Seasoning

[Irish_Tom]

I love cooking programmes and have been following Master Chef: The Professionals all of this week.

I think the single most-used word by Michel Roux Jnr is 'seasoning'.

He literally says it in every sentence about every dish the contestants cook.

What I can't work out is what he actually means.

In my ignorance, I've always assumed 'seasoning' was just a bit of salt and pepper — which surely is down to personal preference.

Also, we're bombarded with health-warnings about consuming too much salt and 'proper' chefs love to use other unhealthy things like real butter, cream, sugar, alcohol etc.

I think Rick Stein was famously lambasted for using too much salt in his recipes and just one of Floyd's amuse-bouche can put you over the drink-drive limit!

When ever you see chefs on the TV they always cook with a 'pinch' (read mountain) of this or that. I get worried if I twist my salt grinder a few times into a huge vat of bolognese sauce!

So how does one obtain that 'perfect seasoning' which would be worthy of a 2-star chef and how does one balance this with avoiding a coronary at 40?

 

[Scottland]

I think the problem with salt is that many pre-prepared foods have huge amounts in them - couple that with a poor diet and this is the problem giving people heart disease in their 30's and 40's - not well seasoned food.

Salt, when used correctly, will bring out the flavour in something. When a chef would criticise something for not enough seasoning it generally means they cannot taste the full flavour, or what they expect to be anyway.

Pepper on the other hand, adds flavour. And is classed as a seasoning in the same way spices are used in Asian cuisine.

 

[boxman2000]

Nothing annoys me more than preparing a meal and people shoving a load of salt over their meal not having tasted it already!!

 

[dottty27]

^ I was cooking for a halloween party this year and was makeing burgers adding salt/peper and a few of the guests ending up adding way to much extra salt after id told them it had been salted and complaind that i was a rubish cook = rage

 

[HeadlessChicken]

First reply pretty much has it. Pre-packaged food has vast amounts of salt (altho it's lower than it used to be due to legislation). So as a rule people were eating too much salt, so any salt addition is scorned.

It's absolutely essential in so many dishes tho. As I cook 95% of my food from scratch, I don't worry, and add as much salt as I need in the dish. I also use Maldon, which you apparently use less of due to it's more intense taste. Dunno if that's true, I just use it cause it tastes a lot bloomin nicer

 

[glitch]

First reply pretty much has it.

I have to say that was a fantastically clear and concise post from Scottland.

Couldn't really have put it better.

I also use Maldon, which you apparently use less of due to it's more intense taste. Dunno if that's true, I just use it cause it tastes a lot bloomin nicer

I go with table salt for adding to water, rock salt for adding during cooking and Maldon salt for seasoning the finished dish. The latter is just too expensive to use every day!

 

[Irish_Tom]

Thanks for the replies so far.

You have all allayed my fears about adding salt to my cooking. Like HeadlessChicken, my girlfriend and I cook 95% of our meals from scratch so if we can eek-out a bit more flavour that would be good.

In terms of getting a dish perfectly seasoned, is it just a case of finding the point at which you say "I've added enough salt to this, any more isn't going to make any difference to the flavour" or is there some other method of defining it.

 

[Glaucus]

I think the problem with salt is that many pre-prepared foods have huge amounts in them - couple that with a poor diet and this is the problem giving people heart disease in their 30's and 40's - not well seasoned food.

Salt, when used correctly, will bring out the flavour in something. When a chef would criticise something for not enough seasoning it generally means they cannot taste the full flavour, or what they expect to be anyway.

Pepper on the other hand, adds flavour. And is classed as a seasoning in the same way spices are used in Asian cuisine.

This, unless you eat pre made food, it is likely your salt intake is incredibly low especially if you don't season. Salt is vital for health.

Just slowly keep adding salt and tasting. You'll tasty the difference. You shouldn't be able to taste the salt, but you should be able to taste the complexity.

 

[glitch]

In terms of getting a dish perfectly seasoned, is it just a case of finding the point at which you say "I've added enough salt to this, any more isn't going to make any difference to the flavour" or is there some other method of defining it.

I've always assumed that a dish is seasoned 'perfectly' when the flavours are all well-defined and you can pick out each individual one.

Likewise, if you can taste salt or pepper as a flavour in its own right, you've gone overboard unless you were specifically looking for that effect.

 

[arc@css]

 

[Irish_Tom]

I hate you with a passion you can only dream of.

That's genius

 

[NickPembs]

Nothing annoys me more than preparing a meal and people shoving a load of salt over their meal not having tasted it already!!

Mmmmm that would be me then. I tend to put salt on every meal that I have.

However, the thread seem to have gone down the road of how salty a dish is rather than what is considered proper seasoning. I echo the OP question in that in cookery programmes such as MasterChef, that is all you hear.

Is it not a personal preference or is there an actual level of proper seasoning?

 

[Irish_Tom]

Picked up some rock salt and Maldon at the supermarket yesterday (already had table salt).

Looking forward to cooking with it now!

Thanks for the advise and tips all.

