This Is the Most Overlooked Step in Every Recipe—and It Takes 5 Seconds

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2 days ago

"Season to taste" isn't a vague suggestion, it's a fundamental cooking technique. Salt is a primary cooking ingredient, but it works best when used incrementally throughout the cooking process and not just at the end. When done properly, you're seasoning the food to maximize deliciousness and also create harmony with other flavors, such as acid, sweetness, and bitterness. If you do accidentally oversalt, we offer some tips on fixing the problem.You've seen the phrase a thousand times, probably at the end of every recipe ever read: Season to taste. It sounds so casual, so… unhelpfully vague. If you're anything like me, your early encounters with that line left you staring as if it were a pop quiz you had forgotten to study for. What taste? Whose taste? Are we talking about one pinch? Two?
After nearly a decade of working in restaurant kitchens and another ten years as a professional recipe developer and editor, I now understand what "season to taste" actually means (good news: it doesn't take nearly that long to figure out). Learning to do it well is one of the best things you can do to enhance your cooking, no matter what's on the stove. With a few smart habits on your side, you can season like a pro and get restaurant-worthy results without breaking a sweat (or oversalting your soup).
When a recipe says "season to taste," 99% of the time, it's talking about salt. There are exceptions to this rule when the instruction may be about sugar, vinegar, or even oil; however, a good recipe will be very clear about that (and I'll discuss it further below as well). There's hardly a dish in the world that will taste good if it doesn't have salt added, though how much depends on the recipe itself and your personal tastes (foreshadowing: that's the "to taste" we're going to be talking about).
Salt isn't just about making food salty—in most cases, if the food is noticeably salty, you've likely added too much. The goal when seasoning with salt is to amplify flavor. When used right, salt makes tomatoes taste more tomato-y, mushrooms more mushroomy, and meat more…well, you get the idea. Salt wakes food up and is your first line of defense against blandness. Too little, and everything tastes dull. If you find yourself asking, "What does this dish need?" the number one answer is going to be: salt.
Too much, though, and you're in panic mode trying to "fix" it.
Not all salts are created equal, and when it comes to how salty your food turns out, the type of salt you use can make a big difference.
At Serious Eats, we love kosher salt and typically reach for Diamond Crystal kosher salt. It's the gold standard in many professional kitchens thanks to its light, airy flakes that are easy to pinch, spread evenly, and dissolve quickly. It also contains less sodium by volume than most other salts, which makes it ideal for seasoning gradually and with control.
However, if you're using a different salt, such as another brand of kosher salt like Morton or table salt or sea salt, you'll just need to adjust the amount you use to achieve the desired salinity. A teaspoon of one salt can weigh twice as much as another, and that means it can be nearly twice as salty when measured by volume.
I recommend you pick one salt and stick with it. Whether it's Diamond Crystal or something else, using the same brand and type consistently helps you build instinct. Your fingers will learn what a "pinch" feels like, and you'll have an easier time properly seasoning without guesswork or oversalting disasters.
The short answer is that you taste it. And not just once at the end, but repeatedly, throughout the cooking process.
Begin with a light hand. Add a small amount of salt, stir it in thoroughly, and then taste to check the seasoning. Pay attention not just to how salty the food is, but to the broader experience of flavor. Does it taste flat or dull? Are the flavors cohesive, or does something seem to be missing? Does the flavor linger pleasantly, or vanish almost immediately? These are the kinds of questions that guide good seasoning.
From there, you adjust. If the food still seems muted, add another small pinch, stir again, and taste once more. With each round of seasoning, you're not just trying to make the dish saltier, you're trying to make it taste complete and balanced. You're looking for that moment when the flavors seem to lift and round out, and you no longer have an inkling that something is lacking.
Professional chefs do this constantly. In fact, it's one of the most essential skills they develop. After tasting thousands of sauces, stews, broths, and vinaigrettes, their palates are finely tuned to recognize when a dish is underseasoned and when it's just right. But you don't need years of restaurant experience to do this well at home—you've been eating food your whole life, you already know when food is seasoned perfectly. For some folks, all that's lacking is the awareness that they already hold the answer and the confidence to be decisive about it. To build that up, what you need is intention, repetition, and a willingness to taste carefully as you go. Like most kitchen skills, seasoning improves with practice.
One of the biggest mistakes less experienced cooks make when seasoning a dish is waiting until the end to add all of the salt to a recipe. Salt shouldn't be used as just a topping. As described above, it should be introduced throughout cooking. When added early and in stages, it:
Draws out moisture from vegetables like onions and mushrooms, helping them soften and brown more evenly. This speeds the Maillard reaction (browning), which is responsible for deeper, more complex savory flavors.
Penetrates proteins as they cook, seasoning them from the inside out and helping them to retain moisture. That's especially critical in soups, stews, and braises where time and heat allow salt to diffuse evenly.
Balances flavors dynamically as ingredients combine. Salt helps meld sweet, sour, bitter, and umami components into a cohesive whole.
Seasoning at every stage also helps you dial in flavors as you go, so you're not making one huge seasoning correction right at the end, which is more likely to lead to an oversalting disaster.
