I love Josh’s anti-classism so much. I grew up in a single parent household that didn’t have time/the ability to cook. I taught myself as an adult and ended up loving it. I cook with this stuff a lot. Shit, the RealLemon juice ends up in a lot of my cocktails. Sure, I like fancy ingredients when I can afford them and I have things I get picky about using - but I have bad hands, mincing garlic is painful as fuck. There’s a lot to be said for knowing how to work with what you have. Don’t shame people for trying, don’t shame people for feeding their families things that they enjoy.
^ Yes, true, all this.
A small addendum I’m going to make, in the event that you need to buy all four of these and have enough money to splurge on a higher-quality version of only one of them, go for a fancier salt. Inexpensive lemon juice still has that fresh, citrusy taste, pre-crumbled parm just needs an extra shake or two for that full flavour, and garlic is frankly OP in all of its forms. Non-iodized salt, however, has a slightly-ranging-to-much stronger salty taste because of its composition, so less will go as far or farther than iodized salt, and it’s a little bit easier for your body to absorb (and having enough salt is important in making sure you can stay hydrated). Salt’s a major beast of labor in cooking and baking both, and it will tag-team with all your other ingredients to elevate them as well.
This said, ‘iodized salt’ is called that because it contains iodine - a trace mineral that our bodies very much need but can’t make on their own, so we have to get it from our food - and having it in your salt is a great way to do that! Iodized salt is great for everyday cooking and has its own health benefits as I mentioned, and non-iodized salt is great for making a special dish or bake extra good, or for mixing things up in the kitchen from time to time. And, as a bonus, non-iodized salt has an infinite shelf life (iodized salt is good for about five years), so it’s totally reasonable to buy a jar of it, put it in an aesthetic jar on your counter or in the cupboard, and only use it from time to time, while keeping a shaker of iodized salt full to the brim and on-hand for every day use.
(apologies for the mini-deluge, I tend to run low-sodium, so I have a surprising number of feelings about salt)
I'm kind of delighted to see someone else call it "shaky cheese," actually?
