The most important flavors of a given preparation are those of its main ingredients. A grilled beef should taste like beef, green beans should taste like green beans, and chicken noodle soup should taste like chicken. Flavors added to a meal should enhance the main ingredient not over take it. Taste buds on the tongue receive four basic sensations: salty, sweet, bitter, and sour. Primary Flavors are supposed to dominate in any dish; other flavors that support and enhance the primary flavors of the main ingredient are Supporting Flavors. Finishing Ingredients like a roux, a cream and egg liaison, lemon juice, nutmeg, and white pepper give the finishing touches to a meal. The roux functions as a thickener and contributes primarily to texture, although the butter in the roux also gives some richness to the flavor. The liaison is used for both texture and flavor, adding richness and creaminess. The acidity of the lemon juice cuts through the richness of the cream and egg yolks, gives a more balanced flavor, and perks up the taste buds. Just enough lemon is used to balance the richness of the cream and egg, not to make the dish taste lemony. And then the smallest amount of nutmeg and white pepper gives a pleasing complexity to the finished taste without adding identifiable flavors. If one of the first things you taste when you eat the meal is nutmeg, then too much nutmeg was added. If the dish was composed well, the primary and supporting flavors along with the finishing ingredients form a wonderful flavor that will excite the taste buds.
Every ingredient should have a purpose. Start with the main ingredients, and then think about what will work with them. Continue to build the flavor, using just the ingredients you need.
Ingredients can work together by harmonizing or by contrasting.
When two ingredients contrast, be sure they balance. Consider not only the ingredients of the single recipe but also other items that will be served with it on the plate. So think of building the flavor profile of the entire plate. Plan sauces, accompaniments, and garnishes to balance, enhance, and contrast with the main item and with each other, just as the flavors in an individual recipe do.
Simpler is usually better, so keep it simple. The more flavors you combine, the harder you have to work to balance them all. Further, the more competing flavors you have, the more you have to make sure that the primary flavors of the main ingredients don’t get lost. Although, many classic dishes from many of the world’s regions have complex flavor profiles, you will find countries like India, China, Jamaica, or Mexico have dishes that use a large number of spices and other flavoring ingredients.
Some Examples Of Classic Flavoring Combinations:
- Sour cream, paprika, caraway (Hungary)
- Sour cream, mustard, dill (Scandinavia)
- Caraway, Onion, Vinegar (Germany)
- Apples, apple cider or apple brandy, cream (France-Normandy)
- Shallot, garlic, parsley (France-Burgundy)
- Tomato, Basil, Olive Oil (Italy)
- Lemon, Oregano (Greece)
- Cinnamon, nuts, honey (eastern and southern Mediterranean, Middle East)
- Ginger, Onion, Garlic(India)
- Fish sauce, lemon grass, chiles(Thailand)
- Ginger, Soy sauce(Japan)
- Soy sauce, sake or mirin, dried bonito(Japan)
- Ginger, garlic, scallion(China)
Seasoning means enhancing the natural flavor of a food without significantly changing its flavor. Flavoring means adding a new flavor to a food, changing or modifying the original flavor.
Seasoning
- The most important time for seasoning liquid foods is at the end of the cooking process. Whether it is written or not the last step in any recipe is to taste it and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
- Salt and other seasonings are also added at the beginning of cooking, particularly for larger pieces of food, when seasonings added at the end would not be absorbed or blended in but just sit on the surface.
- Adding some of the seasoning during the cooking process also helps in evaluating the flavor along the way.
- Do not add much seasoning if it will be concentrated during cooking, as when a liquid is reduced.
Flavoring
- Flavoring ingredients can be added at the beginning, middle, or end, depending on the cooking time, the cooking process, and the flavoring ingredient.
- Only a few flavorings can be added successfully at the end of cooking. These include fresh herbs, sherry or flamed brandy, and condiments like prepared mustard and Worcestershire sauce.
- Most flavorings need heat to release their flavors and time for the flavors to blend. Whole spices take longest. Ground spices release flavors more quickly and don’t require as long a cooking time.
Too much cooking results in loss of flavor. Most flavors, whether in spices or in main ingredients, are volatile, which means they evaporate when heated. That is why you can smell food cooking. If cooking times are short, you can generally add spices and herbs at the beginning or middle of cooking time. If cooking times are long, it is usually better to add them in the middle or toward the end of cooking time. Food safety experts recommend adding dried spices and herbs at least 30minutes before the end of cooking so any microorganisms they might carry will be destroyed.