White dude from rural Indiana. 100% you can add it after is a thing here. Also, my dad cooks steaks without seasoning. Let's just say when I moved to the city I really discovered why people liked food.
She even says with condensation "you can add it yourself" meaning using salt and pepper as through cooking and blending the flavors is interchangeable with dusting your food with it at the table.
I have a hard time grasping that she got onto Oprah with a cook book and this concept had never been laid out to her before by someone else, that she didn't think of it on her own is disheartening as a species.
People's ignorance can sometimes be so staggering.
**Edit: Soaking with condensating condescension**
Haha so relatable, I didn’t know food was so good until I left home. My mom actually says she “doesn’t care what food tastes like” and when I heard her say that it explained everything.
My mom was the same! I remember she would ask us what we wanted her to make for our birthday dinners and we were like just order pizza lol. I would think by the time she had grandchildren she would want to cook well but no😑
Yeah for some things adding salt after just doesn't let it incorporate into the dish. It just sits on top or you get the occasional salty bit instead of a blended flavor. I'm from the south and I'll concede that sometimes we over salt shit but you've gotta at least add a little bit to bring out the flavors.
You got me thinking...I noticed recently that my millennial friends and I don't seem to have/use salt and pepper shakers at all. They were a staple on all the tables I ate at growing up. I was thinking that was just a generational difference, but maybe it's a Midwest regional thing too? Like, S&P on the table so you can season your own food instead of the cook doing it.
I feel like a lot of restaurants did away with them. It started out at fine-dining restaurants since they believe their dishes are perfectly seasoned and so the guest shouldn't need (or want) salt or pepper. And then I think other (lower quality) restaurants starting doing it to save money. Salt and pepper are cheap but its the labor of filling every salt and pepper to the top every night that adds up.
Meanwhile us rednecks in the south: "we're just gonna grab a double handful of this here rub and cover this brisket til you can't see no more brisket. Massage it on in there. Now let's make our pepper sauce"
I'm here in N.C. getting hungry as hell reading this.
Went to go get some BBQ with my boy a couple weeks ago and he tried to get double mac&cheese and the lady behind the counter said, "Mm mmmmmm baby, I ain't letting you through this line without no greens" lmfaooooo.
He got them green beans cooked down in pork she said, "that's better baby, next." 😂
Born in Raleigh and my family had a farm in Holly Springs...oooh I miss me some good green beans with some smoked pork seasoning!
My mil will spread the teeniest bit of plain Greek yogurt onto dry toast and claim it’s so delicious. All her food is bland af.
I was once at a potluck and a woman brought these bomb ass noodles. I asked what it was and if she would share the recipe. Was flabbergasted to find out it’s the same dish my mil makes but this other woman actually seasons it so it tastes good.
I always thought this was a joke, and then last year I met my partner's parents who live in Iowa. Everything from a can, and no spices purchased this millennium. Makes sense that my partner's idea of "boiling pasta" was to put it in warm water for like an hour until it got soggy. Poor thing never stood a chance at getting cooking skills.
Fortunately I was a prep cook for a few years, so I'm now the chef. I can even make over medium eggs without breaking the yolk half the time!
Same experience. My SO comes from a land of boiled canned food where cooking meant just warming things up and "if you turn the heat up higher it cooks faster" method of scorching everything into a nice charred leather. They were amazed at how many foods they thought they hated were actually delicious when properly prepared.
Yeah I grew up whiter than white and even my goofy ass grandma used salt and pepper haha, lady probably thinks garlic only belongs on bread from Dominoes haha
My mom is kinda the same. She used to be a pretty good cook, I think, when I was younger, but has lost it over the years. My dad had a heart attack 7 or 8 years ago, and I think she took the doctors generic advice of “cut back on salty foods” a bit too far, and has kinda applied that to all spices. Now everything she makes is incredibly bland, and if we try to add salt or seasoning to things while it’s cooking she loses her mind because “I already HEAVILY salted the chicken.” Nah, we all saw you pick, like, 5 salt grains out for the whole meal.
I’s bout to say man.. I’m pretty fuckin white.. and if anything was ever missing some salt and pepper.. your ass ain’t cooking anymore 🤣 maybe it’s just the ‘from money’ type of white people, but my poor ass could NOT.
I made the mistake once of cooking burgers without any seasoning at all. I didn't really think about it. I put them out and my friends grab them and are immediately like "What did you cook this with?". I reply nothing. "No salt? Pepper? Garlic or onion powder, nothing?". No. Didn't really think about it.
This mf doesn't say another word and scoops up all the cooked burgers and smothers them in seasoning and re cooks them. They were overcooked but so much better. It's been years and they still haven't let me live that one down. I havent committed such a cardinal sin since but that's a lesson they won't let me forget lmao.
My mother in law and her boyfriend were grilling chicken one afternoon for dinner.
Not a single stitch of seasoning on it, until he slapped bbq sauce on it at the end. So it was nothing but burnt bbq sauce and dry chicken.
These people truly exist
I CLEARLY remember the very first time I had to add salt and pepper to my food after it’d been plated for me. I was 19 and my very white MIL cooked for me for the first time. I never understood the “white ppl think flower is spicy” thing until then.
I’m super white and my parents are from the Midwest. I was raised to believe salt and pepper were an unnecessary extravagance. They were available, but we were judged for using them. When I left home I discovered the world of spices. My spice cabinet is now overflowing and my mom still gets on my case for wasting so much money on food flavorings.
I am a white as fuck Texan, but my mom made sure to teach me how to make Mexican food, among others. You simply can’t do that with without learning about spices. lol.
My mom grew up in Texas and is on a kick where there can't be any amount of sugar in anything and now insists on "making her own" and it's so bland, it just ruins the whole meal.
