Inspired by the spicy food/ LO thread.
Do you get offended if someone adds salt or other condiments like hot sauce to a meal you prepared for them?
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I don't at all, although I have to scramble to gather all of the requests.
Not too long ago, MIL and her bf came to visit. He asked for salt and hot sauce for a quite flavorful shrimp & andouille sausage pasta I made. They both apologized profusely and made excuses why he always needs salt & hot sauce. I didn't care one bit as I just wanted to sit down and everyone eat their food while it was still hot. Later I commented to DH how weird it was they kept making a big deal about the salt and hot sauce. Well, apparently DH chastised them about how they should at least try the food first.
One of my coworkers can't get enough salt or spicy food. When out to lunch, we all know to pass the seasonings straight to her!
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My husband puts HP sauce on things without even tasting them and it annoys me but reading the title of this thread I thought "why would that annoy anybody?" so now I think I'm being too sensitive about it. I would add sriracha to something so why do I care if he wants to add HP?
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@erinbaderin: yeah, I struggled with the thread title.
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I don't get annoyed if someone adds something after they tried it. My in-laws and my husband put salt on their food before they've even tried a bite though! It makes me crazy.
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I wouldn't be annoyed because I'm a terrible cook. But as I'm a terrible cook I really only ever cook for my kids/husband!
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@erinbaderin: Exactly what you said. Me too!
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My dad salts everything and adds ridiculous amounts of butter. It drives my DH crazy. DH cooks everything and seasons well. The only thing we try to keep on the table is black pepper. He's toned down use of pepper for the sake of small kids. I get why DH gets annoyed.
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We never had salt shakers growing up only pepper
My mom never believed in adding extra salt so to me I think it's gross....not judging
I just have no taste for table salt -
I'm not offended at all, I add pepper and sriracha to lots of dishes that don't need it. I usually just eat food as served at other people's houses though.
@My Only Sunshine: seems less offensive if they do it before trying bc then it's obviously their taste buds and not your food being subpar
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I don't mind at all. I tend to not use a lot of table salt myself, but I really dislike unsalted vegetables and my mother never seasoned foods correctly for health reasons--although now we know that the high sodium levels in the typical American diet come from processed food products, not from table salt added in home cooked food.
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No... My mom have always cooked light for us, but for example DH grew up in the restaurant biz and they definitely cook with heavier tastes. My mom also loves spicy, so growing up I took after her and I love adding hot sauce to everything!
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"Offended" probably isn't the right word, but I do think it is a bit of overkill to add salt/hot sauce to everything across the board without tasting. My husband is at times guilty of both, and his mom is a big salt fiend
I think it's pretty standard to have at least salt & pepper on a table, and we usually have lots of other condiments depending on the cuisine we are eating - such as yogurt/lime pickle/various chutneys for indian; soy sauce/sirracha/shichimi spice mix for various Asian dishes, several hot sauces for most everything else, parmesan & pepper flakes for Italian....but growing up we never had specialty condiments - that's something I've picked up from DH.
I'm not insulted when people season my cooking to their own taste. I'm a good cook, and make things the way I believe they are "supposed" to taste, but respect that each person has their own preferences....and also I acknowledge that I cook to the lowest level of tolerance of people who are eating with me in terms of salt/spice. So, for example, when my parents are over, I cook milder, and pretty much everyone else will need to spice up their food!
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No it wouldn't bother me. We keep salt and pepper on the table, and would bring hot sauce out for people to season themselves if it was a dish that it made sense for
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Not offended. I typically do not add salt to most recipes, especially if they already involve salty foods like cheese or stock. I realize my food may taste bland to some people though, so I set it out if we have guests.
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Not offended, but I am annoyed if it's not available, even if I don't need it. It's presumptuous to think everyone likes food the same. I'll gladly taste food first, but I'm a super taster, so I usually need more salt. Beyoncé has nothing on me- I have hot sauce, 3 kinds of salt and 2 peppers in my bag.
