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

[stevec67]

Thanks all so far - a wealth of input and experience, appreciated.



What did you use for each of the tastes ?

Table salt, sugar, citric acid and quinine. In tap water.

 

[Del monaco]

Thai food is assembled with this balance in mind. We bought a great book a while ago that itemised combinations and why they worked.Forget it’s name but it gave a good grounding in combining tastes for balance.

 

[stevec67]

Does sea salt taste different from non sea salt (land salt?)
.

Minimally, but yes. All salt was once in the sea. The difference is in levels of trace chemicals.

 

[gintonic]

Table salt, sugar, citric acid and quinine. In tap water.

indeed,if you want more interesting, try different concentrations of say saline. I was once presented with 10 different concentrations of salt dissolved in water, to work out where I could start to sense salt and when it got too overwhelming.

Oh your sense of taste can easily be overwhelmed and get "tired"

 

[gintonic]

ambient light and colour of food can effect taste.

 

[-alan-]

Cool. Just need to find a source for quinine without the tonic water..

On the salt front - brings to mind a little extract from Raymond Blanc's autobiography. One of the calibration exercises he used to give new chefs was exactly that - glasses with five different concentrations of salt, presented at random to see which one the candidate felt was 'right'. Too high a tolerance or preference for salt, he/she was banned from general cooking duties and banished to the pastry and desserts section without further ado

 

[gintonic]

I'm off to lightly pickle some veg to accompany dinner tonight.

Pickling is an interesting case in point, achieving balance of salt, sweet and sour with other flavourings.

 

[Bob McC]

Marmite
Don’t forget marmite.
It’s great for umami..

 

[gintonic]

Marmite
Don’t forget marmite.

absolutely Not just for toast but also for gravy, sauces, stews etc..

along with soy sauce, nam pla, fermented soy bean paste, mushroom ketchup.........

 

[Bob McC]

I must admit there isn’t much savoury food with liquid content in that I cook that doesn’t get a dash of nam pla.
Smells disgusting but adds to the flavour immensely.

 

[gintonic]

I must admit there isn’t much savoury food with liquid content in that I cook that doesn’t get a dash of nam pla.
Smells disgusting but adds to the flavour immensely.

yes i agree, adds a different but equally nice savouriness as worcestershire sauce. The latter has vinegar in it so you need to watch the sour - both are made from fermented fish.

 

[Big Tabs]

ambient light and colour of food can effect taste.

Blue plates have a negative effect I recall from some TV programme. ? Horizon?

(I think it is the association with blue food with food that is ‘off,’ or bad to eat. - there are exceptions...)

I like plain white plates. The Wife and I used to argue about it a lot. We have white plates.

 

[Bob McC]

I don’t mind Worcestershire sauce as long as it’s cooked out.
On its own I find it too domineering.

 

[Bjork67]

Same here cannot abide a roast dinner on a garishly coloured plate. Don't mind a clarris cliff mustard jug.

 

[gintonic]

I don’t mind Worcestershire sauce as long as it’s cooked out.
On its own I find it too domineering.

i agree - apart from a decent dash in a Bloody Mary

 

[mjw]

Steamed Brussels sprouts are good finished with a spoon of Marmite.

 

[Cesare]

I don’t mind Worcestershire sauce as long as it’s cooked out.
On its own I find it too domineering.

Oh, fish sauce is great stuff! My sister in law is Vietnamese and fish sauce gets used widely as far as I can tell. She makes the most amazing and weird salads, involving things like pickled lotus root.

 

[Unregistered]

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking

 

[Thorn]

I'm reading these posts with a great degree of envy. As I've mentioned elsewhere, my tastebuds went some time ago, and are only gradually, and somewhat erratically, coming back. Yesterday I had steak and chips with a peppercorn sauce. My wife said the sauce was quite powerful. I couldn't taste it. Fortunately the bottle of Cahors I had with it got through, although I probably wasn't getting the full picture. The rhubarb crumble that followed as also somewhat tasteless.
Garlic, onion, most cheeses, tomato, all gone. Pizzas are no longer things of delight. Curries are just heat with no flavour. And now I can no longer taste it, my wife puts broccoli on my plate most days.

 

[timH]

Www.spicesontheweb.co.uk
They'll fix you up with anything you want