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'Balance in cooking' - Sweet, sour, salt bitter (not to mention umami) ..

-alan-

-alan-

pfm Member
Have been doing a bit more cooking of late, much to the surprise and amusement of the better half and offspring (mainly amusement it has to be said)

FInding it easy enough to follow recipes, and cooking techniques (well the simpler ones) - but would like to get a bit better understanding of how and why some combinations of ingredients work together better than others. Came across the 'Balance' thing referred to above, and have read a little more on it, but despite being slightly better informed, am little the wiser.

Can anybody steer me towards a layman / idiot's guide to how one actually would actually go about using the principles, and achieve the desired balance in practice ?
 
Start with buying seasonal products. Always. Bacon matches with Sauerkraut matches with potatoes. Somehow. It’s a no-brainer i know, but it’s such an easily forgotten rule.

Go for one flavour and build around it. Forget most of the spices you have, salt and (if needed) pepper is often all you need. Proceed from there, and add one thing at the time. Get to know your products and their properties.

Use less salt than usual. Your better half is often a good reference, let her taste, and try to go by her standards for a while. It’s amazing how many flavours get lost by salting too much.

Always taste what you are cooking. Put some of it on a plate, wait for it to cool down otherwise you won’t taste much, and will make your tongue useless by temporarily burning it. If what you are tasting ‘satisfies’ all parts of your mouth (tongue, palate, front, back, even up your nose) then your meal is balanced and ready, and by all means leave it that way and serve. Everything you add in order to ‘improve it’ will ruin it.

Quit smoking if you do, another no-brainer.

Most books about wine cover extensively the topic of how your tastebuds work (‘if the tip of your tongue doesn’t taste anything, it’s not sweet enough’ is one example). Chances are you’ll find such a book at your local telephone booth.
 
Balance is your taste. If a sauce is too salty add some more of something sweet. Too sweet add some vinegar or wine. Sometimes a sauce or savoury dish just needs a bit of oomph - try a bit more salt or vinegar. Often when you get it right the taste just clicks. Asian food goes for the sweet, sour, salty, spicy. French cooking tries to bring out the flavour of the ingredients so use stock for instance or try to get good combinations so chicken in a garlic mushroom cream sauce etc
 
I began by following recipes because they work. Once I had some familiarity, I started to adapt them to my taste either by adding or subtracting and I still do.

Good cook books save you so much time and wasted effort. My standard is a recipe book from the Milk Marketing Board which I have had for nearly 35 years. The basic recipes are just that but, once you know what you like, are infinitely adaptable.
 
Vinegar is not generally recommended in traditional English cookery... other than for pickling, or putting on chips. However.. it really does help to provide a bit of acidity to cut through excessive sweetness....without using so much salt. I'd avoid 'Malt' vinegar , but a drop of cider/red/white wine vinegar can transform many dishes...as can a splash of Lemon juice...where appropriate. Be more cautious with Lime... as it is more specific in its 'pairings'.
 
timH said:
oomph
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An important factor, this you feel in your throat, and chillies can do that. I’ve settled on using Sambal Oelek, which I dilute with water so it’s easier to measure. Or diluted tabasco. Chilli Powder is tricky as it takes a good while to open up, take that into account when you’re tasting.

Mustard is another way to get more oomph, you Brits do everything right with your Coleman’s.

Lemon juice: bottled stuff is always dreadful, I press fresh lemons and keep the juice in the freezer, in ice cube portions. Works for me.
 
As others have said, read recipes, follow them. You will work out what works. Pork and apple. Cabbage and cured pork. Citrus and oily fish. Eggs and cream. Then when you have a few references you can riff around that. Just have fun. Not very much is an absolute failure. I must say however that grapefruit in oily fish dishes doesn't work. Some things are just out there on their own. Omelettes are great. So is wine. Right, now choose a nice wine with an omelette.
 
I am finding I can put small amounts of chilli into a dish and it gives it a bit more depth. Certainly not enough to taste though.
As mentioned, mustard is a great addition that adds something. Again, not much.


