Does salt make a difference?

There is a large online campaign developing due to the change in recipe of one of Britain's favourites HP Sauce. The owners have changed the recipe slightly and reduced the salt content. Just a simple little change, but it appears to have had a large effect. Several people are now complaining that the taste has completely changed and it no longers tastes as it should.

I'll be honest, I don't cook with salt and can't really taste the difference between food cooked with or without salt (unless its chips when its a necessity), but it appears many people can.

Can you tell the difference?

Yes, quite a bit. Salt enhances other flavors, and if it's missing, a lot of food tastes very flat. I especially notice this in sauces.

CIAS I dunno about HP Sauce but a number of products have had changed ingredients that have ruined them for me, once or twice they've had to revert to previous recipe. Basically the healthier you make a processed product, the less tasty it is. :)

I don't know about HP Sauce but I do know that a lot of recipes recommend a pinch of salt even for sweet foods. They say that salt enhances sweet taste - I remember doing a science experiment with my son when he was little that supposedly proved that.

There is a popular dessert in Indonesia that is nothing but black rice topped with coconut milk and palm sugar syrup. A lot of people add quite a bit of salt to the coconut milk, which is a bit startling if you aren't used to it. It definitely tastes different with the salt, though I like it either way (unless there is too much salt - yecch).

I think a lot of it your sensitivity to salt is related to how your tastebuds are trained. For years when it was just me and my husband I didn't use a lot of salt for flavoring and that's what we were used to. Our food seemed tasty with very little added salt. Unfortunately our son was super-skinny as a small child and we were supposed to get him to eat as much as possible. Like a lot of kids he has quite a salt tooth, so I started using more salt in my cooking. Now that he's older (and not too thin) I've cut back a lot, but the kid just grabs the salt shaker at the table. (Fortunately he comes from very very low blood pressure genes on both sides of the family so I'm hoping he won't salt himself into an early grave.)

If you're accustomed to salt in a dish or a sauce that has long been a favorite, you're almost certainly going to notice if it's missing.

I might have to try cooking with salt again. It's been many, many since I even considered it. Probably from one of those government campaigns to stop people eating too much salt.

It's been many years since I last cooked with salt, so I tried again last night.

Big difference and my taste buds love me for it.

What have I been missing all this time :(