S and P or not

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 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.

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.

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 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?

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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.

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.

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.

Remember years ago when cooking dinner for my DM & DF. Mashing potatoes when he asked if I could use salt in them one day. Told him it is easy to add salt after cooking but if no one else liked salt in their mash it could not be taken out after cooking. He was a very intelligent man but could not get his head around the idea that some of us do not like salt in everything! So guess it is an age thing.

After many years in the Arabian Gulf, I got used to adding a pinch of salt to fizzy drinks and squash. When I first went, we had daily salt tablets, but the company tropical medicine doc said it was better to take smaller amounts of salt in food and drink. I still haven’t quite accustomed myself to unsalted coke, Fanta and barley water.

Only thing I add salt to at the table is chips.
I use salt and pepper sparingly when cooking

I use salt and pepper during cooling. I would never add salt and/or pepper to a dish someone else had cooked until i had tasted it. I was taught to put a little salt on the side of the plate to use and Never to shake over food.

SPOON, not sooon

It seems a bit strange to put salt and pepper out, then consider it rude if someone uses them.

I have lots and lots of pepper, and a bit of salt.

Escoffier is said to have thrown a temper tantrum when someone either added or asked for salt. He said he did not expect his guests to cook at the table.

I was brought up not to put salt or pepper on a meal until tasted. I was also told to put it in a neat pile at the side of the plate, not sprinkle it over the meal. I suppose that goes back to the days when salt was put on the table in a little salt cellar with a sooon.

My DH automatically 'seasons' his food without tasting it. I've suggested he should at least taste it first, but as usual he knows best!!

I always put S&P on the table ,I think it would be very arrogant to believe my taste in seasoning is everyone else's.I have a friend who used to bring chilli sauce with her as she liked everything extra spicy.Was I offended ,not a bit .Its her who eats it not me so not down to me to dictate what she does.

I use salt when cooking ,and I like a lot of pepper on anything with cheese

People’s tastes do vary. I do sometimes add a little S, and often lots of P - dh rarely adds either.
IMO it’s a bit presumptuous of the cook to think that everyone’s taste buds are the same as theirs. Or that they ought to be.
I always put S and P on the table.

I don't use salt due to high blood pressure. But I like pepper on almost everything.

I don’t salt when cooking and we use Losalt at the table, OH always uses, I do occasionally. But I’m dreadful for sauce, especially mint.

I stopped salting food when cooking when it was also liquidised for baby food in 1978! Rarely add now except a little in mashed potatoes. DH used to be horrified at the Rotarians who salted their dinner liberally without tasting first. ?

Salt is used in saline drips to rehydrate patients. Those who had gastro problems or a keto episode in diabetics. It acts as a fluid balance to replace salt loss in the body, so we need salt but in small doses, particularly in hot weather.

I do, I always put salt on my food before tasting and I have never found it too salty. I do use himalayan pink salt as I was told it is better for you.

My mother was a bit of a nightmare with salt in cooking - she always reckoned that you had to "put enough in so you can taste it" and on one occassion, she put so much salt in the broccoli it was inedible!
My dad always added salt without tasting - maybe it is a generational thing - he reckoned that during WW2, most food was so bland that you had to add salt !
Since then, I don't add salt to cooking - use herbs and sometimes pepper instead and other condiments such as Worcestershire sauce has more than enough salt in it anyway!
I tend to use Lo Salt - sorry, can't eat roasties, chips or egg without salt that I do put on after cooking !