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Why do we say 'salt to taste' and don't say 'salt according to taste' or 'salt for taste'?

Heartspring
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Pratyaksh Sharma
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    Because people like to shorten things when they can. – Mynamite Jun 02 '15 at 14:42
  • @Mynamite but doesn't it sound awkward? – Pratyaksh Sharma Jun 02 '15 at 14:44
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    @Pratyaksh: It's no more "awkward" than a work-to-rule, which is a lot less trouble than the union representative calling on the men to support a work according to [the] rule [book]. – FumbleFingers Jun 02 '15 at 14:47
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    Well...... only if you're not accustomed to it, as is clearly your case. But it sounds perfectly normal to me. See Yohann's answer - this is what people understand by the phrase. – Mynamite Jun 02 '15 at 14:47
  • @Mynamite Yeah I know that you're accustomed to it and even I am too accustomed to it but then also I was just relating it to the phrase 'salt according to your taste' and it sounded awkward to my ears with respect to that and hence a question popped out in my mind and I just asked it. – Pratyaksh Sharma Jun 02 '15 at 14:52
  • You can also have something adjusted to your preference (or adjusted to suit* your preference*), where adjusted according* to your preference* does occur, but is significantly less common. – FumbleFingers Jun 02 '15 at 15:31
  • @FumbleFingers I guess you can write thesis on it. Am I right? By the way thank you very much. – Pratyaksh Sharma Jun 02 '15 at 15:47
  • @Pratyaksh: I will admit I was scraping the bottom of the barrel to come up with even those two "similar" usages (I can't think of any others in common use). And I spent a few minutes searching online for variants and/or syntactic analysis, so I suspect if anyone has written a thesis about it, they never uploaded their work anywhere Google can find it. In short - it's not a very "productive" feature of English, which probably explains why nobody seems to have analysed it in detail. – FumbleFingers Jun 02 '15 at 16:00
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    Salt: v 1. To add, treat, season, or sprinkle with salt. [ AHDEL] // to taste [phrase] 3 According to personal liking: add salt and pepper to taste [ Oxford Dictionaries] – Edwin Ashworth Jun 02 '15 at 16:54
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    Why is it worded that way? ..There's no accounting for taste. – ipso Jun 02 '15 at 17:17
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    If you have written a hundred times in a cook book "Salt according to taste" you'll have the idea to say it shorter. "Salt to taste" in a cookbook won't be misunderstood. – rogermue Jun 02 '15 at 17:49
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    I remember being puzzled as a child to see '[Add] salt to taste' on the label of a peanut butter jar. I thought it meant that you must add salt to give it any flavour, but my mum explained that it meant 'You may add salt if you think it needs some'. – Kate Bunting Jul 11 '21 at 07:15

3 Answers3

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It is a shortcut for

salt [according] to [your] taste

Transversal post : http://www.thekitchn.com/food-science-salting-to-taste-49868

Yohann V.
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The preposition to has long had the meaning "in accordance with". There are attestations from Old English all the way up to the current day.

It was built to spec.

taste refers to individual preference or liking (see, e.g., M-W taste noun #4). This meaning goes back to Middle English (as it enters English from medieval French).

salt has been a verb since Old English (sealtan).

So the imperative construction means "Apply salt in accordance with individual preference".

TimR
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It's obviously a deleted form.

The only evidence that I can think of that the word 'Add' (salt being the noun) has not been dropped from an original is that the parallel

'Dilute to taste'

is also used. However, there is an argument for the contrary:

'Spices (to taste)'

is used, and 'Add' must have been deleted here.

Again,

What does "salt and pepper, to taste" mean?

is found at the Reluctant Gourmet, and using 'pepper' as a verb in this domain is very rare.

Edwin Ashworth
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    But salt, dilute and even season are verbs (or can be). Spices isn't, or at least not in this context (you could say "he spices up every meal he cooks by adding..." but then the verb is spices up. – Chris H Jun 02 '15 at 17:18
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    @ChrisH So Chris now i know that you're trying to say that here salt is treated as a verb similar to season or sprinkle. Right? – Pratyaksh Sharma Jun 02 '15 at 17:59
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    @PratyakshSharma, that's how I read it. It makes the instruction a sentence with a verb rather than a fragment, so I believe that's how many recipe writers see it as well (the ones that generally write in full sentences at least). – Chris H Jun 02 '15 at 19:51
  • -1 Sorry, Edwin. I normally find myself agreeing with most things you write, but not this time. – TimR Aug 20 '23 at 17:40