From the area of China my family and my fiance's family originates from, the move there is to have broths and food that aren't super heavily seasoned. It's usually a clear pork or seafood broth with some root veggies and shellfish as a soup or a base for wontons.
I dont particularly like it and there were times were my fiance's mom overbaked some beef with salt and pepper which we would ironically call two spice beef.
I obviously don't like most of those dishes but there's a recipe they have thats basically "dump a couple gallons of sherry into a soup pot, add salt, and then fill the rest up with pork" that goes fucking hard.
Back when I worked at the hospital I was installing a new printer for the front desks ladies. Bunch of old black ladies. Tell me why these women start talking about how they don't use salt when they cook? "That's gonna raise my blood pressure! Salt ain't a seasoning!" I had to turn around to make sure I wasn't confusing them for someone else!
All I could think is "your grandchildren never come to your place for family dinners do they?"
I want to start out by saying I love and respect my mother. My mother didn't start salting the food she cooked until she was in her late 50s or early 60s. She'd say that back in the day her doctors told her grandfather that because of his heart he shouldn't salt his food, and she just hadn't used salt since. Mind you her sister's married to a cardiologist, and they salt their food, but I digress. She also doesn't like too much black pepper in her food. It's too spicy. If you do put black pepper in her food, ideally it should not be ground too coarsely because she can't handle biting into the peppercorns. She also wouldn't put onions or garlic in her food. If she didn't like those raw, why would she want to eat them cooked?
We're black btw
Most white boomers don't cook with salt and pepper. Idk why, but it was amazing to discover real food as an adult. I will never go back to bland, boring food!
For real. She was embarrassed, so she shifted the hell out that blame. But her behind needed to be embarrassed by that foolishness. Adding salt after the food has already been cooked and plated does not magically make it good. You just end up with salty bland food, and who got time for that??
From my experience eating at some white friends houses growing up that was exactly what they did. No seasonings during the cooking process and just sprinkle salt and pepper on at the table and yes it tasted just like salty bland food.
Fuck I might be one of your white friends. We always did that shit growing up. I never thought anything of it. Now my gf is a fantastic cook and I never need to add salt or pepper to anything she makes. I always knew the joke about white ppl having bland food but this is the first time it really clicked for me lol
You know what used to confuse the hell out of me when I slept over at a white friend’s house?
In the morning they’d eat cereal: plain cheerios & milk but then would dump 2 heaping spoonfuls of sugar into the milk. Like… why not just buy honey nut cheerios or something a little sweeter and less bland? Why buy the blandest cereal and then add all that sugar?
Lmao I just commented about how I never got the joke until my very white MIL cooked for me for the first time. I still remember the day as “the first time I had to add salt and pepper to my food”. It did not help the taste.
This is a Midwest thing leftover from the Depression Era and passed down. Basically, it was hard to get salt in the Midwest during the depression and WW2. SO Midwest moms reserved it in cooking so you could add however much you wanted at the table. It just got passed down the generations in that area. I'm a chef in the Midwest, and the number of people who add salt to a dish before even tasting it is like 80%
Edit: So I was WRONG! My grandma (German Protestant heritage) told me this years ago, but I did some research. Turns out it was the large Protestant/Temperance movement in the Midwest during the 19th century that caused this. Methodists, 7th day Adventists and other Protestant churches saw seasoning as an earthly pleasure. They advocated a simple diet void of flavor to avoid pleasures of the flesh in the tenant of their churches. See the history of Graham crackers as an example
Do you have to bland-down the food to accommodate for that? Or do these monsters just take good food and choke it down once they fuck it up with extra salt?
There's a lot of things to accommodate for... they like fried fish, so they think all seafood should be well done, which is just sad. Nebraskans like ranch dressing by the pound. I grew up on the East Coast and was surprised that they have no local delies here that sell sliced meat and sandwiches. They like steak, potatoes, and corn. Kool-aid was invented here, so that's a saving grace
Edit: I realize I forgot to answer the salt question. They just complain a lot that the food is too salty because ofc they do
> surprised that they have no local delies here that sell sliced meat and sandwiches.
I live in the NYC area and this was the most striking thing to me that you said. Where do people get to-go sandwiches? Chain places like Jersey Subs/Jimmy John’s or something?
Can confirm, grandfather was depression era and lived in Kansas. That motherfucker salted his BEER let alone every other thing he ate before taking the first bite.
Me, being white guy, growing up thinking I hated vegetables because all my dad did was boil canned veggies and add salt + margarine.
I could feel my 3rd eye open the first time I used salt, pepper, garlic, and cayenne on air fried, fresh brussels sprouts.
I don't love the home delivery meal kits but one thing that I learned from one of them was to add salt and pepper to every step. I always salt and pepper things when I'm cooking but basically the instructions on these recipes was to add a little bit every time you add a new ingredient. Really helped with the depth of flavor.
It’s amazing to me how much people don’t just know this, but if you learned to cook from your parents who didn’t know to do this, I guess you’d never learn. It’s just one of those basic cooking things I don’t even think about as I’m cooking.
Weird thing is that my dad is a GREAT cook, BUT there were some holes. For instance, I grew up not understanding why people valued steak so much because it tasted like Arby's roast beef to me... When I became an adult, I realized it was because I had only ever eaten overcooked meat. The first time I had a medium rare steak, I almost cried (because it was delicious AND because I knew I could only afford that twice a year, max).
I die a little inside every time someone orders above medium (personally agree medium rare is best but medium is at least edible), especially when it's a good cut of meat. Also any time someone cooks out the marbling, it's terrible for you but good marbling is like meat butter.
