Why Food Tastes Better at Restaurants (It's Not "More Salt") 

Don't forget butter, and/or fat in general. Restaurants are willing to cook with way more butter/fat than we would usually use at home, because their job is to make the food taste good regardless of how unhealthy it may be.

My parents are sadly of the thought that you don’t need to season things if they aren’t the main dish and that seasoning after is the same. Whereas I season each component.

This is my favorite channel, I no longer feel blind cooking in my kitchen.

1:03 don’t forget to tell everyone that a teaspoon of table salt is not the same amount of salt as flakey salt or even sea salt or some type of course salt. This is because a teaspoon is a set volume, but different forms of salt are different densities and weight a different amount. Also another reason that you don’t want to add salt to your pot from the container is that the steam can get inside the bottle and make the salt clumpy.

it sounds silly but it also doesnt hurt to practice pinching salt, get a feel for how much a teaspoon or tablespoon is in your own hand. everyone has different size fingers and hands. season from elevation over the food for better even salt dispersion.

This is a powerful video really glad someone brought this up good work

Thanx for this man, I will be upping my salt game now! This channel is fantastic. Just a regular guy talking plain so its easy to understand for a non-chef.

Agreed with everything you’ve said in the video with one exception, I no longer salt my scrambled eggs while beating them. They come out way fluffier and not as dry. I think the salt might pull some moisture out. Not sure. Also, a dab of butter about 30 seconds before you pull them out of the skillet, scrambled egg heaven.

I love your videos, and thank you for always putting the equipment in the description

One thing I found out after years of use was that Morton's kosher has anti caking agents so I switched to diamond brand. What stinks is that Morton's courseness was perfect for me and diamond kosher is really fine in comparison so it's harder to handle while sprinkling from hand. Another thing that helps, especially when baking and you don't pre-dissolve salt in liquid, is to grind your course salt with a mortar and pestle to better distribute it without it sinking in the dry mix or not being properly dissolved in an almost complete dough.

Bro you’re srsly my fav new food RU-vidr. Subbed weeks ago and haven’t regretted it. Can’t wait to see where you go. Great stuff.

You're my new favourite youtuber. love your videos! They're so high quality.

Love the vid! Discovered you from "the meal that changed the way I cooked forever" and this is such a clean way of presenting things ! I pretty much learned things the hard way when I started cooking for myself a few years ago (start of uni) and those are all concepts I learned along the way and DEFINITELY made a big difference in my day to day cooking ! Keep up the good stuff :)

I just found your channel, I am so serious. Your content is incredible, I already made a cooking playlist and have 3 of your videos bookmarked. Keep going dude you will be the next babish

Been really enjoying your videos man! Really speaks to my foodie brain

So it's the sprinkling that does it, truly amazing!

Very interesting! I hope this channel blows up

This channel is gonna be very big one day! Keep on going.

Just found your channel recommended on RU-vid, and I've already watched a few of your videos! Great stuff. Looking forward to keeping following you and whatever you make next!... I'm eagerly awaiting the rest of your pizza series :)

Your gonna be the next big cooking RU-vidr keep it up fr💯

Great job Charlie. I'm glad to be a subscriber.

2:30 don’t forget to add plenty of salt to your pasta/potato water. The right level of salt cooked into your pasta means every bite is amazing.

great video bro very informative!! will add some of these tricks thanks!

I legit just read Samin Nosrat’s Salt chapter in Salt Fat Acid Heat, and this video you’ve made is legiiiiit almost a visual representation of that. Great job Charlie!

I would add one thing to this (for those not hand sprinkling): any savory dish that normally calls for regular salt - try replacing it with seasoned salt. It is a game changer!

Unlike other types of salt, kosher salt is made solely of sodium chloride. It usually doesn't contain any trace minerals, iodine, or anti-clumping or anti-caking agents. Lack of Iodine in your diet leaves you vulnerable to developing numerous health issues, including goiters. A goiter may be an overall enlargement of the thyroid, or it may be the result of irregular cell growth that forms one or more lumps (nodules) in the thyroid. A goiter may be associated with no change in thyroid function or with an increase or decrease in thyroid hormones.

