venting about ketchup

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:never heard that anecdote, but I love it. My FIL does this. I am a good cook and I go out of my way to make really nice meals when they visit, and he'll take salt to a perfectly seasoned beef tenderloin ($100 piece of meat) with port wine reduction without even tasting it first. GRRR.

Perfectly seasoned to your taste. My family prefers low sodium. I've had foods prepared by excellent professional chefs and ones from excellent amateur chefs from top chef's recipes that are seasoned well to other people's taste, but not to mine. I find that most professional chefs like their food far saltier than I like mine. When I cook recipes, if the salt is not a leavener, I halve the salt in the recipe (or less).

Many of my friends know my cooking style is much lower on salt and will salt my food, sometimes before tasting. Doesn't bother me. Seasoned to my taste, not to theirs and they like their salt. Why someone would take offense that someone else's sense of taste differed from theirs I have never understood. It's not about your cooking. It's about their preference for salt. If they know beforehand that you salt your cooking less than they prefer, why wouldn't they add salt and then taste?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Many of my friends know my cooking style is much lower on salt and will salt my food, sometimes before tasting. Doesn't bother me. Seasoned to my taste, not to theirs and they like their salt. Why someone would take offense that someone else's sense of taste differed from theirs I have never understood. It's not about your cooking. It's about their preference for salt. If they know beforehand that you salt your cooking less than they prefer, why wouldn't they add salt and then taste?

if they haven't tasted it, how do they know it's less salty? I'm not talking about DH putting hot sauce on his scrambled eggs that I've been making the same way for the 12 years we've been together. this is my FIL, who eats here maybe 5x/yr, and always gets something different. He has no way of knowing whether it is flavored to his liking, he is just acting on impulse. it is rude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DH encouraged DS (age 2) to dip his apples in ketchup and he loved it . I actually do not like ketchup and cannot stand even stand the smell - so cleaning up after the two of them grosses me out.

I hate the smell too. It started in pregnancy and continued post partum. I think it's the vinegar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Many of my friends know my cooking style is much lower on salt and will salt my food, sometimes before tasting. Doesn't bother me. Seasoned to my taste, not to theirs and they like their salt. Why someone would take offense that someone else's sense of taste differed from theirs I have never understood. It's not about your cooking. It's about their preference for salt. If they know beforehand that you salt your cooking less than they prefer, why wouldn't they add salt and then taste?

if they haven't tasted it, how do they know it's less salty? I'm not talking about DH putting hot sauce on his scrambled eggs that I've been making the same way for the 12 years we've been together. this is my FIL, who eats here maybe 5x/yr, and always gets something different. He has no way of knowing whether it is flavored to his liking, he is just acting on impulse. it is rude.

How long has FIL been eating with you. 5x/yr, but how long have you been married? 12 years? So, maybe he's had 50-70 meals that you've made? You don't think that after eating at some place a few dozen times you might note the pattern? If you went to a restaurant, 5x per year, how long would it take you to note that the foods always have less salt than you like? A year or two? I can guarantee you that I know some things about a person's cooking style that I've been eating for over 10 years, even if it is only a few times per year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ketchup is basically sugar and tomato. Might want to point that out to the DH who's feeding it to DC.

Yes! Kids don't need to be offered such a sugary sauce.