season food, it feels like an insult.

So because the food is seasoned to your taste, you can’t see that it may not be right for someone else?

Ask the person who did it in the first place?

Because he knows how much seasoning you add and perhaps he knows it’s not enough for his taste,

Not nearly as rude as putting pepper in someone's food before they get it, in my book. Makes it very difficult to force it down.

No pepper anywhere in my house - even the smell of it from across the room is vile. People have occasionally acted like it's somehow rude to not to be able to supply a pepper shaker when asked, but I don't care - I'm not putting up with that.

I never use salt and hate salty food but I do like black pepper. I wouldn't like other people's food much if they had used salt so do think it should be available at the table along with pepper and even chilli flakes if appropriate as I like chilli spicy.

15 years in this country and a sad fact is that Brits can't cook, don't care what they eat and are not interested in learning.
In every household I've eaten, the food that wowed me was always prepared by a foreigner.

What absolute nonsense.

What’s “hot sauce”?

is it like chilli based? Doesn’t the heat take away from the flavour? It sounds strong so you’d just end up with everything tasting of chili?

I had a health issue when I was younger and had to eat a very basic diet, low salt, plain food. I found my palate adjusted and now many foods taste salty to me.

i prefer flavour from herbs and spices. Then add salt when appropriate. Potatoes always benefit from salt, for example. But a curry or a stir fry with soy sauce doesn’t.

Curry benefits from vinegar

Maybe it drives your dad mad that you don’t use enough salt for his taste?

i know my mum thinks I under salt- she grew up post war where everything was flavoured with an oxo cube and a good sprinkling of salt. She’s refused to even try my cooking before because i don’t use an oxo therefore it tasted of nothing.

I grew up in the 60s and my dad did a lot of the cooking. Everything was heavily salted. So that's where my aversion to salt comes from. Ready meals and restaurant food all taste too salty to me.
I used herbs, spices and pepper in cooking but never salt.
I do put salt and pepper on the table but it would really annoy me if someone added salt to their food before tasting it. I notice my adult DC never add salt so they must be as averse to salt as me.

I am another one that uses very little salt. You do get used to it and what you thought was normal now tastes very salty. Salt isn’t good for you. A relative always used far too much salt and was told to cut down by her doctor. She really underestimated how much salt she had. She couldn’t eat lettuce without putting salt on it.

I never add salt to my cooking but it will always be available on the table for those to add as they so wish. It’s a very personal preference.

We do need some salt in our diet, I was very anti salt at uni then started getting awful leg cramps when driving. The nurse at uni told me to add a bit of salt to stuff and I never got a cramp again.

According to MN it is the height of bad manners to have different tastes to the host!