The biggest reason is when you're cooking at home you're constantly smelling the dish and by the time you've eaten it you've dulled your senses. This is why things seem to taste better the next day or later. It's NOT because you're chili flavors have melded together magically... it's because you have a fresh pallette for your taste buds. In a restaurant literally the first time you smell and taste and taste the food is that moment they plop the plate down in front of you. 🤘

Discovering this channel has been a blast 😊

Subbed when you had like 500 subs. Now you have 20k! good job! Hope you get that 100k soon :)

I really hope your videos motivate me to overcome my laziness and get me to start learning to cook as I currently am eating unhealthy, expensive and go out of my way to avoid putting in effort at all costs. I really enjoy good food and well thought out and produced videos like yours on cooking but I usually watch them, feel motivated but in the end just cant get myself to put in effort into things in general unless I'm forced to. Btw you said try all food in the process except raw meat, does that mean you try raw egg?

…….three videos deep. “Ugh is this one of my favorite cooking channels now?”

My favorite salt too. Totally over salted when I get the wrong brand. Just found your channel and like your style. Gave you a sub. What are your knife preferences? I'm big into cooking but I'm self taught. I have always enjoyed good knives and have been making them as a hobby and I do mostly chef's knives and I like to hear what people prefer and why. I have put a lot of research into it and am always looking to improve.

Thanks for the link to the salt cellar...it was gonna be my first question....

really the only reason you should measure salt is when baking, when curing, or when fermenting something. but these are all pretty advanced cooking techniques

Hey Charlie. Video idea for you...Black Pepper. Would be great to see some experiments around different types of black pepper. It's such a staple, that is often overlooked. I usually just pick up whatever they have in the supermarket..should I be putting more effort into choosing black pepper?

I really like your way of explaining in your videos. Actually you sound a lot like this other guy, SerpaDesign. Anyway, keep up the good work!!!

I used to work at CCF, and the KM came to me and whispered in my ear; know what makes the soup so good? Then proceeded to dump cups of salt into the soup 🤪

I've only even heard americans talk about using kosher salt by feel. Kosher salt isn't even on the shelves here. Also using a standard measurement and then adjusting to taste from there must surely be the best way to get consistent result

When marinating meat/chicken, is it better to add salt to the marinade (which would allow the food to absord the salt and lock in the flavors for a longer period of time), or to salt right before cooking? (perhaps for better texture? Not sure what the advantages are over here)

How bad is the accuracy of salt grinders? I have found I like them because I find it easier to get even amounts based on how many twist using tactile feedback rather than eyeballing it.

You asked "what's the opposite of dense"; belatedly, I would recommend "sparse".

So I’m living abroad in Germany. They don’t have kosher salt here. Any recommendations?

I used kosher salt for everything.

Most home cooks that I know, really don't use nearly enough salt. A bunch of them even brag about not using much salt, because they think a little table salt on top as its served, which makes it taste salty, while also being bland, is enough. They don't realize they should have used a lot more salt during the cooking process, instead of a tiny sprinkle at the end.

doesn't meat get dry if you salt it early?

Butter/fat, and msg (or similar 'flavor enhancers')

thanks for not dropping it off your elbow

Good points, but I grind my salt and don't see the difference. Regardless if I have salt in my hand or watch it come out of a grinder, I am in control and can see just how much is being added. (although the argument could be that the consistency of the size of ground salt grain is not stable) Gonna do my own tests. TBC 😂

It only taste better if your idea of cooking is putting a frozen Digornos pizza in the oven. After buying the right equipment like a stand mixer and pizza steel, and watching Charlie and others youtube videos, I can make pretty much anything better than the restaurants can.

Mr. Anderson! How often do you get that IRL? Or are you young enough to have skipped that? This was a salty video, thanks :)

Great video :) & the opposite of dense is specific volume

Sucu a great channel my friend! Keep it up!

Partly correct only. There are dishes that taste better when salt crystal are not dissolved, eg. fried mushroom, fried peppers, fried eggs or steak.

Don't forget to add some MSG 😋

It's not more salt, but you have to add more salt throughout cooking. Makes sense

Tight script, nice video. now all ya need is a cable show and a couple of x wives. We'll keep an eye out.🤣

More butter!