 

[randomshenans]

Mmmmm that would be me then. I tend to put salt on every meal that I have.

However, the thread seem to have gone down the road of how salty a dish is rather than what is considered proper seasoning. I echo the OP question in that in cookery programmes such as MasterChef, that is all you hear.

Is it not a personal preference or is there an actual level of proper seasoning?

I think some people do have different levels of taste. Or maybe a lack of taste? The amount of times that I've had meals that are so bland due to lack of seasoning and the maker thinks they're fine. Untrained taste buds perhaps?

There is a saturation point though. You can over season things, which is when as said above, you can taste the salt and pepper distinctly. These should be used to enhance and bring out the flavours in general. Not so that you can have a massive mouthful of saltiness (oo-er). You get me?

 

[glitch]

Is it not a personal preference or is there an actual level of proper seasoning?

A bit of both.

Ultimately it's going to be down to the individual in question as to how much seasoning, if any, they put on their dish, but that's where an educated palate comes in. Most dishes will benefit from some sort of seasoning and it's therefore up to the person who is cooking the food to decide what and how much.

When judges/critics on shows like Masterchef refer to a dish as being perfectly seasoned it will usually refer to two things. Firstly, that it has actually been seasoned correctly (my previous point about flavours being defined) and secondly that it is all well-balanced and the flavours compliment each other.

The usual cardinal sin is to either not season at all or season too much - both approaches showing that the cook lacks skill and finesse and generally resulting in a dish being bland or salty, although there has been the odd occasion where someone has gone overboard with another seasoning, usually the pepper.

You can't really teach someone's palate to recognise perfect seasoning, but you can educate them towards what is considered proper seasoning. And I think it's this which is being referred to in the shows we are all watching.

 

[Squink]

You can't really teach someone's palate to recognise perfect seasoning, but you can educate them towards what is considered proper seasoning. And I think it's this which is being referred to in the shows we are all watching.

I personally think that the repeated references to seasoning (specifically on Masterchef as has been mentioned) crop up far too often, which makes me think they're saying it because they're out of other, more original criticisms. If you watch something like The Great British Menu, the critics (whilst generally far more irritating than the Masterchef judges) have a far wider repertoire of comments, beyond the level of seasoning present in a dish.

I have to say I find it annoying when watching cookery programmes to see them bung vast amounts of salt, double cream, butter etc into their dishes. It's easy to get flavour when you use the most unhealthy foods. I like to watch chefs who produce superb food without chucking in high fat/salt ingredients.

 

[oli collett]

I personally think that the repeated references to seasoning (specifically on Masterchef as has been mentioned) crop up far too often, which makes me think they're saying it because they're out of other, more original criticisms. If you watch something like The Great British Menu, the critics (whilst generally far more irritating than the Masterchef judges) have a far wider repertoire of comments, beyond the level of seasoning present in a dish.

Might it not be that it's because seasoning is the most common thing to get wrong as a young/inexperienced chef?

I have to say I find it annoying when watching cookery programmes to see them bung vast amounts of salt, double cream, butter etc into their dishes. It's easy to get flavour when you use the most unhealthy foods. I like to watch chefs who produce superb food without chucking in high fat/salt ingredients.

As Rene Redzepi put it:

Everything is good with butter. If an ingredient is not good with butter it is not a good ingredient.

I'd rather watch chefs produce food for reasons of flavour, worrying less about the macrobiotic composition of the end result

 

[jamenn]

I have to admit I'm addicted to pepper I have vast amounts of it on almost all savoury food!

 

[glitch]

I personally think that the repeated references to seasoning (specifically on Masterchef as has been mentioned) crop up far too often, which makes me think they're saying it because they're out of other, more original criticisms. If you watch something like The Great British Menu, the critics (whilst generally far more irritating than the Masterchef judges) have a far wider repertoire of comments, beyond the level of seasoning present in a dish.

Two reasons for that.

Firstly, the chefs on GBM are, by and large, at the top of their game and presenting restaurant quality dishes to the judges for critique. I'm sure that if the seasoning was off they'd bring it up, but for the most part you can expect that aspect of the dishes to be flawless and the criticism to focus mainly on seasonality, suitability for the intended event, presentation, etc.

Secondly, the contestants on Masterchef are, like Mr Collet says, either young, inexperienced or both. And that applies to the Professionals edition as well. I'd agree that there has been a focus on comments about seasoning, but the shows are edited for a reason and it's obviously something the production company felt they wanted to highlight - presumably because it was being repeated so often!

I have to say I find it annoying when watching cookery programmes to see them bung vast amounts of salt, double cream, butter etc into their dishes. It's easy to get flavour when you use the most unhealthy foods. I like to watch chefs who produce superb food without chucking in high fat/salt ingredients.

I don't think the flavour of the dish necessarily comes from those ingredients - they are more of a enhancement than anything else.

That being said, I must admit to being surprised at just how much butter, oil, cream, salt and other 'rich' ingredients some television chefs are using, but on the whole I think things have calmed down a great deal in recent years.

I guess you're more a Chris Horridge man though?