Bestie gave me a sizeable container of her homemade chicken soup today! She said there was something missing. My first thought was I bet it's just salt. (Which makes me think I might have forgotten the salt in my Salsa Verde cause it's missing something.) The soup was fantastic, by the way. It just needed a touch, literally a couple shakes of the salt shaker into my cup. Now, because I cannot leave anything alone, my dumbass added pepper and parsley. The pepper was good. The parsley... well, I added way too much and the broth turned green! Since parsley doesn't taste like much, it didn't hurt it. I finished the WHOLE container for lunch. Super yum.
I also came across a new soup recipe to try (thank you Pinterest) and the seasonings listed in it are numerous and includes 2 whole lemons which is a little out there for me. Everything else was normal, tomatoes, beans, garlic, onions, salt, pepper, parsley. It's a canning recipe so the amounts are large.
These 2 things got me to thinking.... Seasoning food for canning and seasoning food for a meal are really 2 different things. When you're going to can something, you want to make sure the core seasonings are in there. (There are some seasonings that don't can well. We will talk about those another day.) You probably aren't going to be able to adjust it perfectly as many times your meats are uncooked and so yuck on taste-testing that. You season the product according to the recommendations in the recipe and worry about adjusting flavors later upon serving the food. I'm terrible about adding enough seasoning (salt included) when I'm making broth especially. I feel like my gravies and soups eat salt on their own just because the broth I started with was so woefully lacking.
I'm conservative while seasoning anything. I have a few herbs and mixes that I'm comfortable using and know how they affect flavor. I'm sure someone else who is more adventurous in seasoning food (like my Aunt) would come along and think my food is bland. Just a couple months ago, I made a loaf of Herb Bread for the first time and it called for thyme. I had it on hand from a project but don't really use it much. What a surprise to my taste buds when I tried it for the first time!
My point is, to you and to myself; don't be afraid to season your food. Try something new now and again. Also try not to add too much! Keep tasting if you are able. If you think "something" is missing and you don't know what, add salt. Salt even worked for the grape juice I canned.
Hey Bestie, thanks again for the soup! Made my day!