Taste and adjust the seasoning

✅ The essentials

A recipe gives quantities, but your salt is not the same, your tomatoes are not the same, and your stock cube is not either. The only way to know if it is good is to taste, with a clean spoon, every time you add something and above all at the end. Adjusting is correcting by small touches, and tasting again.

📏 The landmarks

• It is flat, no relief: a pinch of salt. Taste. One more if needed.
• It is heavy, a bit fatty or a bit sweet: a few drops of lemon or vinegar. That is the reflex people forget most.
• It is sharp, a tomato sauce for example: a pinch of sugar, or a knob of butter.
• It is dry or rough: a spoon of olive oil, cream or butter at the end.
• It is too salty: stretch it with water, cream or a starch, and look at the page "How to salt a dish".
• It lacks freshness: chopped herbs at the last moment.
• One thing at a time, a small amount, and you taste in between.

⏱️ How long it takes

Ten seconds each time. It is the difference between a decent dish and a dish people ask you the recipe for.

🩹 If it goes wrong

You corrected in the wrong direction, too much lemon for example: a pinch of sugar brings the balance back. You cannot tell what is missing any more: add a pinch of salt and a few drops of lemon, one of the two will wake the dish up.

🍽️ Make it tonight

Basque-style chicken. Taste the sauce after simmering: depending on the tomatoes, it will need a pinch of salt or a pinch of sugar, and you will know right away.