My dad told me to 'just add more salt' to my chili and I finally understood why his was always better after 12 years of cooking

Turns out he meant a full tablespoon for a 4 quart pot not a sprinkle, and the first time I actually measured it out I nearly cried from how much flavor I had been missing.

3 comments

3 Comments

violar3510h agoMost Upvoted

Wait, did you just discover that your dad was holding out on you for over a decade? That's like learning there's a secret level in a video game you've been playing forever but nobody told you about. I have to admit I'm a little mad on your behalf, but mostly I'm just jealous of the chili you could have been making this whole time. Take this with a grain of salt, pun absolutely intended, but now you're probably going to oversalt everything for a week trying to make up for lost time.

piperbailey9h ago

@violar35 that's exactly what I went through with pancakes. My mom never wrote down her recipe, just "a pinch of nutmeg" and I was faking it for years til I saw her grab the jar and give it a solid shake. It's funny how we're raised on these vague instructions and then one day it clicks that the people who taught us were just winging it too. Makes you wonder what other things we're missing by a half measure.

blair_taylor326h ago

Totally agree with @piperbailey on this one, I used to think I was a decent cook just eyeballing everything but after I actually measured out the cumin in my taco meat one time I felt like such a fool. My grandma always said "a heavy hand" with the garlic powder and I thought I was being generous but nope, she meant like a full tablespoon per pound of meat. Made me realize all those years of "that's close enough" were really just me being afraid to commit to the seasoning.