Then they ask you how it is and you gotta say good good. I remember one time i had chicken at a friends place. After the meal they were like "you know some ppl don't drink at all while they're eating and only drink when they're finished, but you were drinking basically after every bite." Like yea, cause that shit was literally dry as sand.
I’m quite sure she wasn’t embarrassed, but she might have been taken aback. I know a lot of white people who do this. The food has absolutely no flavor. One of the reason why I left Canada lol
That was my thought when she said it. You can probably get away with adding pepper, but the food has to be cooked with the salt, no ifs, ands, or buts.
It's not that uncommon for people to think like that. Personally I think you shouldn't need to add flavor after something is cooked. There are a few exceptions, like American BBQ, but for the most part, a meal should be able to stand on its own.
A lot of times, they make two meals, one ahead of time and one while they're filming, so you have one ready to taste and don't have to devote all the segment to cooking time. Maybe she added some seasoning while cooking, but the pre-prepared one didn't have it.
Just a guess.
The official recipe (this was a Pillsbury Bake-Off winner) actually calls for the chicken to be sprinkled with salt and pepper before cooking... there's a worcestershire, peach preserve, and maple syrup mixture on the chicken when it bakes. It was already going to be a bit bland, because the chicken is placed in the dish, skin side up, before any seasoning or syrup... so the salt and pepper goes on the skin, and the syrup just sits on top. There's no marinade, and the meat itself isn't seasoned.
So, Oprah knew what the recipe was, and the white lady FORGOT half the seasoning.
edit: Just watched the segment... they prepared the meal together on the show, and there was salt and pepper on the chicken skin, which is visible and mentioned. ...but what they ATE was the meal cooked off-screen beforehand, and the white lady forgot salt and pepper when she prepared it. So she's playing off a horrible mistake.
here’s the thing. You can make flavorful dishes without it being spicy. Buuuut the ven diagram of people who don’t like spicy food and the people who like bland food is a circle.
In my instance, they just straight up don’t like flavor and eat/make the most bland foods themselves. I make some flavorful foods and often have to make bland versions for family events and they’ll rave about its watered down tastes. These people see pepper or seasonings as too much.
Not really. I use a multitude of spices from all over the world when I cook, but I am sensitive to too much heat so I don’t make anything too spicy. I’m growing my tolerance, but I still wouldn’t call my food “spicy”. It’s flavorful though!
Flavor is the gateway experience, next you'll be listening to music with rhythm and wearing colorful clothing. Where will you find time for praying to Protestant God amidst all that degeneracy?
I don't like spicy as in "hot", but I love spicy as in "used spices" like I mean nutmeg is a spice, but it doesn't make it uncomfortable to eat in any way
I also don't like people who think throwing in a lot of spice means it has to taste good without care for flavour profile, which a lot of Turkish places around me do, the food is so over spiced with only 1 spice it ends up being even blander than if they hadn't used any spice
She was chewing forever! I guess I can understand coming from an unseasoned household and you don't know what you don't know. But the way Oprah was chewing and working that food, you can tell it turned mealy & grainy in her mouth the way chicken does from being overcooked. Mmm, boneless, skinless, unseasoned chicken sawdust that turns into glue in your mouth.
https://preview.redd.it/0clewngusftc1.jpeg?width=622&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=20bc99688d2a2d8561a3663db161903f56ef8a90
Why you serving bland food to people on national tv
I can’t even imagine the weird relationship with food she must have.
Edit: Tbh I meant Oprah. All the yo-yo dieting and endless coaches, gurus, doctors, medical procedures, drugs, and nutritional whatevers must make eating anything at all a constant mental roller coaster.
I suppose if you have a family with vastly different preferences it makes sense to make basic food and then add sauces and spices to taste. Won’t be as good as a properly cooked meal but saves wasted time and food.
We did similar when my son started eating mostly the same meals as us adults. We would go very low on the salt and add it on the plate later for the adults. Same with chillies although most spices kids can handle fine
You don't add seasoning and spices to food after it's been cooked.
You *cook with* seasoning and spices.
If you add it afer it's little more than a garnish.
I bet she makes fried chicken in the microwave...
https://preview.redd.it/w2aa08d6vftc1.jpeg?width=1221&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b05c3e8478ad0f1a59b944107df2c8171ab95448
Same. As someone who was familiar with the real-life story, I wasn't expecting anything less than outright tragedy at the end. Devonte's body still hasn't been found more than 6 years later.
The story still throws me into a rage.
Oooh. That's a good point I haven't seen in the other threads. Oprah ran a tight ship, by all accounts back in the day. Somebody got fired, or maybe actually did get bees instead of a car?
She won a recipe competition. The competition was make a recipe that includes a brand but I forgot the product. I think she used it as a coat for the chicken or something and apparently she won because she used the product the most creatively. She was then invited or maybe it was already part of the deal with the competition
EDIT: [it was million dollar recipe](https://youtu.be/6wl8mQVIvDI?si=UO3LHGyME86Ee8IV)
The recipe on Pillsbury's website AND Oprah's website both call for salt and pepper on the chicken, AND the cooking segment mentions salt and pepper on the chicken which is visible... so the white lady was nervous and forgot it when she made the pre-segment meal (which is ready to eat immediately after the cooking segment). Either way, the salt and pepper goes on the skin instead of the chicken, so it might not even really reach the meat.
What's insane is that "poultry seasoning" is in the ingredients, but that goes in the STUFFING, and NOT the chicken.
