h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I promised my aunt I would ask this. The question several family brawls were started over during dinner.

Does the salt or the pepper go in the shaker with more holes? Their are decent arguments for both but it is has not been resolved yet in my family.

Single hole - salt. Multiple holes - pepper. That's how I've always seen it.

What if neither has one hole, but one has more? Put the salt in the one with less holes?
Just curious, but what is your reasoning?

Well the way I've seen it salt has always gone in the one with less holes. It just seems to be a tradition engrained on our psyches.

listen i,ve got uterine daughters, the latter brought up as my
own, don't talk to me about holes

I suppose that it depends on your location. In Britain, the norm seems to be to put the salt in the pot with least holes, but this trend is reversed everywhere else in Europe. I suppose it's like driving on the left hand side of the road, although I'm not entirely sure that you could endanger the lives of yourself, other motorists, and passers-by by putting the pepper in the wrong container. Perhaps it would save lives if the entire world adopted the 'grinder' method of condiment delivery?

Firstly, I agree with Stuffe. Fresh-ground pepper just -tastes- better.

On to the debate!

Uhm.. Here it's not so much that there are a different number of holes, but the holes in what is supposed to be the pepper shaker are finer, which annoys me. With all the talk about too much salt being bad for you anyway, why force me to shake my arm off trying to get enough pepper to season my food, while the salt drowns my food before I can see the blasted stuff coming out the holes?

'Nonnie

... and just in case Stuffe's Global Grinder idea doesn't take hold ... I offer this suggestion:

Down with tradition! Put the condiments in whichever container they work best in for -you-!

Sounds like a manifesto for the anarchists.

I don't know-maybe it is best if you ask the salt and the pepper which one they prefer to settle in. Somtimes salt likes more privacy and prefers the less wholely atmosphere. Just ask. I have had many interesting conversations with my salt and pepper shakers.

Sounds good to me.
Thank's all.

So lons as it doesn't come in an 'attractive' wicker basket, with a jug of vinegar in the middle, I'm easy, just don't loosen the screw top... Of course, another suitable (and economic) solution to our troubles may be to steal small sachets of said condiments from cafes, burger bars and the like, and make the holes as fine or as large as you wish!

Never mind "salt or pepper", the real question at issue here is "white pepper or black pepper". Because if you've got a salt cellar and a pepper pot (which have one and several holes respectively, no arguments!), then the pepper you're putting in that pot must be white pepper. White pepper is suitable for storage as a powder in a pot. Black pepper, on the other hand, should be stored as peppercorns and ground on demand, coarsely, so the question of whether you have one or more pinholes in the top of the dispenser doesn't arise. The pepper comes out of the BOTTOM of the thing you've just used to grind it. Again, I shall brook no argument on this matter.

One of my favourite kitchen gadgets is my pair of salt/pepper grinders. They're battery powered and look quite like lightsabers. You put black pepper or coarse (ideally pink Himalayan) salt in the transparent receptacle, reassemble, then push the button on the top. A little light illuminates the food so you can see how much you're adding. They're brilliant.