I have one major culinary pet peeve. Well, that’s not exactly true; I have many. But this one in particular stands out, since it’s inescapable, sprinkled over the whole world. And that is the salt and pepper predicament. Salt is a mineral on the periodic table; well two– sodium and chlorine. Pepper is a fruit on a flowering vine, native to India. Salt is an enhancer. Pepper is a seasoning; a spice. Salt can be added to anything, when with the correct balance, it doesn’t taste salty but brings out the flavors in a dish. Pepper on the other hand, makes something taste well, like it has PEPPER in it.
These two get placed smugly on tables, mimicking a cute, inseparable wedding couple, or worse, written into a recipe with directions to “season with salt and pepper.” As a recipe writer, when I see this I run away as fast as I can. “Season to taste with salt,” actually means balancing the complex flavors in a dish, like brushing over a water-reveal picture, bringing it to life; or a flat image suddenly transformed into 3-D. It isn’t in fact seasoning at all, unless you add so much salt your dish tastes salty, which is usually not the goal. The phrase would correctly be written as “balance with,” or “enhance to taste.” Season to taste with pepper on the other hand, means just that– season, taste, and if the amount of pepper flavor profile in the dish is to your liking, you have correctly, “seasoned to taste.” However, recipe writers’ misuse of the word seasoning is forgivable. It’s using salt and pepper together in “season to taste,” that is not.
Pepper, just like cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, fennel, and celery seed, has a distinct taste. It’s added if the dish in question is desired to have that faint, spicy, aromatic, earthy, and reminiscent-of-slightly-burnt-popcorn taste. It’s mild in moderation, but can certainly overpower just like any other spice can if used in large quantities. I rarely put pepper on soft scrambled eggs or fish in particular, unless I want that flavor profile present. They’re so delicate and light, when pepper is added, it absolutely becomes a prominent flavor. If you like this, that’s perfectly fine. Just know what you are doing–you’re not enhancing anything, you are creating a dish with pepper as a main spice profiles. Salt on the other hand, I stir into my coffee, add to all desserts, sprinkle on cucumbers, and always, always choose salted butter. It allows an ingredient or dish to “pop.”
A second reason as to why pepper shakers shouldn’t exist is pre-ground pepper, just like pre-ground coffee, loses its flavor as soon as the peppercorns are cracked open and exposed to oxygen. The longer it sits on the table in a little pepper shaker, the less and less peppery it tastes, and the more stale and weak its ability to season becomes. If pepper must be on the table, a grinder is the exclusive choice. I keep a grinder beside my oil cruet near the stove for easy access to add to dishes as I prepare them. As with all spices, we want the freshest, most potent pepper to maximize flavor. Since you cannot purchase a solo salt shaker, I have two cute, porcelain porcupine shakers that both contain….yes, salt. While I still hold to salting food perfectly before serving it, I leave one shaker on the table, since my husband admits to liking copious amounts of salt. He performs a sniff test that, after smelling the food, claims he can verify whether or not there’s enough salt to his liking. I’ve tried to explain how this doesn’t work scientifically, but since his blood pressure is in good range, the porcupine happily takes the attention, raining salty crystals on any food he sniffs.
We have King Louis XIV and his chef, François Pierre La Varenne, to blame for this whole salt plus pepper predicament. In the early 1700s, King Louis XIV wasn’t a flamboyant spice fan, and preferred simple seasonings (aka pepper-lover). He must have needed to salt his food personally as well, thus ordering salt and pepper to be placed on the table at every meal. His chef either terribly misunderstood the elements of enhancement–fat, salt, acid, heat–versus the role of seasoning, or didn’t have the heart to explain to the king the fallacy in this. The actual shaker method for salt and pepper wasn’t invented for nearly one hundred years after the death of King Loui XIV, leaving us to speculate he most likely had little bowls with pestle-ground pepper and salt crystals on his table for sprinkling.
This illegitimate marriage of salt and pepper made its presence on American tables in the early 20th century, and ever since, it’s been a lost cause explaining how these two ingredients aren’t at all times compatible, much less comparable. I’ve contemplated starting a petition to remove this trend from dinner tables and diners, but most people are attached to their shaker duo and no reasoning will turn their heads. I hope in the least, next time you see a salt and pepper shaker, you’ll think twice before you pick them both up and toss them on your plate. Knowing how to wield them properly, will now yield you the most delicious results.