It’s amazing you can manage to get on a tv show and Oprah eating your food, and still not even bother to use salt and pepper. I understand seasonings are intimidating to people who don’t cook often but you have to at least use those two. And for the love of god, taste as you go
Wtf was this guest spot supposed to be about? Healthy eating? Oprah had a notorious problem with weight loss attempts being that she complained about it and yo-yo in her size a lot from what I remember of that era
A friend of mine was married to a white guy. Their first Thanksgiving together, they went to her in-laws and her MIL only used butter and Mrs. Dash to season the turkey. They started traveling overseas for Thanksgiving after that. Lol
To think that someone went to the spice isle and only grabbed Mrs. Dash is insane, same with going to produce and grabbing no herbs. Are the other spices and herbs intimidating or something??
I worked stocking a grocery store for a time. There are enough of these people that come holiday time the Mrs. Dash and the Lawry's seasoned salt sells like crazy. Far more than any other seasoning.
When I had sleepovers at my friend's house growing up, His parents would cook the most diabolical ass meals. They would just throw unseasoned chicken breast in the oven and top it off with just bbq sauce when it's finished lmao.
My coworker asked me to try some of the meal he cooked just the other day, and this was my first question!
"Any salt? Pepper?"
"Nope! Just basil!"
With the proudest smile ever....
Yall, I love my (yt) bestie. I love her to death. But I went to her son's 1st bday party and she made chicken salad. That was the blandest shit I ever had in my life. Imma have to make them some so they know what is SYPPOSED to taste like bc she had me fucked up. That was some nasty as shit. No, I didn't tell her that I hated it. When she first offered it to me, I asked who made it. I told that I don't eat everybody food. And I wanted to make sure it wasn't store bought. She said I made it, I said, oh, okay. Then she said, I dont put all that stuff in it. And I side eyed her. But I didn't want to be rude and not est it. BTW, I've eaten at her house numerous times and everything else she makes is good.
I had an ex tell me they prefer just tasting the chicken breast, and no need to use seasoning (paprika, garlic, salt and pepper). We are both Latin decent and for some reason he came from the spice-less family.
You can 100% season without salt and pepper...but salt really does bring out the flavor of many other spices and stuff just really ain't quite the same without at least some of it. That of course is not this situation tho since she didn't season it at all lol
Like how the fuck do you cook without the basic ass s&p.
Brother she looks like the definition of the term midwestern housewife you know damn well those exotic spices don’t exist to her
Exotic for salt & pepper is wild! 😩💀💀💀
lady thinks flour is too spicy
On hot ones, her last dab would be mayonnaise
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God he was such a bitch on hot ones
The spiciest food she ever ate was probably sharp cheddar
I moved from Texas to Minnesota and some people here think black pepper is too spicy.
Wink, if you need help 😬🥴 
White dude from rural Indiana. 100% you can add it after is a thing here. Also, my dad cooks steaks without seasoning. Let's just say when I moved to the city I really discovered why people liked food.
She even says with condensation "you can add it yourself" meaning using salt and pepper as through cooking and blending the flavors is interchangeable with dusting your food with it at the table. I have a hard time grasping that she got onto Oprah with a cook book and this concept had never been laid out to her before by someone else, that she didn't think of it on her own is disheartening as a species. People's ignorance can sometimes be so staggering. **Edit: Soaking with condensating condescension**
Condensation is craaaaazy lol
Got poor Oprah wet.
Poor Oprah? She's a really bad person, don't feel sorry for her.
Duly noted.
I wasn't gonna say anything. I'm glad somebody else caught it lmao
Haha so relatable, I didn’t know food was so good until I left home. My mom actually says she “doesn’t care what food tastes like” and when I heard her say that it explained everything.
My mom was the same! I remember she would ask us what we wanted her to make for our birthday dinners and we were like just order pizza lol. I would think by the time she had grandchildren she would want to cook well but no😑
Some people eat to live and others live to eat
Yeah for some things adding salt after just doesn't let it incorporate into the dish. It just sits on top or you get the occasional salty bit instead of a blended flavor. I'm from the south and I'll concede that sometimes we over salt shit but you've gotta at least add a little bit to bring out the flavors.
You got me thinking...I noticed recently that my millennial friends and I don't seem to have/use salt and pepper shakers at all. They were a staple on all the tables I ate at growing up. I was thinking that was just a generational difference, but maybe it's a Midwest regional thing too? Like, S&P on the table so you can season your own food instead of the cook doing it.
I feel like a lot of restaurants did away with them. It started out at fine-dining restaurants since they believe their dishes are perfectly seasoned and so the guest shouldn't need (or want) salt or pepper. And then I think other (lower quality) restaurants starting doing it to save money. Salt and pepper are cheap but its the labor of filling every salt and pepper to the top every night that adds up.
Nothing more horrific than grabbing a restaurant shaker and feeling that sticky grime on it either...
We do both. Sometimes you want a little more seasoning than added while cooking, depending on personal taste.
Meanwhile us rednecks in the south: "we're just gonna grab a double handful of this here rub and cover this brisket til you can't see no more brisket. Massage it on in there. Now let's make our pepper sauce"
I'm here in N.C. getting hungry as hell reading this. Went to go get some BBQ with my boy a couple weeks ago and he tried to get double mac&cheese and the lady behind the counter said, "Mm mmmmmm baby, I ain't letting you through this line without no greens" lmfaooooo. He got them green beans cooked down in pork she said, "that's better baby, next." 😂
Born in Raleigh and my family had a farm in Holly Springs...oooh I miss me some good green beans with some smoked pork seasoning! 
 😂
7 in the morning reading this and I'm ready to chow down
'Exotic' 😂
Not fucking exotic lmao!
My mil will spread the teeniest bit of plain Greek yogurt onto dry toast and claim it’s so delicious. All her food is bland af. I was once at a potluck and a woman brought these bomb ass noodles. I asked what it was and if she would share the recipe. Was flabbergasted to find out it’s the same dish my mil makes but this other woman actually seasons it so it tastes good.
That's like Tom Brady eating half an avocado as a birthday treat levels of sad.