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For salt it wouldn't have occurred to me to be bothered by this. I prepare food light on the salt and I add to my taste at the table. I think I like things salty so I don't want to over salt for someone else. The hot sauce might be weird though. Almost like they expect to need to cover up the taste. But I agree with a previous poster it might be worse if they taste it and then want to add hot sauce to it.
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No, not at all. Everyone has their own tastes and things they were brought up with. I don't even own a salt shaker, but I know some people just love to add salt to all meals regardless. It's never even crossed my mind that some people might be offended ( or whatever word you want to use) that people are adding extra sauces to their cooking.
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@OldpuebloJenn: swag
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Doesn't offend me at all! I know everyone has different preferences, so it just makes sense.
Growing up, my mom never kept salt on the table, so I never developedmuch of a taste for salt. However, when I was in my early twenties I was put on a high salt diet for medical reasons and so I started salting more of my food. Now, there are some things that I salt/pepper automatically because I know I'm going to want it (baked potatoes, steamed and unseasoned veggies, anything my MIL makes, etc). Other things I'll try first and salt/pepper if needed.
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I appreciate it when people taste something first before they add additional seasonings, but I don't really mind.
DH likes food a lot saltier than I do, and I like things a lot spicier than most people, so typically some doctoring up happens at our dinner table. That said, I don't add spicy stuff to everything, just mostly everything
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No I really don't care. My dad salts everything he eats at home, restaurants, you name it.
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Offend, no, not at all. I'm not a big salt or spicy person so I appreciate that other people like more of it.
Annoy- yes, sometimes i get annoyed when people add salt or hot sauce without tasting it. Not like I'm offended they think I'm a bad cook, just like, well, how do you know it's not already overly salted? Then you just made it too salty for you to enjoy. Has nothing to do with whether I cooked it or not though.
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Not offended! MIL always adds TONS of salt, no matter where we are. At her house, she cooks to her taste, so I wish I had a de-salter, haha. And at her house, DH, BIL, and I always ask for hot sauce.
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I do not love it when my husband salts food at the table before trying it
Or adds salt to an already salty meal (or pizza...PIZZA!?!?) -
Salt-no. Hot sauce, yes. Salt helps bring out flavor while hot sauce masks it.
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It doesn't bother me as everyone has different tastes. DH loves hot sauce and seems to put it on everything. It doesn't phase me.
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DH is really bad at adding hot sauce of some kind to everything before even tasting it. My mom says that his taste buds are burnt off! This used to bother me, but I've mellowed, and now take the approach that we all have different taste buds and prefer things to each individual's tastes. For example, I made potato leek soup from scratch this evening, and gladly handed over the sriracha without even being asked. I know I'm a good cook, so it wasn't to mask the taste. He just likes it that way.
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Thinking about it.... I think I would get offended. And personally I would never ever do that to the people who were kind enough to invite me over for dinner and cooked for me. I would either just eat something else and don't eat the one thing that I don't care for... and usually it has never been the issue about the salt/spice.
ETA: If it were people who I live with, like DH (and DS in the future), I am guessing I won't get offended (as much). They have to eat my cooking every day so I can cut them some slack
And it only happens rarely.
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I wanted to roll my eyes when my SIL got up and pawed through our fridge to find ketchup to put on the turkey I made a few Thanksgivings ago. Let the records show that she didn't even try the damn turkey. I thought it was very strange for her to excuse herself from the table and root through the fridge before she even tried it. If I ONLY liked turkey with ketchup, I would just pass if I were at someone else's house rather than being disruptive. That being said, I am also a terrible self-advocate.
To be fair, my MIL serves gravy out of a jar and I made homemade gravy, so perhaps SIL's experience is not so great... I don't host anymore
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It wouldn't offend me, in general, but DH adds hot sauce/red pepper flakes/chili powder etc to everything even before he tastes it, and it drives me crazy. If I've just made a plain meal and he wants to put seasoning on a plain baked potato or plain rice, that's one thing, but when I've made a complicated dish with specific and intricate flavors it annoys me that he doesn't even try it to see what it tastes like first. I seriously think he's permanently altered his taste buds so that food has no flavor unless it's super spicy.
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