How can I say “there was already a lot of salt in the meat”? In a restaurant I asked for dry fried green beans (干煸豆角) with no salt.  The woman was very kind and asked if hot peppers are okay (yes) and when she told the cook I heard her say don’t add salt.  When they came though they had very much salt.  Delicious but I should not eat that.  She said they had not added salt, which was true in a way.  But of course the cook had made up the peppers-and-meat seasoning at the start of the day.  It had a lot of salt in it.  

I fear I did not explain the problem very well to her, because that past-perfect construction was beyond me.  How can I say “there was already a lot of salt in the meat”?

The people were so kind I want to go back.  But I have to be able to explain this to them.

Henry HO and user6065 give good ideas of what I should have said yesterday in the first place.  And I will use those suggestions in the future at other restaurants. 

But when it happened, the woman was very concerned to say "He did not add any salt."  And I tried to agree "Yes, I know he did not add any.  The meat was already salty."  She really wanted to help me and I wanted to explain that I appreciated that even though the result was too salty for me to eat.

I can easily say I know he did not add any.  The second part is harder for me.
我知道你们没有放盐，但是可能因为肉是腌过的，所以对我来说还是太咸了。这不是你们的错，我仍然非常感谢你们对我的照顾（帮助）。


This translates into:


  I know you did not add salt, but, possibly because the meat was pickled, it was still too salty for me. This is not your fault. I still thank you very much for the care you have shown me.


Hence, this is a polite and considerate way of addressing the issue.