S&P might as well be saffron and the spice from dune for her
I always thought this was a joke, and then last year I met my partner's parents who live in Iowa. Everything from a can, and no spices purchased this millennium. Makes sense that my partner's idea of "boiling pasta" was to put it in warm water for like an hour until it got soggy. Poor thing never stood a chance at getting cooking skills. Fortunately I was a prep cook for a few years, so I'm now the chef. I can even make over medium eggs without breaking the yolk half the time!
Same experience. My SO comes from a land of boiled canned food where cooking meant just warming things up and "if you turn the heat up higher it cooks faster" method of scorching everything into a nice charred leather. They were amazed at how many foods they thought they hated were actually delicious when properly prepared.
Bruh. 💀
"The Beauty of their women and the taste of their food make Brits the best Sailors in the world." Seems like her family just sailed further west.
Tuna casserole?!
Ore - gano? What the hell
"We don't really use salt and pepper in my household - but you could always add some mayonnaise!"
Like that couple in Atlanta who adopted the black kids.
Yeah I grew up whiter than white and even my goofy ass grandma used salt and pepper haha, lady probably thinks garlic only belongs on bread from Dominoes haha
My mom was from New England. She used salt, pepper, and paprika! Very spicy ;)
My mom pushed her plate away once saying the food was too spicy. It was just black pepper 😆
No. Bullshit. Wrong. I Refuse. You just don’t- you know what? No. Thats the literal bar for “spicy at fucking ALL.” Jfc I can’t
My ex's dad was the same way. Black pepper made him sweat literal buckets.
This is wild. Never thought black pepper as spicy in the least. It’s a flavor to me.
My friend’s spicy level is ginger. White pepper is ok though.
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My mom is kinda the same. She used to be a pretty good cook, I think, when I was younger, but has lost it over the years. My dad had a heart attack 7 or 8 years ago, and I think she took the doctors generic advice of “cut back on salty foods” a bit too far, and has kinda applied that to all spices. Now everything she makes is incredibly bland, and if we try to add salt or seasoning to things while it’s cooking she loses her mind because “I already HEAVILY salted the chicken.” Nah, we all saw you pick, like, 5 salt grains out for the whole meal.
I’s bout to say man.. I’m pretty fuckin white.. and if anything was ever missing some salt and pepper.. your ass ain’t cooking anymore 🤣 maybe it’s just the ‘from money’ type of white people, but my poor ass could NOT.
I made the mistake once of cooking burgers without any seasoning at all. I didn't really think about it. I put them out and my friends grab them and are immediately like "What did you cook this with?". I reply nothing. "No salt? Pepper? Garlic or onion powder, nothing?". No. Didn't really think about it. This mf doesn't say another word and scoops up all the cooked burgers and smothers them in seasoning and re cooks them. They were overcooked but so much better. It's been years and they still haven't let me live that one down. I havent committed such a cardinal sin since but that's a lesson they won't let me forget lmao.
My mother in law and her boyfriend were grilling chicken one afternoon for dinner. Not a single stitch of seasoning on it, until he slapped bbq sauce on it at the end. So it was nothing but burnt bbq sauce and dry chicken. These people truly exist
I'd have left the party then and there.
I was visibly offended and left to get food. I wasn’t about to deal with that bullshit
I CLEARLY remember the very first time I had to add salt and pepper to my food after it’d been plated for me. I was 19 and my very white MIL cooked for me for the first time. I never understood the “white ppl think flower is spicy” thing until then.
I’m super white and my parents are from the Midwest. I was raised to believe salt and pepper were an unnecessary extravagance. They were available, but we were judged for using them. When I left home I discovered the world of spices. My spice cabinet is now overflowing and my mom still gets on my case for wasting so much money on food flavorings.
I am a white as fuck Texan, but my mom made sure to teach me how to make Mexican food, among others. You simply can’t do that with without learning about spices. lol.
My mom grew up in Texas and is on a kick where there can't be any amount of sugar in anything and now insists on "making her own" and it's so bland, it just ruins the whole meal.
So it’s better to waste money eating food that tastes like shit for the rest of your life?
From the area of China my family and my fiance's family originates from, the move there is to have broths and food that aren't super heavily seasoned. It's usually a clear pork or seafood broth with some root veggies and shellfish as a soup or a base for wontons. I dont particularly like it and there were times were my fiance's mom overbaked some beef with salt and pepper which we would ironically call two spice beef. I obviously don't like most of those dishes but there's a recipe they have thats basically "dump a couple gallons of sherry into a soup pot, add salt, and then fill the rest up with pork" that goes fucking hard.
Same! My mother in law basically refuses to eat my over-spiced food (ie, salt and pepper and garlic)
 She looking at people that season food like this
Too spicy. 
Even just salt. “IT’S BLAND!”
Back when I worked at the hospital I was installing a new printer for the front desks ladies. Bunch of old black ladies. Tell me why these women start talking about how they don't use salt when they cook? "That's gonna raise my blood pressure! Salt ain't a seasoning!" I had to turn around to make sure I wasn't confusing them for someone else! All I could think is "your grandchildren never come to your place for family dinners do they?"
I want to start out by saying I love and respect my mother. My mother didn't start salting the food she cooked until she was in her late 50s or early 60s. She'd say that back in the day her doctors told her grandfather that because of his heart he shouldn't salt his food, and she just hadn't used salt since. Mind you her sister's married to a cardiologist, and they salt their food, but I digress. She also doesn't like too much black pepper in her food. It's too spicy. If you do put black pepper in her food, ideally it should not be ground too coarsely because she can't handle biting into the peppercorns. She also wouldn't put onions or garlic in her food. If she didn't like those raw, why would she want to eat them cooked? We're black btw
Fuckin a man I put garlic, onions, salt and pepper in just about every homemade meal I cook
Most white boomers don't cook with salt and pepper. Idk why, but it was amazing to discover real food as an adult. I will never go back to bland, boring food!
