Sweet or Salty

[RainbowDashRadical]

Late this weekend the weirdest thought came to me while I was eating my midday snack. There's 2 kinds of snacks, salty and sweet. Salt and sugar are probably the most addictive ingredients in our food, and everybody likes them. The question is, what do we like better. Personally, I like sweet. Anything such a chocolate, cookies or cake I'll eat in a heartbeat.

 

What kinds of snacks would you prefer over the other, salty or sweet?

[Goldengirl]

Why are these the two options? I'd rather go for some carrots and peanut butter, which doesn't really fit into either category. I ended up voting sugary, just because I also enjoy apples, which I guess are sweet.

[Questionably Legal]

Salty, because of my dental work, which is painful when I eat anything too sweet. I do like apples though.

[Xaiya]

You forgot "Both", "Neither", and "Together". People exist for all of those.

 

I'm more of an "eat when I'm hungry/when it's there" sort of person, so I don't really actively care about snacks. Still, I do like both sweet and salty things, just not together. Cinnamon rolls are nice, but so are tortilla chips, for example. I don't lean in either direction.

[Edgwyn]

I like both, but will almost always pick sweet over salty.

[Alorael at Large]

I don't really like salt very much. I don't salt my food if not cooking for others, and even then I know to put the salt shaker somewhere handy because my salty is just about everyone else's bland. I'm also not a huge sweet-tooth, but I do like some sweetness, so I guess I'd go with that.

 

One of my favorite snacks is plain yogurt with unsweetened cocoa powder in it. And I enjoy salads without dressing. Maybe my flavor is bitter?

 

—Alorael, who tends to view food more as fuel than as a source of pleasure, at least most of the time. He tries to cook food that's tasty, but as long as it's tasty enough he'll prioritize easy and hearty and healthy over concerns like delicious or not wholly unappetizing in appearance. Hence a lot of green glop (lentil stew), to the consternation of those around him.

[Lilith]

i eat only salt. i don't mean food that's been salted, i mean literally just big handfuls of salt. sea salt, rock salt, any other kind of salt, but that's all. nothing else passes my lips

[Sudanna]

I'm pretty sure you've hipstered on up to the forum and linked us pictures of your half-eaten food before, Lilith.

 

I don't eat.

[Lilith]

i'll have you know i photograph all of my artfully-presented giant piles of salt before i start eating

 

also that reminds me i should start an abominable photo thread b/c i am cute as hell lately

[Randomizer]

One of my college roommates when he saw me buy a 5 pound bag of pretzels described me eating a bag of salt with pretzel flavoring. I would have complained about the description, but at the time I was doing my homework with one hand holding a pen and the other in the bag to keep refilling my mouth whenever I finished chewing.

[Dikiyoba]

i eat only salt. i don't mean food that's been salted, i mean literally just big handfuls of salt. sea salt, rock salt, any other kind of salt, but that's all. nothing else passes my lips

Strictly sodium chloride (allowing impurities), or all chemical salts? The latter would be a varied diet, at least.

 

Dikiyoba has not just one but multiple sweet teeth, somewhat unfortunately.

[springacres]

I would have picked "both" had that been an option. Sometimes I like salty stuff (Pringles, pretzel pieces, etc) but, like Dikiyoba, I have multiple sweet teeth. Chocolate bars are just not safe around me.

[Lilith]

Strictly sodium chloride (allowing impurities), or all chemical salts? The latter would be a varied diet, at least.

 

if lead salts were good enough for the romans they're good enough for me

[Callie]

That run-of-the-mill sodium chloride stuff is for wimps: you've never had real scrambled eggs until you've had them with caesium astatide!

[Rya.Reisender]

I only like sweet snacks.

 

Salty I only eat for dinner.

[Student of Trinity]

if lead salts were good enough for the romans they're good enough for me

 

Try saltimbocca. It's yummy.

 

I do have a question about salt, though.

 

Did everyone think, when they were little, that salt and pepper were opposites that could cancel each other out?

 

My brothers and I all went through that stage. Discovering that it wasn't so was one of those early increments of understanding how the universe just wasn't as simple as I thought it should be.

[Lilith]

Try saltimbocca. It's yummy.

 

aaaaaa there's an italian place near me that has saltimbocca on the menu and i haven't tried theirs yet but i've been meaning to for a while

 

it seems like a pain to make, my usual effort limit for home cooking is "mix ingredients together and throw in cooking vessel" and having to wrap stuff in other stuff goes beyond that

 

I do have a question about salt, though.

