COOKING with FLAVOURS – an INTUITIVE way to cook
Take a spoonful of sugar. Take two. Or even three. Nice? Not really. Or not even at all! But combine that sweetness with something bitter (say coffee) and it transforms into something delicious. Merge sickly-sweet meringues with something tart like raspberries and both sweet and sour come into their own. Unite sweet peaches with salty feta, add a little peppery bitterness in the form of rocket, some sourness in the form of vinaigrette, and you have discovered a gem..
So how and why does cooking with flavours work? Well, it’s all to do with the way we taste. Our taste buds perceive five basic flavours – sweet, salt, sour, hot and bitter – six if you count the more recently added umami, a flavour perhaps best described as savoury, an intense ‘mouth-filling’ taste you get with dried ceps/porcini or soy sauce, Parmesan and Roquefort cheese and that delicious savoury stickiness that’s left on the bottom of a pan after frying chicken. Umami causes us to salivate, which magnifies our tasting ability.
Ancient ways…
The Chinese are said to have first started cooking by combining various complementary flavours… . They found that when a dish contains a harmonious balance of some or all of these basic tastes, we perceive it as delicious because each flavour is intensified by the next and all our taste buds are satisfied at once – a bit like an Impressionist painting where complementary colours put side-by-side, create a deliciously vibrant effect. You can also compare it to the melodious bond of different notes and sounds that intensify each other in a sensual piece of music..
Each flavour in some way affects our perception of another – even a tiny amount of one can enhance another flavour in a miraculous way. Try some bread topped with jam – then taste it after you’ve buttered the bread generously with salty butter – the mingling of salty, sweet and crunchy has turned something simple into a delicacy! Try a little squeeze of lime on a relatively dull-sweet papaya and it instantly turns it into a juicy fruit that oozes fresh sweetness. Think also of chocolate, crème brulée or caramel – all are fashionably partnered with fleur de sel these days.
All about taste…
Start experimenting with well-known classics to prove the point… See for instance how salty raw Parma or Jamón Serrano accentuates the sweetness of a melon, or how the ubiquitous combination of sweet-and-sour (think tomato ketchup, a Chinese takeaway, gooseberry jam or a lemon tart) makes our mouths water. Don’t stop there, taste how a glass of fragrant sweet Muscat wine or sweet juicy pears bring out the delicious umami-saltiness of blue Roquefort cheese. How come orange marmalade is such a winner? Because it combines both the bitterness and the acidity of an orange with sweetness of sugar – you cannot loose..
Once you become familiar with these ‘pairings’ you can start substituting one ingredient for another – replacing the sweetness of a melon by a fig or peach; and the saltiness of ham with feta cheese. It’ll be fun to do – you’ll see!
Since flavours affect one another, they can also be used to alter a dish. Add freshness to an overly rich creamy pork dish by adding the juice of a lemon. The ‘mouth-puckering’ sensation of drinks that are high in tannin like red wine or strong tea (cranberries, unripe bananas and walnuts are other examples) can have a refreshingly ‘cleansing’ effect by cutting right through the richness of something that might otherwise be cloying. See how the acidity of a lime lifts the sweet blandness of squid or how a dull sponge cake is brought to life with lemon or orange juice. While bitterness both suppresses and balances sweetness (as bitter chocolate does with rich vanilla ice-cream) whereas saltiness on the other hand can have a sweetening effect on its partner – as salty Serrano ham is to a sweet fig, or anchovies achieve with a sweet pepper… The possibilities are endless! And once we understand the principles of combining complementary flavours and apply them, our cooking and eating becomes a great deal more exciting.