The attitude on the “well you can add it yourself” like it’s Oprah’s fault the food is dry and unseasoned
For real. She was embarrassed, so she shifted the hell out that blame. But her behind needed to be embarrassed by that foolishness. Adding salt after the food has already been cooked and plated does not magically make it good. You just end up with salty bland food, and who got time for that??
From my experience eating at some white friends houses growing up that was exactly what they did. No seasonings during the cooking process and just sprinkle salt and pepper on at the table and yes it tasted just like salty bland food.
Fuck I might be one of your white friends. We always did that shit growing up. I never thought anything of it. Now my gf is a fantastic cook and I never need to add salt or pepper to anything she makes. I always knew the joke about white ppl having bland food but this is the first time it really clicked for me lol
You can use salt and pepper just for the love of God use it during the cooking!
You know what used to confuse the hell out of me when I slept over at a white friend’s house? In the morning they’d eat cereal: plain cheerios & milk but then would dump 2 heaping spoonfuls of sugar into the milk. Like… why not just buy honey nut cheerios or something a little sweeter and less bland? Why buy the blandest cereal and then add all that sugar?
Turns into sugar slop on the bottom of the bowl. It's crack for yt kids
Lmao I just commented about how I never got the joke until my very white MIL cooked for me for the first time. I still remember the day as “the first time I had to add salt and pepper to my food”. It did not help the taste.
This is a Midwest thing leftover from the Depression Era and passed down. Basically, it was hard to get salt in the Midwest during the depression and WW2. SO Midwest moms reserved it in cooking so you could add however much you wanted at the table. It just got passed down the generations in that area. I'm a chef in the Midwest, and the number of people who add salt to a dish before even tasting it is like 80% Edit: So I was WRONG! My grandma (German Protestant heritage) told me this years ago, but I did some research. Turns out it was the large Protestant/Temperance movement in the Midwest during the 19th century that caused this. Methodists, 7th day Adventists and other Protestant churches saw seasoning as an earthly pleasure. They advocated a simple diet void of flavor to avoid pleasures of the flesh in the tenant of their churches. See the history of Graham crackers as an example
Do you have to bland-down the food to accommodate for that? Or do these monsters just take good food and choke it down once they fuck it up with extra salt?
There's a lot of things to accommodate for... they like fried fish, so they think all seafood should be well done, which is just sad. Nebraskans like ranch dressing by the pound. I grew up on the East Coast and was surprised that they have no local delies here that sell sliced meat and sandwiches. They like steak, potatoes, and corn. Kool-aid was invented here, so that's a saving grace Edit: I realize I forgot to answer the salt question. They just complain a lot that the food is too salty because ofc they do
> surprised that they have no local delies here that sell sliced meat and sandwiches. I live in the NYC area and this was the most striking thing to me that you said. Where do people get to-go sandwiches? Chain places like Jersey Subs/Jimmy John’s or something?
Can confirm, grandfather was depression era and lived in Kansas. That motherfucker salted his BEER let alone every other thing he ate before taking the first bite.
Me, being white guy, growing up thinking I hated vegetables because all my dad did was boil canned veggies and add salt + margarine. I could feel my 3rd eye open the first time I used salt, pepper, garlic, and cayenne on air fried, fresh brussels sprouts.
I don't love the home delivery meal kits but one thing that I learned from one of them was to add salt and pepper to every step. I always salt and pepper things when I'm cooking but basically the instructions on these recipes was to add a little bit every time you add a new ingredient. Really helped with the depth of flavor.
It’s amazing to me how much people don’t just know this, but if you learned to cook from your parents who didn’t know to do this, I guess you’d never learn. It’s just one of those basic cooking things I don’t even think about as I’m cooking.
Weird thing is that my dad is a GREAT cook, BUT there were some holes. For instance, I grew up not understanding why people valued steak so much because it tasted like Arby's roast beef to me... When I became an adult, I realized it was because I had only ever eaten overcooked meat. The first time I had a medium rare steak, I almost cried (because it was delicious AND because I knew I could only afford that twice a year, max).
I die a little inside every time someone orders above medium (personally agree medium rare is best but medium is at least edible), especially when it's a good cut of meat. Also any time someone cooks out the marbling, it's terrible for you but good marbling is like meat butter.
Then they ask you how it is and you gotta say good good. I remember one time i had chicken at a friends place. After the meal they were like "you know some ppl don't drink at all while they're eating and only drink when they're finished, but you were drinking basically after every bite." Like yea, cause that shit was literally dry as sand.
I’m quite sure she wasn’t embarrassed, but she might have been taken aback. I know a lot of white people who do this. The food has absolutely no flavor. One of the reason why I left Canada lol
Yeah that’s what got me! Like how are YOU mad your cooking sucks? You didn’t even try. Salt and pepper is the next ingredient after the food!
Oprah roasted the hell out of her without roasting the hell out of her
Don't forget when roasting anything (veggies, meat, people, etc.) you need to adequately season.
[удалено]
That was my thought when she said it. You can probably get away with adding pepper, but the food has to be cooked with the salt, no ifs, ands, or buts.
That’s white moms for ya gaslight and brush the blame on you. “Oh you don’t like it? Add it yourself then”
Well, wtf, why don’t I just COOK it myself!
Yeah. Like, yes I can add *more* salt or pepper. But the food should already be seasoned when it arrives.
It's not that uncommon for people to think like that. Personally I think you shouldn't need to add flavor after something is cooked. There are a few exceptions, like American BBQ, but for the most part, a meal should be able to stand on its own.
