POLL: salt vs. pepper

impossible!

salt is essential to life but I have eaten like 5 peppercorns whole from the jar tonight already so

I know salt's gonna win, but as a pepper partisan I have to say that there's only one shaker I reach for when I sit down for a meal and it has a P on it http://www.4thletter.net/wp-content/plugins/smilies-themer/SAEmoticons/emot-colbert.png

make that 8

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Alice_par_John_Tenniel_21.png/720px-Alice_par_John_Tenniel_21.png
^^^a vote for pepper is a vote for the reign of the Duchess

pepper smells so good

http://upload.vipulg.com/Rapid_Upload_Filse/Chemistry_Acc_693/Chapter-12_files/Chapter-12-4.png

"pleased to meet you, I am salt, perennial textbook image of cool-ass ion lattices"

Salt is more...multi-dimensional, but both are indispensible with salad. One of them will probably cut a few months off my life, but I'm better than I used to be.

http://www.cinemaretro.com/uploads/saltandpepper.jpg

I'm going for "which grinder do you grab" in my answer rather than anything else - so it's totally pepper.

http://www.grandinetti.org/resources/Teaching/Chem121/Lectures/SolutionChemistry/water3.gif

so beautiful is makes me feel all Holden Caulfieldy wistful for this lil polarballet

I mean I love pepper, I will grind a pepper grinder until my wrists are tired (this is actually how I determine I have put the right amt of pepper in something), pepper is the soul of some fucking awesome food. But Jesus Christ himself will tell you so much of food is basically shit without salt.

On the other thread I used my lifelong favorite fallacy, the appeal to cute animals:

I mean have you ever seen an adorabl lil pony or sniffy lil rabbit spending its time with a pepper lick? No.

― Looking Man (Abbbottt), Sunday, March 20, 2011 9:54 AM (10 minutes ago)

http://www.geo.uw.edu.pl/SOLNO/iv.jpeg

sublimity of the salt mine

salt is much more essential to good food, but i also tend to avoid it in excess quantities for health reasons, and i guess i overcompensate by peppering the shit out of everything

xpost otm. salt now + forever

I mean I love pepper, I will grind a pepper grinder until my wrists are tired (this is actually how I determine I have put the right amt of pepper in something), pepper is the soul of some fucking awesome food. But Jesus Christ himself will tell you so much of food is basically shit without salt.

― Looking Man (Abbbottt), Sunday, March 20, 2011 12:04 PM (3 minutes ago)

^^^ this this this ^^^

Which is cuter - animals licking or animals sneezing? A properly cute sneeze is a wonder to behold.

animal sneezes are p cute

But Jesus Christ himself will tell you so much of food is basically shit without salt.

so fucking true

plus you can say 'bless you!' to them

salud!

I would worry about an animal that was so pepper infected it was sneezing. I would actually assume it had been cold chilling with the Duchess!

Actually that was a disappointment of real life v cartoons – pepper is not some instasneeze gateway to prankery.

gotta say, I do also chowhound those big crystals of rock salt if there are ever any lying around

garlic >>> both of these btw fwiw ftw omg

omg salt nom nom nom

we keep kosher salt in a little ramekin and I like to absentmindedly grab a pinch and munch on it — once I did this at someone else's house without thinking about it and embarrassed myself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCadcBR95oU

Was thinking the same thing...a third option if you don't like either:

http://www.radioexpress.com/public/images/logos/backspin_spinderella_logo.jpg

voted balsamic&cinnamon reduction

spindarella was such a babe

looks like this is an easy walk for salt but I'm with pepper. I only really recently started putting salt on food, most food as always seemed plenty salty enough to m -- Bittman is very very into "salt and pepper are often enough for seasoning" and he's right, but I think salt is really a habit. I never used to even look at the salt shaker and I suspect that I want it more now because my palate is getting less receptive and needs the salt to be reminded to taste stuff

no amount of pepper will make an unsalted dish palatable...and the smallest hint of salt elevates a good dish to a great dish

SALT PWNS ALL

pepper.

salt is essential to life but I have eaten like 5 peppercorns whole from the jar tonight already so

― WD-40 (acoleuthic), Sunday, March 20, 2011 12:58 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

christ wtf

i don't even see how this is a question -- granted i like salt a lot but like... salt is maybe the most integral cooking ingredient

pepper vs. garlic might have been a better poll

cuz salt is sort of like oxygen

you take too much it gets you high (blood pressure)

i don't even see how this is a question -- granted i like salt a lot but like... salt is maybe the most integral cooking ingredient

this isn't even true though - it wakes up a dish no doubt, roasted vegetables with salt & pepper are like my favorite thing in the world, but like if there was a reality show centered on me cooking for you five nights a week and the challenge is will J0rdan concede that four nights in five he couldn't really say that salt would have improved the dish, I would pwn that reality show and use my winnings to buy really exotic strains of weed

maybe some hash oil

idk man

xpost oh man so wrong so wrong... p much every dish will be improved by salt

i mean i have read like a million articles from chefs saying that one of the key differences btwn restaurant food + home cooked food is that ppl at home always under season

p much every dish will be improved by salt

I seriously don't trust any cook who believes this - "add salt" is the dynamic range compression of cooking

I also think home cooked food generally tastes much better than restaurant food tho. house chicken not outside imo

hmmmmmm

nb I'm vegetarian. meat has to be salted, no doubt about that.

well then

also furthermore the taste of salt is omnipresent even if you don't literally salt something -- for instance, pizza

how can you hate BOTH salt and pepper

where is the grey nutrapaste we were all promised

high school cafeterias, where it belongs

When I was little if we ran out of toothpaste Mum told us to brush our teeth with salt. It worked okay I guess...I don't know if this is a thing.

we used baking soda

yeah baking soda makes sense to me but now looking back, I'm like 'Salt? Really?' Lord knows we had plenty of baking soda in the cupboard.

