The soup mistake I made for a decade before someone told me

For roughly a decade, I added salt to soup only at the very end, tasting and adjusting right before serving — which sounds reasonable and is actually backwards for most long-simmered soups. Salt added early has time to penetrate and season the ingredients themselves, not just the broth; salt added only at the end just sits on the surface of your tongue.

A cook I was staying with corrected me almost as an aside, mid-conversation, clearly assuming I already knew. I didn't. Ten years of soup, mildly under-seasoned in a way I couldn't quite diagnose, because I was tasting broth instead of tasting a fully seasoned dish.

Small correction, large difference. I salt in stages now — early, midway, and a final taste — and every soup since has been better for it.

Related reading: The Home Cook's Guide to Fixing the Small Mistakes That Ruin Good Meals.