This is a common question, and not every recipe developer will agree on the answer, or even the best course of action. Most often, though, recipes leave the salting discretion up to the home cook because not all people agree on how much salt it takes to make something taste "perfectly seasoned" (though the human palate is reasonably consistent in preferring a salinity somewhere in the 1-2% by weight range relative to the other ingredients).
"It's too salty" or "it's not salty enough" are two of the most common complaints by those who follow published recipes. One of the easiest solutions is simply to push the responsibility onto the home cook: Season it how you like it, and don't blame me if it's not right. (Does that mean the complaints stop? No, of course not! People love to blame others even when the mistake is their own.)
There are exceptions to this. Most recipes that involve salting a raw meat mixture for sausage, meatloaf, or meatballs will provide a more exact amount of salt, as tasting the raw meat isn't necessarily a good idea. Same for baking, in which batters and doughs are raw and not easy to taste. Here, though, there's risk, since, as explained above, different brands and types of salt can deliver varying amounts of sodium when measured by volume. Good recipes usually resolve this by being very specific about the type of salt (and even brand), and offering a mass alongside a volume, so that anyone using a different type of salt than the recipe calls for can adjust accordingly.
Nobody sets out to oversalt their food. It usually happens with a few enthusiastic pinches here, a splash of salty broth there, and before you know it, your soup is salty like the sea.
The key to avoiding a salty slip-up is establishing good habits. Here are a few smart strategies to help keep your seasoning in check before things go off the rails:
1. Season gradually, not all at once. Salt builds. Start light and build up in small increments. Remember that you can always add more, but you can't take it out (see also: regret).
2. Taste after every adjustment. Don't assume. Don't trust your memory. Trust your spoon. Taste-testing frequently is how you catch yourself before you go too far.
3. Write it down, especially if you're developing a recipe or doubling one. Tracking how much salt you've added and when can save your future self a lot of second-guessing.
4. Be extra cautious when reducing. When you simmer a sauce, stew, or soup, water evaporates, but salt doesn't. That means the salt concentration increases over time. If something tastes perfectly seasoned early on, it might tip into oversalted territory by the end of cooking. Add less salt than you think in the early stages of any recipe that will involve evaporation and reduction. Once the liquid has reduced, you should adjust accordingly.
Remember, you can always add more salt, but you can't take it out once it's added. You're going to mess this up sometimes, even when following the tips above. We all do. Maybe you added one pinch too many, or the soup reduced more than expected and suddenly tastes like seawater. The good news? All is not lost. Here's what you can do when you've been a little heavy-handed:
For Soups, Stews, and Sauces:
Dilute with unsalted stock, water, or a splash of dairy: Start with just a few tablespoons at a time, as even small amounts can help rebalance the dish.
Add bulk: More vegetables, noodles, rice, or beans can help stretch the dish and absorb some of the salt, though it can take time for those ingredients to absorb the excess salt, so you may not notice the full benefit right away.
Go creamy: A swirl of fatty cream, coconut milk, or yogurt can mellow sharpness and round out the salt.
For Braises or Casseroles:
Pull back and rebuild: Remove the over-seasoned portion (like some of the broth or braising liquid), then rebuild the volume with low- or no-sodium ingredients.
Add starch: Potatoes, pasta, bread crumbs are great ideas, or anything absorbent that can help temper the dish. Again, these ingredients won't absorb the salt quickly from the oversalted portion, so it may take extra time for the effect to set in.
For Dressings or Dips:
Add more fat or acid: Olive oil, avocado, sour cream, vinegar, or lemon juice can rebalance saltiness and revive the flavor.
Sweeten it (slightly): A touch of honey or sugar can help if the salt is harsh.
For Solid Dishes (Grains, Veggies, Pasta):
Serve with something bland: Rice, bread, unsalted grains, or plain greens on the side can tone things down.
Double the recipe: If you have the time and ingredients, make a second batch with little to no salt, then mix them together.
While salt is the backbone of good seasoning, it's not the only ingredient in your toolkit. When a recipe instructs you to "season to taste," it may also be prompting you to adjust for acidity, fat, sweetness, or even bitterness if a dish tastes unbalanced or incomplete. The author will often specify these other options when appropriate, but you should keep in mind that they're always on the table, even when not mentioned.
If your tomato sauce tastes muddy, a splash of vinegar or lemon juice can bring it into focus. If a cream-based sauce feels too heavy, a touch of wine or citrus can cut through its richness. A glug of olive oil or a knob of butter can mellow sharp edges and tie flavors together. The key is to think in contrasts:
Acid cuts richness
Sweetness softens bitterness or heat
Bitterness adds complexity and edge
Fat carries flavor and smooths things out
These aren't rules so much as guiding instincts.
"Season to taste" isn't just filler at the end of a recipe. It's a real skill that you can build. Learn what your ingredients taste like with and without salt. Taste early, taste often, and don't be afraid to play with salt in search of full flavor and balance. Over time, your tongue will learn what "just right" means. And when it does, that's when your food starts tasting less like you "followed a recipe" and more like you cooked it like a pro.
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