I season my cutting board instead of the meat...lol

I hate you and love you all at once. Ty for the lesson.

I wonder how many years of bad luck he got from dropping all that salt

What's the opposite of dense, funny. Still tryna figure out dense, lol and buoyancy (it's like I get it.. but i dont)

100% Kosher salt.

Kosher is the goat

I bet that's why sumo wrestlers toss the salt and Mr fuji did as well in wwe so the ring is seasoned and pure even for my ceremonies i make a salt circle of protection after I light my candles I start the prayer or chant blessed be to yall )0( Ric

Actually you can accurately quantify in grams per thousand how much salt to use if you want to be scientific. Most people prefer about 10 grams per thousand of salt in their food but salto-philes will want even more while salto-phobes will want less. You need to weigh the ingredients and water etc and calculate how much salt is already in the ingredients and then add enough extra to reach the desired target concentration to satisfy the average person based on the final weight of the food. Yes, this is complicated and experienced cooks learn intuitively how much salt to add in steps as they cook but in a big commercial or institutional kitchen you need to do it quantitatively to optimize product quality and to keep the product uniform from batch to batch. Btw, many ingredients such as soy sauce are very salty so that limits how much you can use since you are not only flavoring the food but salting it as well. If you want to be even more precise you should calculate the amount of water and calculate the salt concentration based on only water weight and not on total weight (which also includes the solids fraction) since you taste only the salt that's actually dissolved in water. You could also use a pH meter and a conductivity meter to measure both acidity and saltiness:- cooking can be just as complicated as you want to make it, bon appetit!

Clicked so fast!

Salt Bae giving you the stink eye in the corner

I always think of contaminating the salt when I see chefs pinch salt from the same container each episode. I know that salt kills all bacteria etc but I always am kinda grossed out by handling raw chicken the grabbing a pinch of salt.

Its butter. Butter is why its better.

Kinda depends on who's cooking.

Salt used at home is way less than salt used in manufacturing because manufacturers use both salt and sugar to preserve food, extend shelf life and maximise taste which masks the inferior quality items and sparse herbs and spices. So, don't panic when salting at home- taste the food as you go.

Both, in general, use too much salt and most prepared meals to reheat have killer levels of salt. Americans in general consume way too much salt, and our food is oversalted to extend shelf life.

But there is salt and then there is other salt. Not all salt are the same ❤

Ragusea convinced me to cook with iodized salt: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-B00K66HivcI.html

First of all, great video! 👍 Second, do you have any recipe or video for the dish you make at ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xEPV2yzxv7E.html ?

but, it often times is more salt..

chinese stir fried rice in a cast iron pan is a crime

MSG tho

I don't doubt that you're right, however this sounds a bit counterintuitive. I had always heard that our taste buds pick up what is on the surface of food and it was recommended if one wants to eat healthy to cook without salt and salt on the plate, so that you taste the salt. I had also heard (though it might be a wives tale), that there is more salt in a slice of bread than in one potato chip and the reason for this is because with the potato chip it's on the outside versus the bread where it's throughout the bread. So now I'm confused.

MSG, Yeast Extracts, Mushroom extracts and I+G, etc are what chef's are using in combination with salt. It's a misconception that only inexpensive, fast food joints utilize MSG. Top restaurants around the world use it to great effect. It's a bit of a rabbit hole for the home cooks so unless you grow up with MSG in your culture then just stick to SALT... but you'll never reach restaurant quality.

No its not salt. Its MSG

Use salt correctly. Your taste buds and your nephrologist will thank you.

Nah man, initiative cooking is via learning general ratios which you develop through learning the recipe and doing the work to understand what tastes right. Telling people to not measure is completely backwards - you need to learn first before you can use your gut. Guidance first.

Did you test the "metallic taste" of iodine in salt? That's the first I've ever heard of that and have not experienced it myself. Iodine deficiency is nothing to mess around with and yes, for most people, the added iodine in cooking salt isn't necessary. For that small minority though, they may or may not know it, but that added iodine in cooking salt could be making them meaningfully healthier.

Food doesn't taste better at restaurants, it tastes worse 98% of the time

Wasted time on this ad

MSG. Fouyyyyyyooooooooo!