 

Did everyone think, when they were little, that salt and pepper were opposites that could cancel each other out?

 

My brothers and I all went through that stage. Discovering that it wasn't so was one of those early increments of understanding how the universe just wasn't as simple as I thought it should be.

 

the one i've more commonly heard is salt and sugar: the idea that if you put too much salt in something you can cancel it out with extra sugar

 

which, uh

 

kinda doesn't work out very well in practice

[Student of Trinity]

I don't really know how essential the wrapping stuff is for saltimbocca. I think that's just getting fancy, and the important thing is that butter, white wine, and sage have some sort of weird synergy together. The combined flavor is strong and good, and not something I expected from the individual ingredients. Somebody with a super-acute palate might be more articulate about that. YMMV.

[Lilith]

I don't really know how essential the wrapping stuff is for saltimbocca. I think that's just getting fancy, and the important thing is that butter, white wine, and sage have some sort of weird synergy together. The combined flavor is strong and good, and not something I expected from the individual ingredients. Somebody with a super-acute palate might be more articulate about that. YMMV.

 

makes sense. for christmas 2012 i roasted a duck and goose that i marinated with verjuice (which is kinda sorta almost like white wine) and filled with a stuffing i made with bread, butter, sage and some other stuff and moistened with some of the verjuice left over from making the marinade, and that turned out pretty well, so i can certainly believe that it's a good combination

[Jerakeen]

Did everyone think, when they were little, that salt and pepper were opposites that could cancel each other out?

Totally this.

Me (about age 6?): Pass the salt, please.

Mother: Why do you want salt?

Me: Because this food is too hot.

Mother: ????

Me (patiently explaining the obvious): Pepper makes food hot, so salt makes it cold.

Edited February 4, 2014 by Jerakeen
Duh

[adc.]

Salty because salt is what flavours some bland food.

 

Sweet because Break likes cake.

 

But I'd go for super-sweet diabeetus than super-salty, because I like sweetrolls than salt.

 

But I voted for salty.

-----

-Nightwatcher

[nikki.]

I like both just as much as the other, and I like my popcorn to be both at once (except I don't care for popcorn too much, so I rarely eat it).

[Goldengirl]

Historically, I guess the answer is salty. Salt used to be used as a currency due to its value, especially its value as a preservative. The salt trade is one of the oldest trades of material goods.

 

That said, I don't really know much about the history of human usage of sugar as a good, but I imagine it's shorter.

[Aran]

Both together. Chocolate with salt and chili is incredible.

 

Also: Fish fingers and custard!

[Enraged Slith]

Salt is an essential ingredient in many of my favorite sweets. I'm not sure what that means I should pick.

[Alorael at Large]

It's possible that if sugar were more easily extracted and a bit more abundant we would have had meat preservation by sugaring, but I shudder to think of that culinary world.

 

—Alorael, who has never encountered salt vs. pepper before. To him, growing up, the two were most often either added together or not at all.

[nikki.]

Did everyone think, when they were little, that salt and pepper were opposites that could cancel each other out?

 

I didn't try pepper on my food until I was... in my twenties. So, no.

[Lilith]

It's possible that if sugar were more easily extracted and a bit more abundant we would have had meat preservation by sugaring, but I shudder to think of that culinary world.

 

there's no "possible" about it: sugar is reasonably commonly used when curing ham (although admittedly alongside salt rather than in place of it)

[Soul of Wit]

Three words: sea salt caramels

 

Clearly, sweet and salty are not mutually exclusive.

[springacres]

Did everyone think, when they were little, that salt and pepper were opposites that could cancel each other out?

 

I don't recall ever thinking that, but it is certainly possible considering the very strange beliefs I had about food as a little kid. When I was 4 or 5 I thought that by planting lollipop sticks in the ground I'd get a lollipop tree. I also once asked my mom how to plant graham crackers.

 

Three words: sea salt caramels

 

Clearly, sweet and salty are not mutually exclusive.

 

You forgot sea salt chocolate. (Ghirardelli, how I love thee...)

Edited February 5, 2014 by springacres

[Edgwyn]

Now that I think about it, I salt very few foods, but those that I do (french fries, tortilla chips, pretzels) I tend to salt to excess.

