SC - Adjustments, ethical or otherwise

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Catherine Deville wrote:
> 
> And just as an fyi... I rarely add ingredients willy-nilly at the last
> minute... but there have certainly been times that I've had to adjust due
> to necessity.  "that's all I'm sayin' " <s>

Okay, so maybe here we have a chance to get somewhere.

Perhaps we could examine the _kinds_ of adjustments we can make, and the
potential effects of each.

I see them in three basic classes, in ascending order of heinousness:

1. Adjustments to the existing (hopefully posted) ingredients. Say, a
dish containing black pepper needs a bit more than originally planned.
Essential, last-minute re-seasoning.

2. Additions of [relatively] benign substances. If, for example, you've
neglected to mention salt on your list, and add some to a dish, how much
real threat are you posing to someone on a low-sodium diet, given that
meat, fish and many other foods are fairly high in sodium anyway? In
broad terms it probably makes little or no difference. Somewhat less
benign, but still probably harmless, if added in consideration of the
people that have made known health issues, um, known, would be the
little splash of vinegar, or pat of butter, added to take the edge off a
pottage that has acquired a miniscule burnt taste. Yeah yeah yeah, we
all know we never burn anything and wouldn't serve it if we did. However.

3. Wild cards. It needs a dash of peanut butter. Yeah, that would
work... . Nobody mentioned a peanut allergy to me, so it's not my fault.
Except such a person may have read the posted ingredients and determined
there was no need to discuss this with the cooks. As the name suggests,
this could range in effect from saving the dish to the death of a consumer.

One thing I've found helpful, on occasions when I, or someone else less
responsible ("Good news! I added lemon juice, shellfish and almonds to
the salad and it's really good!") has deviated from the posted
ingredients is to simply add a note stating that you reserve the right
to make slight adjustments to the ingredients list, and that anyone with
health issues should please check the list _again_, late in the day, for
updated information. And, of course, you will have made careful  note of
all such adjustments, and added them to your list. Obviously doing this
in the last fifteen minutes or so before service is a Bad Thing.

Adamantius   
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com