And a Crash Course on
Flavor Adjustment
With the year
coming to an end and bloggers and TV personalities bombarding everyone with
elaborate Christmas and New Year dinner menus, it’s time to go back to the
basics. Sometimes no matter how diligently you follow a recipe, something still
goes wrong and the flavor is off. Luckily there is a way to nip potential problems
in the bud, and it comes down to one very simple trick:
TASTE YOUR FOOD
That’s right,
taste your food.
Taste your salad
dressing before putting on your salad. Taste your marinade before pouring it
over your meat. Taste your frosting before spreading it on your cake. Taste your
sauce before adding it to your pasta.
If you don’t like the taste, neither will
your guests.
Trust your
palate. You’ve had good food before and you’ve had bad food. You know when something
is too salty or too sweet or too spicy or too acidic or too rich.
If you feel the
flavor of your food is lacking, adjust it according to the basic flavors: sweet, salty, fatty/richness, acidic,
spicy, and umami (that meaty flavor you find in cooked mushrooms, meat, and
soy sauce).
You adjust by adding an ingredient with
one of those flavors, A LITTLE AT A TIME, to your food.
Here are some
examples of what you can use.
SWEET
Sugar, Brown Sugar, Honey, Maple Syrup,
Molasses, Corn Syrup, Agave
Liquid
sweeteners will mix into liquids like marinades and sauces better than powdered
ones, especially if the liquid you’re mixing it into is warm or hot. Powdered
sweeteners like sugar will give something more liquidy like a runny frosting
some bulk and substance.
Some sweeteners
like Maple Syrup, Brown Sugar and Molasses have stronger flavors than plain
sugar so be mindful of that when choosing what to add, and remember that brown
sugar is a little acidic.
SALTY
Table Salt, Sea Salt, Kosher Salt.
You can even get
flavored salts like smoked salt, but if you’re a beginner, the ones listed here
are safe bets.
FATTY/RICHNESS
Olive Oil, Butter, Margarine, Ghee
(clarified butter), Bacon Fat, Greek Yogurt, Sour Cream, Table or Whipping
Cream
Oils, butter,
and fatty dairy products are great ways to add richness to a dish. Like the
sweeteners, some like Olive Oil, Butter, and Bacon Fat have stronger flavors
than others.
ACIDIC
White Vinegar, Red Wine Vinegar, White
Wine Vinegar, Balsamic Vinegar, Lemon Juice, Lime Juice
Some of these
are stronger than others, so keep that in mind when deciding what to add.
SPICY
Hot Sauce i.e. Sriracha, Frank’s Red Hot,
Tabasco, Cayenne Pepper, Chili Flakes, JalapeƱos, Habaneros
Some sources of
spiciness are stronger than others and if you plan to use raw chillies like
Jalapenos or Habanero peppers ALWAYS USE GLOVES AND NEVER TOUCH YOUR EYES DIRECTLY
AFTER HANDLING THEM. Remember that leaving the seeds in the pepper will double
the spiciness factor in any dish as the membrane that connects the seed to the
flesh is the hottest part.
If you use a
liquid hot sauce, smell it before adding it as some hot sauces are more acidic
and others have a smokey taste to them, the scent of the sauce will usually be
enough to tell.
UMAMI
Soy Sauce, Worcestshire Sauce, Tomato
Paste, Miso Paste
Miso is the
funkiest tasting of the three and doesn’t react as well to heat. Tomato paste
needs to be cooked a little in a dish after it’s added to purge the canned
taste. Add these VERY sparingly as they can also be very salty.
These can not
only boost your food, but also cancel out or help to neutralize an overly
dominant flavor in a dish.
Salt, Umami, or
Acidity will neutralize blandness.
Sweetness and
Richness will help neutralize spiciness.
Richness can
also neutralize acidity and saltiness.
Acidity will
help neutralize richness.
Spiciness will
give your food an extra kick.
TASTE YOUR FOOD
AND ADJUST AS NEEDED.
It might be just
the thing to turn something boring into something extraordinary.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
EVERYONE!
-Samantha R. Gold
Questions? Comments? Requests?
Bring it on!
I can be reached at: for.the.culinarily.challenged@gmail.com
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