@Cheese gave excellent advice about tasting food. I take a bit out and put it in a small dish and wait for it to cool. Nothing worse than burning your tongue. I often ask The Wife to taste food as she has a better nose than I do.
 
keep it simple at first, few ingredients, adding flavouring slowly. we prefer small plates of food, a couple each for a meal.
what is important is to know what clashes, there are many online guides
 
Does sea salt taste different from non sea salt (land salt?)

Anyone had any good experiences with those ready made spice mixes you see in supermarkets? Things like “Perfect Shake Moroccan seasoning” “Italian Sauce Seasoning” etc. And then there’s things like “celery salt”

pre Covid I used to buy a couscous mix from Nice market, and I miss it. If anyone knows a good couscous mix, please say.

Any discussion of seasoning must mention Worcestershire Sauce.

When I lived in Crete people would use dried oregano as a seasoning, it would be on the table with the oil and salt. I used to be able to get good Lebanese oregano, but no longer. If anyone has a source of it, please say!

Another seasoning I like is za’atar - which I have even seen ready mixed on supermarket shelves. The ready mixed ones I tried years ago were too salty for me so I would mix my own.
 
When I ran gin tastings, I used to talk about understanding how to taste, and being able to identify the individual tastes first. What you taste depends on many factors. Firstly, realising that about 70-80% of taste is down to our sense of smell. Also the amount of various types of taste buds we have in our mouth and how many of them dictate what we taste. What might be balanced to one person might be horrible to others. Lastly colour of food has an impact on what we might taste by association.

You need to understand the differences between each taste sensation, and how to identify each individually before you can understand balance.

I used to start gin tastings with 4 small glasses of colourless liquid, sweet, sour, bitter and salty, I asked clients to taste whilst holding their nose, and then without. Many people actually struggle to identify bitter and some cannot distinguish bitter and sour.
 
mandryka said:
Does sea salt taste different from non sea salt (land salt?)
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yes

mandryka said:
Anyone had any good experiences with those ready made spice mixes you see in supermarkets? Things like “Perfect Shake Moroccan seasoning” “Italian Sauce Seasoning” etc. And then there’s things like “celery salt”
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make your own

mandryka said:
couscous mix
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what is that? All my experience of couscous in North Africa, suggests it is typically flavoured by stocks or water, oil, salt depending on what you are serving it with. What is a cous cous mix
 
Thanks all so far - a wealth of input and experience, appreciated.

gintonic said:
You need to understand the differences between each taste sensation, and how to identify each individually before you can understand balance.

I used to start gin tastings with 4 small glasses of colourless liquid, sweet, sour, bitter and salty, I asked clients to taste whilst holding their nose, and then without. Many people actually struggle to identify bitter and some cannot distinguish bitter and sour.
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What did you use for each of the tastes ?
 
My understanding is that all cooking traditions have their own idea of balance, and this is what makes different world cuisine so different from each other. At some level, they all work, but you have to get educated in the taste in order to understand the balance. This adjustment happens both ways around - you adjust to the balance of the food, and the food if it's been imported into a different country is adjusted for the expectations of that countries palate. This is why a UK curry house doesn't taste like curry in India for example.

Now if you want to develop your own taste and style, it's helpful I think to be selective and work on one cuisine - I don't think being able to make a great beef wellington will aid you in creating an indonesian fish curry for example.

Oh, and the main thing is be prepared to make mistakes. If you don't end up with something you dislike every once in a while you're playing safe and not trying hard enough :)
 
Cooking courses can help in understanding balance in the context of a type of cuisine. I have been on several courses in Spain, here in the UK and Thailand, India and Indonesia- they all help providing the building blocks, but they dont really help in understanding how to taste, and identify characteristics.

In the gin tastings, there were three types of people, a group that knew instinctively how to taste and recognise, another group who with some practice can learn to taste, and another that just couldn't.

Tasting needs constant practice. With a lot of practice, I used to be able to identify all or at least most of the botanical in an unidentified gin. I doubt I could do that today.
 
gintonic, deleted my post as it was inappropriate, so would you mind deleting your quote, too?

Thanks
 
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