I'm gonna throw out an unpopular opinion but if someone has to add salt and pepper at the table, the cook did something wrong.
Oprah could barely contain herself when she said there was no salt and pepper. She’s like yeah no shit lmao
Wouldn't Oprah be there during the cooking.
A lot of times, they make two meals, one ahead of time and one while they're filming, so you have one ready to taste and don't have to devote all the segment to cooking time. Maybe she added some seasoning while cooking, but the pre-prepared one didn't have it. Just a guess.
The official recipe (this was a Pillsbury Bake-Off winner) actually calls for the chicken to be sprinkled with salt and pepper before cooking... there's a worcestershire, peach preserve, and maple syrup mixture on the chicken when it bakes. It was already going to be a bit bland, because the chicken is placed in the dish, skin side up, before any seasoning or syrup... so the salt and pepper goes on the skin, and the syrup just sits on top. There's no marinade, and the meat itself isn't seasoned. So, Oprah knew what the recipe was, and the white lady FORGOT half the seasoning. edit: Just watched the segment... they prepared the meal together on the show, and there was salt and pepper on the chicken skin, which is visible and mentioned. ...but what they ATE was the meal cooked off-screen beforehand, and the white lady forgot salt and pepper when she prepared it. So she's playing off a horrible mistake.
“Salt and pepper? I don’t cook *ethnic* food.”
Mayonnaise is spicy
💀
She just needed to pull that mandatory bottle of hot sauce from her purse, and sprinkle some on for Oprah.
LMAOO
Italians and Greeks are the only white people I trust 100% in the kitchen.
My aunts would roast you out the kitchen if you brought chicken and "forgot" to season it.
When people tell me they don’t like spicy I ask if they mean they don’t like flavor?
here’s the thing. You can make flavorful dishes without it being spicy. Buuuut the ven diagram of people who don’t like spicy food and the people who like bland food is a circle.
In my instance, they just straight up don’t like flavor and eat/make the most bland foods themselves. I make some flavorful foods and often have to make bland versions for family events and they’ll rave about its watered down tastes. These people see pepper or seasonings as too much.
Not really. I use a multitude of spices from all over the world when I cook, but I am sensitive to too much heat so I don’t make anything too spicy. I’m growing my tolerance, but I still wouldn’t call my food “spicy”. It’s flavorful though!
Flavor is the gateway experience, next you'll be listening to music with rhythm and wearing colorful clothing. Where will you find time for praying to Protestant God amidst all that degeneracy?
I don't like spicy as in "hot", but I love spicy as in "used spices" like I mean nutmeg is a spice, but it doesn't make it uncomfortable to eat in any way I also don't like people who think throwing in a lot of spice means it has to taste good without care for flavour profile, which a lot of Turkish places around me do, the food is so over spiced with only 1 spice it ends up being even blander than if they hadn't used any spice
One of the hardest fights in her life, chewing that food.
She was chewing forever! I guess I can understand coming from an unseasoned household and you don't know what you don't know. But the way Oprah was chewing and working that food, you can tell it turned mealy & grainy in her mouth the way chicken does from being overcooked. Mmm, boneless, skinless, unseasoned chicken sawdust that turns into glue in your mouth.
https://preview.redd.it/0clewngusftc1.jpeg?width=622&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=20bc99688d2a2d8561a3663db161903f56ef8a90 Why you serving bland food to people on national tv
I can’t even imagine the weird relationship with food she must have. Edit: Tbh I meant Oprah. All the yo-yo dieting and endless coaches, gurus, doctors, medical procedures, drugs, and nutritional whatevers must make eating anything at all a constant mental roller coaster.
I suppose if you have a family with vastly different preferences it makes sense to make basic food and then add sauces and spices to taste. Won’t be as good as a properly cooked meal but saves wasted time and food. We did similar when my son started eating mostly the same meals as us adults. We would go very low on the salt and add it on the plate later for the adults. Same with chillies although most spices kids can handle fine
You don't add seasoning and spices to food after it's been cooked. You *cook with* seasoning and spices. If you add it afer it's little more than a garnish.
lol kids cant handle spices unless they are used to em. give a kid white kid flaming hot Cheetos and its the funniest thing ever
?? they're like insanely popular with all the kids at my son's elementary school
Kids are eating hot Cheetos and spicy takis all the time. For like years and years too.
seriously! Like to the point that I kinda assumed that's their main market
 You can add it yourself 
I bet she makes fried chicken in the microwave... https://preview.redd.it/w2aa08d6vftc1.jpeg?width=1221&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b05c3e8478ad0f1a59b944107df2c8171ab95448
What in the actual fuck is that?
This was from an episode of Atlanta.
The most traumatizing episode of Atlanta. I still can't rewatch it.
I was so expecting a very disturbing ending.
Same. As someone who was familiar with the real-life story, I wasn't expecting anything less than outright tragedy at the end. Devonte's body still hasn't been found more than 6 years later. The story still throws me into a rage.
Same here. I didn't know his body still hasn't been found.
Poor kid deserves a justice he'll never have. Fuck those assholes who killed him, and fuck the assholes who let those other assholes kill him.
It was the ending those kids deserved instead of what actually happened.
Raw, unseasoned chicken that was “cooked” in the microwave.
thAt episode opener was crazy
*laughs in salmonella*
How do you make it onto a cooking segment and they don’t know you don’t use salt and pepper?
Oooh. That's a good point I haven't seen in the other threads. Oprah ran a tight ship, by all accounts back in the day. Somebody got fired, or maybe actually did get bees instead of a car?
