Comments on: Reason for Not Eating Out #17: Because You Can Salt to Your Taste

By: MaLo

MaLo — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:55:21 +0000

Hi! Stumbling on your website was one of these moments when I hit my forehead and think “Damn! Why didn’t I think of doing this myself?!” I am a home cook myself and went to the restaurant yesterday for my birthday and I regreated it! The wait was crazy, the place packed, the waiter not so pleasant, the food not impressive and way too salty and of course the bill up the roof. I hate to admit it but I really sound like my mother now: “Why going to restaurants when it tastes better at home?”

By: cathy

cathy — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:59:42 +0000

Wow, I’m amazed to hear all the differing sides to the restaurants’-use-of-salt debate. The palate is such an individual little detector!

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:23:06 +0000

Interestingly enough, I have a pretty sensitive to salt tongue. I don’t really like it at all, and tend to leave it out of recipes, though I always buy the ordinary canned beans.

A few days ago, I decided to cook DRY beans in my new pressure cooker. The recipe called for salt and LOTS of different spices.. it was an authentic Indian recipe. I left the salt out. With almost a half cup of various spices, I thought it wasn’t necessary.

After cooking it, I took a great big spoonful… it was so BLAND! I couldn’t believe it. I ate for a while trying to figure out what went wrong, when I realized that there was NO salt at all in it! (Usually I would use presalted beans). I put in 1/4 of what the recipe called for… and perfection. Instantly, all of the other spices brightened up.

In general, restaurants are WAY too salty, though. I’ve learned to avoid things in a butter sauce (for health as well as salt), and (sadly) to avoid garlic dishes… both generally have WAY too much salt for some reason.

By: Chewy

Chewy — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 08:05:39 +0000

I’d like to defend restaurants by saying that a professional cook’s palate is trained to tolerate more salt. (An interesting fact: A person’s salt palate can be changed in about a three month period). If you are accustomed to a low-sodium diet, then it’s your responsibility as a diner to alert your server and the chef about this.

Also, it bothers me when recipes say to season at the end – as using salt at the end of a recipe yields different (and less delicious) results than salting at the beginning or along the way.

By: cath

cath — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 12:50:07 +0000

My hand is up too…salt is way overused and a lot of people are just not aware of how much they are consuming. As we have a farm, and a lot of our food is cooked at home, we buy very little in the way of ‘made’ or ‘convenience’ foods, which means we are not exposed to huge quantities of salt on a regular basis. It almost ruins the thrill of going out when we know the flavours of the dish should be fab…if only we could get over the saltiness.

For some reason though, i still l can’t get enough salt on my potato chips. go figure!

By: LM

LM — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:28:40 +0000

I completely agree, salt is overused at way too many resturaunts. It’s a pet peeve of mine and a great reason to cook at home.Once you start noticing and tracking how much salt is in things (for health reasons,etc.) you realize you could do with much less.I’m very sensitve to salt and once I started buying low salt foods, like cheese, crackers or even ketchup,I got used to them and hardly stand the “regular” versions anymore. I hardly use any salt in my cooking (except potatoes, they always need some)and if anyone doesn’t like it, I hand them the shaker.

By: Mrs.W

Mrs.W — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:10:20 +0000

Wow–there’s nothing worse than an over-salted dish! It really does ruin the restaurant experience. Sounds like the chef is just a bit heavy-handed with the salt.

Everyone has a different idea of how salty is too much. But I think at a restaurant they have to be very careful to find that balance. Not to mention consideration for any patrons who need to control sodium intake.