Wednesday's Whinings -- Salt and Pepper

Okay, I'm going to begin a new series here called "Wednesday's Whinings" where I get to complain about something that bugs me.

I try to keep all my posts upbeat and funny. I think life should be like that. Sure, there is affliction in life and lord knows I've experienced it. But when affliction isn't happening, you may as well be pleased.

That's not to say that things don't bug me. So, I've decided to allocate Wednesday posts to kvetching a bit.

Today's topic: Salt and Pepper.

I love to cook and I watch cooking shows. A lot. But it bugs the hell out of me that whenever a TV chefs adds salt, they always add pepper.

Always!

Those are completely two different seasonings, folks! I don't know why they always have to go in tandem.

If the TV chef is about to sear some scallops, sure sprinkle some salt on there. Scallops need salt. But why pepper? It's as if they're not really thinking about whether or not pepper will really properly enhance this food item -- it just goes with salt. And there they go, just festooning pepper, willy nilly, on everything that has salt.

I hate that.

Yes, I like pepper, but I only use it on things where I like pepper in-and-of itself, independent of salt. Like pasta, grits, or potatoes with butter. Those things are good with the musky, semi-acrid taste that only black pepper can impart.

Most of the time when I want something peppery, I'll go for freshly ground red pepper. I use that a lot more than black pepper. It's hot-yet-sweet and smokey too. (I buy the whole dried pepper pods, split them open, discard the seeds, grind the peppers and keep them in a container above the stove. Very tasty.)

So, the next time you're watching a cooking show and the cook adds salt-and-always-pepper, stop and think of how silly that really is.

And how much that bugs me.