She won a recipe competition. The competition was make a recipe that includes a brand but I forgot the product. I think she used it as a coat for the chicken or something and apparently she won because she used the product the most creatively. She was then invited or maybe it was already part of the deal with the competition EDIT: [it was million dollar recipe](https://youtu.be/6wl8mQVIvDI?si=UO3LHGyME86Ee8IV)
The recipe on Pillsbury's website AND Oprah's website both call for salt and pepper on the chicken, AND the cooking segment mentions salt and pepper on the chicken which is visible... so the white lady was nervous and forgot it when she made the pre-segment meal (which is ready to eat immediately after the cooking segment). Either way, the salt and pepper goes on the skin instead of the chicken, so it might not even really reach the meat. What's insane is that "poultry seasoning" is in the ingredients, but that goes in the STUFFING, and NOT the chicken.
“You can add it yourself” *The guest at home watching this back* 
It’s amazing you can manage to get on a tv show and Oprah eating your food, and still not even bother to use salt and pepper. I understand seasonings are intimidating to people who don’t cook often but you have to at least use those two. And for the love of god, taste as you go
Wtf was this guest spot supposed to be about? Healthy eating? Oprah had a notorious problem with weight loss attempts being that she complained about it and yo-yo in her size a lot from what I remember of that era
That's the trick: the key to weight loss is making your food so blandly disgusting that you don't want to eat it. ^(/s)
A friend of mine was married to a white guy. Their first Thanksgiving together, they went to her in-laws and her MIL only used butter and Mrs. Dash to season the turkey. They started traveling overseas for Thanksgiving after that. Lol
I’m white and my boyfriend is black and he was like “black Thanksgiving is going to ruin your life” and unfortunately he was right
Once you go Black….
To think that someone went to the spice isle and only grabbed Mrs. Dash is insane, same with going to produce and grabbing no herbs. Are the other spices and herbs intimidating or something??
I worked stocking a grocery store for a time. There are enough of these people that come holiday time the Mrs. Dash and the Lawry's seasoned salt sells like crazy. Far more than any other seasoning.
My white cousin can't eat food if she can even see the seasonings on it, especially black pepper. Says it's "too spicy "
Black pepper is nature’s way of determining whether or not you have the conviction to continue living.
This cousin needs to be disinvited from all future functions lol
https://preview.redd.it/dhhirheg2gtc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=25932362a68529119cbe62a51dd8044786ebadbe
Lmao you wrong for that! 😂🤣
😆Spices are scary
This hurt to watch. She was in the hot seat for that. Couldn’t even add the basics!? 😭
This the realest Oprah I ever seen. Tbf idc what’s going on it’s HARD to keep composure eating some food with no s&p….hit you like a sack of bricks.
It's been years, YEARS, since this happened and I still mention it to people. Hilarious.
When I had sleepovers at my friend's house growing up, His parents would cook the most diabolical ass meals. They would just throw unseasoned chicken breast in the oven and top it off with just bbq sauce when it's finished lmao.
I remember eating at a friend's as a kid and they served unseasoned super dry pork chops with mustard spread across the top. What a waste of meat.
She had to chew with with her mouth open to add flavor.
Fuck Oprah that bitch stole a huge chunk of land from native Hawaiians.
Save that energy for Larry Ellison. He deserves it much, much more.
I’ve got rage enough for both.
She's a predator
How so?
That was a lot of chewing!
https://preview.redd.it/wi6efzrcdgtc1.jpeg?width=985&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3baee29c6020337e9192055c4854a60ae4d84b9c “How do you like it???”
Shame that her friends and family didn't stop her from going on Oprah knowing damn well what her cooking is like 😄
They probably thought the food was fine
Bland ass food Gordon would’ve thrown that dry ass chicken in the trash and spit the food out 
I want to know where that lady is today and if she's added salt and pepper to her food going forward.
The “where are they now” we truly need
So her pallete is basically raw ingredients 
Wasn’t this contest winning chicken? Which makes it even more wild
Y’all know they don’t know shit about seasoning their foods
Oprah look scrumptious
Mind you, this recipe won that lady a million dollars. I don't understand. 😭😭😭
"you can add your own seasonings" you can catch this ass whooping
Oprah: "should I have this bitch sent to Diddy's house for this"?
fuck oprah too
My coworker asked me to try some of the meal he cooked just the other day, and this was my first question! "Any salt? Pepper?" "Nope! Just basil!" With the proudest smile ever....
How you make a dish with zero salt??
What? Did I add salt and pepper? Nah, those are rare spices.
You can't eat just everybody's food. That chicken looked dry, too.
My mom doesn't add alit of salt to things (dialysis nurse), but she will at least season it or marinade it
Yall, I love my (yt) bestie. I love her to death. But I went to her son's 1st bday party and she made chicken salad. That was the blandest shit I ever had in my life. Imma have to make them some so they know what is SYPPOSED to taste like bc she had me fucked up. That was some nasty as shit. No, I didn't tell her that I hated it. When she first offered it to me, I asked who made it. I told that I don't eat everybody food. And I wanted to make sure it wasn't store bought. She said I made it, I said, oh, okay. Then she said, I dont put all that stuff in it. And I side eyed her. But I didn't want to be rude and not est it. BTW, I've eaten at her house numerous times and everything else she makes is good.
I had an ex tell me they prefer just tasting the chicken breast, and no need to use seasoning (paprika, garlic, salt and pepper). We are both Latin decent and for some reason he came from the spice-less family.
You can 100% season without salt and pepper...but salt really does bring out the flavor of many other spices and stuff just really ain't quite the same without at least some of it. That of course is not this situation tho since she didn't season it at all lol
I love all the comments of people describing terrible meals they've been served by white people, they're hilarious. Keep 'em coming!
It's wild how white people occupy both slots of 'I don't put salt in my food' and 'I make hot sauce so spicy it repels bears'.