S and P or not

My other half automatically salts his food - then sometimes (when eating out) complains that it is over salted!
I have never understood people who don't taste it first!
I blame his mother and first wife.

I never add salt to anything I am cooking just black pepper. DH and I both have high BP and were told to cut down on salt. I now cannot bear to taste the salt in meals. As it has been mentioned above I just hate it on the cooking programmes when they berate some poor chef for not using enough seasoning, surely that is down to the individual.

I always put salt (Lo-salt - a bit healthier) on my food at the table - I'm the cook. I'd feel a little put out if there wasn't any salt on the table. I hate pepper.

Surely only the over-sensitive would be annoyed at being asked for salt? To need to be in that much control over how others eat is unpleasantly bossy. Maybe it is unhealthy but if it's only for one meal it's unlikely to tip the balance for that individual.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

I was taught that salt and pepper should always be on the table for a meal, but removed before the dessert was served.

I was also taught that it is rude to add condiments before you have tasted the dish.

As a child born in 1951 I wasn't allowed to use pepper ever. Anyone else remember being told pepper was bad for children, or is this just one of my mother's wierd ideas?

My husband automatically puts salt and pepper on his food before tasting it first which I've put up with for 40 years now. But what I find more annoying is that he plasters his plate with brown sauce, pickle or piccalilli which I find revolting

I add very little salt to my own cooking apart from boiled eggs. If having a pub or carvery Sunday roast I always add it without tasting first as, for my taste buds, they always need it. Years of experience have taught me this. It is down to the individual and these people who put others down publicly for something causing no harm to them are trying to look superior and in fact are controlling insecure individuals. Sorry, had enough of sad snooty types recently and this has been very triggering. Pointing it out loudly to the assembled diners is in my opinion extremely ill mannered, the very thing they are accusing the "salter" of. No harm if you choose to think it, just don't try and make yourself look better by verbalising it and putting someone down.

I use only a small amount of salt in cooking, so DH always adds it to his plate without tasting, as he knows I won’t have used enough for his taste.
One day it occurred to me that I always have gravy with meat meals, whereas he often doesn’t. Gravy is salty, so he has to make up for it.
If on rare occasions he cooks, the veg are almost inedible with too much salt for me, so I get him to cook mine separately. I prefer my veg a little bit al dente, whereas he cooks them to a mush. I add some black pepper too.

A slight deviation here; how about slathering lovely rare beef with mustard and horseradish? I don’t put either on roast beef or a steak, since I want to taste the beef and not the condiment. Plenty of people put so much onto their beef I wonder why I bothered to spend so much on giving them a treat!

I saw a man pick up the salt grinder in a cafe and shake it vigorously over his plate. Then, satisfied I assume, he carried on eating.

My ex Always covers his food with pepper and the more I Used to say anything about it the more he put on, it always made me and the kids sneeze.

I’m the only cook in my house.... so food is cooked to my taste! I put salt/pepper on table.... my husband is the only one to put salt on without tasting first...but then his mum boiled everything to pulp!

Some people say that salt added during cooking tastes different than when it's added after.

My DH adds salt and pepper before tasting and it drives me nuts.

One day, I’m very tempted to highly salt something for him and then see the result! I’d better not though as he has high blood pressure but it’s so tempting!

A word of caution. My DH had/has High Blood Pressure while mine is low. I tended to cook everything, even soup and potatoes without salt and soon got used to it. Then my GP remarked that my blood pressure was really low, even lower than was normal for me and I'd had a few dizzy spells. Being also DH's GP she had a lightbulb moment and asked if I had also cut back on salt - which I had. I was given strict orders to salt my own food at the table and eat the occasional packet of salted crisps or nuts. No more dizzy spells.

Love salty food. Marmite being one...could live on Marmite on toast. However, my DH ....we been married 46 years was surprised today after offering me the salt to put on my salad lunch and I refused. Never have salt on salad or cooked veg other than potatoes and also meat/fish. Plus I never add salt to cooking. Like pepper to.

When DD was little she had horrible cramps in her legs and feet almost everyday. She has really low sodium levels, I, although now a chef have never used much salt so she got used to salting her food herself.
She has been almost verbally abused for putting salt on food.
She takes salt tablets even now at 35 but her levels are often very low.
My bugbear is Ketchup, a friend had a flatmate who ate nothing without it. Macaroni Cheese covered in it is nauseating.

It was a source of much gnashing of teeth at one of my workplaces.

We ate with the men who lived in the home, and the same as them, so we all sat down together to eat.

When someone (female staff member, usually) had cooked a big roast for us all, some staff (usually male) would squirt a load of ketchup over it, which then made all the man want some.

Wish I knew how to train my husband. He’s definitely a “salt on without tasting “ person. Doesn’t matter what I say , now after 50 years then I fear it’s too late!

@JackyB, your pp about salt tablets really resonated with me.
When we lived in the Middle East, everyone took salt tablets during the very hot, and especially the incredibly humid months. Anyone who was out of doors much really did need them - the company supplied dispensers to all the families.

Many years later were were on holiday in the Darwin area (Oz) during an extremely humid season. We were repeatedly advised to drink loads of water - nobody mentioned salt - but on a very sweaty largely walking tour of Kakadu (I was virtually wringing my hair out every 10 minutes) I started to feel terribly limp and exhausted and suddenly remembered the salt tablets.

At lunch (buffalo pie or quiche with chips!) I put plenty of salt on my chips and felt so much better very quickly.

Salt has turned into a dirty word, but in such circs as above I’m surprised nobody mentioned it.

I'm afraid I'd probably do it all the more if I could sense the disapproval.

I don’t salt vegetables so I leave salt and pepper on the table.
We are having Wiltshire food during lockdown as shopping on line was hopeless. Bit better now. But apart from curries etc.they do not season the food so that’s one of the reasons we are seasoning our food. I decided not to put salt in any veg
when I cook it’s much healthier.

grandtanteJE65 I’m also a 50’s child and don’t remember being told pepper was bad for children. It was always on the table along with the salt. But I agree, it seemed to be just the adults who used it. The children did have free access to the salt shaker in those days though!
My GC aren’t allowed salt but they do love black pepper and grind it on their pasta, potatoes, soup etc

I think my mum decided whether we were allowed salt (but not pepper) on our dinners.

Well there you go. I season food as I cook it. The only thing I ever add salt to afterwards would be poached eggs.