LifeByA1000Cuts
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Maybe it is about getting an estimate of third-bite intensity at the first bite?
i think there is some irony in here somewhere.^^
it was just a silly question..just a regular silly question. really about flavor logistics. if a dish comes out too salty and you just start salting without tasting, arent you going in the wrong direction? that's all...i dont care about a chef's grand scheme, or a chinese mom's idea about balancing soy with ginger..just a regular question.
i'm not gassed about how anyone does things..especially not on the internet. and salt shakers at the restuarants isnt even a blip on my radar.
i was just wondering about the strategy of putting salt on food prior to tasting.
No, I do not. But I see a lot of that behaviour at our work canteen where many do put salt and pepper-mixture (in a grinder) on their food/salad before even tasting it. The truth is - it does not save the crappy food quality/taste ...
I do not think it is an old time practice, just a lack of dining culture practice (I hope I do not offend anyone around here) and/or access to decent quality food/restaurants
I actually do have an exception - the french fries at work are without any salt, so I do not need to taste them to know there is no salt on them
No. You've given me food that suits your tastes, not mine. And if you've taken the salt shaker off the table, NOW you've failed, because that's bad hospitality. There is no "correct level of saltiness" in food. People's perceptions and preferences vary, not only from person to person, but also over time.
No. You've given me food that suits your tastes, not mine. And if you've taken the salt shaker off the table, NOW you've failed, because that's bad hospitality. There is no "correct level of saltiness" in food. People's perceptions and preferences vary, not only from person to person, but also over time.
I think there is a perfect amount of salt in a dish. And most important a perfect balance with salt, aromatics, spice, sourness and sugar.
Not enough of this and it tastes uninteressant, too much of that and it tastes complicated.
Anyway the differences old-young, German-Japanese are minimal. You can't adjust this with a salt shaker...or it will be too much salt on it!
A dish "corrected" with a salt shaker is a dish a dish that has been..hmm.. not very properly cooked.
,twist of lemon or pinch of sugar.minimal. You can't adjust this with a salt shaker
I think there is a perfect amount of salt in a dish.
@nutmeg so your theory/postulate is that it is better to balance the salt perfectly to the other six-taste aspects of the dish than to the eater?
I should cook and taste as I feel at the moment, trying to make it right, salting as much as I can until I reach the correct taste.
After a bit of training, when I know it's perfectly right I will say: sorry my friend, you don't need any salt shaker for this dish.
My opinion but I believe that thinking to a salt shaker on the table leads to lazy seasonings.
If it's curry & roti that you made, garnishing it with hot sauce is part of your recipe
@malexthekid isn't adding massive amounts of dried chili for the machismo, post-paste, more a westernized thai food thing? And heat is more of a texture than a taste, and also capsaicin tolerance is far more variable in people than salt tolerance (probably on a 1:1000 or something scale... one could never raise a 1000x their salt or acid tolerance since a 1000x normal dose of salt or acidity would be poisonous/corrosive. For everyone everywhere. )
The food for thought I tried to serve was that salt, unless added at the table, has other functions in cooking than just seasoning. Dry roasting something and pouring hot water on top afterwards ain't gonna give you boiled something
Confusingly on no one's side again
I don't even own a salt shaker, so no chance of me pulling it off the table.
I think there is a perfect amount of salt in a dish. And most important a perfect balance with salt, aromatics, spice, sourness and sugar.
Not enough of this and it tastes uninteressant, too much of that and it tastes complicated.
Anyway the differences old-young, German-Japanese are minimal.
I was more about ... how you can use your salt "budget" usefully... osmotic or abrasive uses as I mentioned... or being able to add more tasty salt-preserved things...
And I found just going with thai recipes gives you great balance (but then I can take decent heat if it isn't harsh, unemulsified heat which I just find unpleasant usually).
Growing up, salt was always on the table, and generally needed. I got into the really bad habit of salting before tasting...
Then I grew up, was able to explore the adventurous side of my tastes and realized, for us, the salt was a direct result of not knowing how to use other seasonings. If it wasn't salt, pepper, or garlic it didn't happen in my house. More salt was the answer.
Bonus note: salting before tasting was one of Danny's biggest pet peeves!! Luckily, I'd grown out of it before we met, but I wish I could read his personal tirade on this thread. Guaranteed to make us laugh, which I desperately miss
I think this is an exceptionally arrogant opinion. And ignores the multitude of evidence (including scientific) that people's taste buds are not uniform and even in fact change throughout life.
Afterall. Tell me what balanced is?
Lets look at a simplistic example, take thai good and the addition of chilli, you are likely to get two very different answers to where the balance with chilli is between a thai person and a person from US or Australian (or wherever else). Who is right?
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