He swings a pot out of the fire and smells it. Then he lifts out the ladle and tastes. He is not quite pleased. He reaches to a cupboard, takes a pinch of salt, and drops it into the pot. As he is tasting again, her footsteps are heard on the stair. He swings the pot into the fireplace and goes to a basin and washes his hands and face. Elizabeth enters.
– Arthur Miller
The Crucible, Act 2. The act opens with stage directions describing John Proctor’s arrival home from a hard day’s work on the farm to a dinner made by his wife Elizabeth. The stew cooking in the pot is a metaphor for the Proctors’ unfulfilled and incomplete marriage. John is not happy not happy with the stew, so he adds salt to it. This happens out of the view of Elizabeth.