How to season food

Season in layers, not at the end

Salt added at the end sits on top of a dish. Salt added at each stage becomes part of it — it draws water out of onions so they soften, it dissolves protein in meat so it holds moisture, it seasons pasta and vegetables from the inside because that is the only chance they get.

The difference is audible when people describe a dish as "tasting like it needs salt" even after salt has been added. That is usually a dish seasoned once, at the end, rather than five times, throughout.

The habit to build is: season every component as it goes in, taste at every stage, and adjust at the end rather than seasoning once and hoping.

The five levers

When a dish is not right, it is nearly always one of these. Work down the list in order.

Salt

Makes everything taste more like itself and suppresses bitterness. The first thing to check and the most common answer.

Acid

Lemon, vinegar, tomato, wine, yoghurt. If more salt is not helping, this is almost always what is missing. It cuts richness and sharpens everything.

Fat

Butter, oil, cream. Carries flavour, coats the tongue, and makes a thin dish feel complete. A knob of butter at the end is a real technique, not a garnish.

Sweetness

A pinch of sugar, honey, or a caramelised onion. Balances acidity and bitterness. Rarely needed and transformative when it is.

Heat and aromatics

Chilli, pepper, mustard, fresh herbs. Adds interest to something that is correctly balanced and still dull.

A method for adjusting a finished dish

Change one thing at a time, in small amounts, and taste between each.

1. Taste it plain, on a clean spoon, without bread.
2. Add a small pinch of salt to a spoonful in a separate dish, not to the whole pot. Taste. If it improves, salt the pot.
3. If salt did not fix it, do the same with a few drops of lemon juice or vinegar. This is the step most people never try, and it is right more often than salt.
4. If neither, try a tiny amount of sugar — enough to balance, not enough to taste.
5. If it is balanced but thin, add fat: butter, oil, cream or cheese.
6. If it is balanced but boring, add something aromatic or fresh at the end — herbs, zest, spring onion, chilli.
7. Stop when it is right. Over-adjusted food tastes confused.

When to add salt

• Meat — well in advance. Forty minutes minimum, overnight for a large joint.
• Vegetables in a pan — early, to draw water out and help them soften.
• Vegetables you want to brown — late, since salt draws out water that has to evaporate first.
• Pasta and green vegetable water — generously, and the only chance to season them.
• Soups, stews and sauces — in stages, a little at each addition.
• Anything that will reduce — cautiously, because the salt concentrates as the water leaves.
• Salads — at the last moment, or the leaves collapse.
• Baking — as the recipe says. Salt is structural in bread and it suppresses bitterness in chocolate and caramel.

The common mistakes

• Measuring salt by volume across different salts. A teaspoon of fine table salt holds far more than a teaspoon of flaky sea salt. Weigh, or use the same salt every time.
• Only ever adding salt. When more salt does not help, the answer is acid.
• Seasoning a dish before it reduces. It will double in concentration.
• Tasting with bread. Bread carries salt of its own and blunts the assessment.
• Tasting when very hot. Heat suppresses salt perception, so a scalding soup tastes less salty than it is.
• Over-adjusting. Two levers pulled at once produces something that tastes of the adjustment.