[springacres]

You add salt to french fries and tortilla chips? I can understand doing that if you make them yourself, but otherwise I find them plenty salty on their own.

[BMA]

I have a childhood horror of pepper, so if some stuff has been peppered I don't eat it.

 

And how can you make a curry without salt in it :-/ Still, sweet is always better; if you find yourself in southeast Asia, don't leave without having a gulab jamun.

[springacres]

Not just southeast Asia. If you find yourself in a Southeast Asian restaurant that offers gulab jamun, don't leave without having one.

[Dikiyoba]

I have a childhood horror of pepper, so if some stuff has been peppered I don't eat it.

Black pepper or chili peppers? (Both can cause childhood horrors, but chili peppers are more likely to do so.)

 

On the topic of sweets, Dikiyoba had just learned the hard way that any chocolate cheesecake recipe that calls for cinnamon was written by someone who secretly hates people and delights in their disappointment. It's not really bad, per se, but it's definitely not right.

[Triumph]

Fascinating. Chocolate and cinnamon can be great together - but cinnamon and cheesecake sounds a little sketchy to me.

[Edgwyn]

You add salt to french fries and tortilla chips? I can understand doing that if you make them yourself, but otherwise I find them plenty salty on their own.

 

Yes I do, it is debatable if I have salt on my french fries or french fries under my salt. Fortunately, I do not eat french fries very often.

[springacres]

Yes I do, it is debatable if I have salt on my french fries or french fries under my salt. Fortunately, I do not eat french fries very often.

LOL, that's how I am with coffee and sugar. I like a little coffee with my sugar... when I drink coffee, which is very very VERY seldom. (Read: only when no other caffeine source is available!)

[BMA]

Black pepper or chili peppers?

 

It was black pepper from a shaker; I'd sprinkled a lot of it into my mouth for some reason and I can't stand the stuff ever since.

[VCH]

damn, best thread ever; lol.

[springacres]

You know this is an awesome thread when someone posts a random poll about food and within two pages people start bringing up weird beliefs about food they had when they were little.

 

It was black pepper from a shaker; I'd sprinkled a lot of it into my mouth for some reason and I can't stand the stuff ever since.

This happened to me once, only I'd been eating a powdered sugar donut, inhaled the sugar and choked. I couldn't eat powdered sugar donuts for some time afterwards.

[Randomizer]

When my father was in the US navy back during World War II, he said one mess hall they placed the salt and pepper in the same shakers.

 

He spent part of his time up in the Aleutian Islands in case the Japanese every decided to come back to take an island again. He got to dig out snow piles taller than him and convince the native bear population that navy food wasn't fit for their consumption. Some of it wasn't fit for human consumption either.

[Cairo Jim]

When I was young I thought that cheese was a vegetable. Since little me knew that milk came from cows, I assumed that fruit juice came from horses.

[Lilith]

fun fact: fermented horse milk, known as koumiss, is a popular drink in parts of central asia

 

horse milk has more fat and sugar and less protein than cow's milk so it's a bit hard to make cheese out of it but that's been done as well

[springacres]

When I was young I thought that cheese was a vegetable. Since little me knew that milk came from cows, I assumed that fruit juice came from horses.

This plays right into my belief when I was young (very very young, as I recall) that horses and cows were males and females of the same species. I thought that about dogs and cats too, actually.

[Edgwyn]

This plays right into my belief when I was young (very very young, as I recall) that horses and cows were males and females of the same species. I thought that about dogs and cats too, actually.

 

I suppose that would explain the whole stereotype that men like dogs and women like cats as well.

[springacres]

Never thought of it that way. Although I have no clue where my toddler brain came up with the idea in the first place.

[Lilith]

it's enough of a Thing that the simpsons made a joke about it back when that show was still funny

 

Moe: Hey, uh, I got an idea: we can play a game to pass the time.

Er, I'll make the sound of a barnyard animal, and, er, you

all try to guess what it is. Ahem: [makes some

unidentifiable noise]

Wiggum: It's a pig!

Bart: It's a cow, man.

Lisa: It's a pony.

Krusty: No, it's a goat. You know, one of them lady goats.

Selma: There are no lady goats: a lady goat is a sheep.

Hibbert: I believe she's right.

[VCH]

I like sweat

[Alorael at Large]

 

—Alorael, who is happy to provide for your beverage needs.