Salt and pepper

Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings, and is known to uniformly improve the taste perception of food, including otherwise unpalatable food. Its pairing with pepper as table accessories dates to seventeenth-century French cuisine, which considered black pepper (distinct from herbs such as fines herbes) the only spice that did not overpower the true taste of food. Some food writers like Sara Dickerman have argued that, in modern cookery, a new spice could be used in place of the historic ground black pepper. == Other cultures ==

In Hungary, paprika may replace pepper on the dinner table, while in Basque cuisine, Espelette pepper frequently replaces black pepper. == See also ==