It's abrasive, just like baking soda is abrasive.

like I said, it worked fine...just struck me as weird all these years later

Its pronounced "o re GAH no" in Aus, which rendered that Simpsons joke where Marge is looking at the spce rack at the chilli cook off and reads out the word in a baffled voice as... not a joke, so it confused me for ages.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Salt and pepper shakers are always paired together. But the more I think about it the less I understand why exactly. Salt is so much more essential to all parts of cooking, baking, and eating, whereas pepper works only in particular circumstances and could possibly be swapped out with some other herb or spice.

― Moodles, Wednesday, March 23, 2011 8:42 AM (10 hours ago)

OTM – I remember as a kid thinking pepper just had some freak luck in ending up the arbitrary spice to be paired w/the omnipresent force that is salt.

I reach for the pepper shake when I:

a) am eating steak
b) am feeling experimental

otherwise, never.

on eggs: both
on salad: pepper
on grilled meat: pepper
on pizza: red & black pepper
on french fries, tater tots: both
on slices of delicious ripe tomato: salt
on steamed veggies: salt

tbrr though, i rarely put salt on food that is already prepared and am much more likely to reach for da pepper. i love pepper. i put tons of pepper on macaroni and cheese.

heh this poll was prompted by me realizing that i can't eat mac & cheese without dumping about a pound of pepper onto it

black pepper on mac n cheese is how the elite eat imo

ian, black pepper on tomato > salt on tomato, give it a try, I learned it from a Brautigan book and never looked back

A tomato sandwich in high summer has to have both.

man that sandwich WmC just conjured is a vivid, real thing in my mind

c'mon summer

I eat 'mater sandwiches with vegenaise and S&P all the time

oh fresh from the garden tomatoes where for art thou

I haven't refilled my salt shaker in six years -- the length of time I've lived in this apartment.

Whereas I dowse everything in pepper.

"mater"...ilu corey

abovementioned tomato sandwich also has to be eaten standing over the sink, 'cause it's going to drip down my arms

hahah totally

can you smell the tomato when youre slicing it?
if yes, youre speaking my language

ILX otm.

I used to hate black pepper so much that I couldn't eat things that tasted of it too strongly. That's changed though and I now even use it during cooking but I'd still never ever add additional black pepper to my food.

Pro tip - salt on pizza is the best.

I mention this only because I've gotten weird looks from ppl who've seen me salt my pizza. Not the best - being a little drunk and confused during a 4am pizza binge and mistaking a sugar shaker for a salt one and then biting into sugared pizza. The worst.

I am pretty sure my head would implode if I ever put salt on pizza

lol why?! it's amazing

I have a pretty low tolerance for salt as it is; most pizza is more than salty enough for me what with the salt in the cheese, crust and ESPECIALLY the pepperoni.

oh well if I had pepperoni pizza I probably wouldn't put salt on it cause if memory serves roni's pretty salty but since I don't eat meat that's not an issue

damn, i missed this poll.

as condiment, black pepper wins all.

but as an ingredient with important chemical functions in cooking, salt is indispensable.

salt.

salt ftw, although judicious use of pepper while cooking improves pretty much everything.

all you "tomato sandwich in summer" people really need to unchain yourselves. i make those bitches all year round. with salt. and pepper. and a sprig of basil and some mozz. I am not even fucking joking when I say that I have all of those ingreidents assembled at home tonight for that very purpose.

it's okay to wear white after labor day too. fuck with the classics when you want to fuck with the classics.

I love how hardcore you are about your tomato sandwich

"Now THIS is a motherfucking sandwich! I'm about to get GRIZZLY on this bitch!"

out of season tomatoes are not tomatoes

going to research "unchaining myself," brb

xpost, VegGrrl otm

^^^^^^^

yeah, no kidding. its time kkvg broke up his assembled ingredients Saudi style and just waited for in season tomatoes

DJP: it's just my favorite sandwich, is all VG: that is some straight foodie propaganda, imo

nice juicy red foodie truth bomb

I'm just an ordinary guy. I shop at Giant and earn gas points. maybe they get their tomatoes from Chile or something? I don't know.

I am pretty sure my head would implode if I ever put salt on pizza

There is a pizza I order from an excellent gourmetish chain here, that comes with a weeny plastic rock salt and black pepper container for you to add to the pizza if you like. The topping is spinach and ricotta with cherry tomato halves and olives and not a massive amt of cheese so the salt/pepper actually works p well!

I'm not prejudiced though. If you want to save it all up for summer, that's cool too.

I was going to say that salt and pepper on one of those british arugula pizzas would be pretty good.

I never use salt/pepper on my table at home, but MANY foods are improved with this:

http://www.nolaimports.com/store/images/tonys%20seasoning-original.jpg

youhve just given me the idea to try this with a conservative application of old bay. wish me luck

Good luck! Seriously, omelets, any grilled meat (except beef, for some reason), casseroles, sandwiches... I go through a lot of Tony's.

kkvgz: I was lucky enough to have parents who have been growing their own vegetables for most of their lives and I was lucky enough to have 20 years of homegrown tomatoes in summer. It is sincerely not propaganda: there is nothing better than a homegrown tomato in season.

If you ever get the chance to get to a farmer's market, or know someone who has a vegetable garden and grows their own tomatoes, swing by in the summer time and you will find out what I'm talking about.

Not hating on you eating them out of season...but as good as those mater sandwiches taste to you right now...imagine that times 100 and that's how awesome a homegrown summer tomato is.

xp My mother-in-law salts everything, up to and including anchovies.