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TASTE

the Mixology of Flavor and Food

Is food love or is it necessity? Food is simple. It’s fuel for your body, of course. But because of the twists and turns in the personality of taste it becomes a higher subject matter. It’s personal, it’s emotional – even controversial. Just search the internet for diets…no sugar, no carbs, paleo, you know all the names of eating plans. It’s a firestorm of information. It could leave anyone at a loss about what to eat. Is it bad or good? Why do I sometimes crave bad things, but wait – which diet says which food, fat, sugar, etc., is bad or good? No wonder eating plans and diets are such a huge billion dollar industry.

Now, stop for a minute, eat a fresh apple from the garden or a sun-ripened cucumber. It’s pure and fresh and based solely on nature’s own flavorings. We like to eat food when it tastes good – bottom line. It’s satisfying and fills some inner need, whether it’s emotional or to regulate our blood sugar. But it tastes good and that’s the point.

MYSTERIOUS MIXOLOGY

Why do some foods taste better after we season them? It comes down to the natural mixology of combining scent and taste. Take any recipe for a main dish and note the ingredients. It typically begins with a main ingredient like a meat or a vegetable. The next things listed in the recipe are about adding flavor: the salt, the pepper, the spices. The flavor mix becomes important to that main ingredient, turning something ordinary into a culinary delight. Otherwise it is just a simple cut of meat or a plain vegetable. When fragrant, flavorful ingredients are added they begin to meld and mingle and create aroma. It gets your taste buds watering for a bite.

THE SCIENCE OF TASTE

Oh, those crazy taste buds. This reminds me of biology class in grade school. There was a big drawing of a tongue divided into sections, showing bitter taste bud receptors in the back, sour and salt receptors on the sides and sweet in the front. I remember thinking about it when I tried to swallow a nasty-flavored medicine: Just get it past the taste buds in the back (or sides), then I don’t have to taste it. It didn’t always work. Since then, that old theory of the taste map has been debunked by studies showing that the quality of taste is not restricted to any single area of the tongue, but that all areas of the mouth contain sensors for all kinds of taste. With that understanding, it’s even more important to know how we mix flavors together so they are desirable – so when food hits those different receptors it’s pure mixology.

The taste of food is about the blending of sweet, sour, salty and bitter in ways that stimulate our taste buds. So how do we approach seasoning food? Interesting question with no right or wrong answer. It is more about an individual taste on the tongue. People perceive flavor differently. My taste is different from yours. I don’t like spicy heat; I feel it deadens how food tastes in my mouth – yet I know some who say the hotter the chili pepper or spice in a dish, the better. That’s fine. There’s room in the flavoring universe for everyone.

PLANT-BASED SEASONINGS

To season food, you need to use a mix of herbs and spices balanced with other elements like oil or vinegar that can be added to a dish to enhance the flavor. Note the word enhance; not overpower, change or replace, but enhance. It’s adding something to ordinary food to make it taste yummy, or yummier. In our craving for something to eat, it is usually the seasoning that you are craving – the lemon, the pepper, the salt: the seasoning. And it’s how we flavor ordinary food that can be as exciting as the main dish we cook.

When you make your own mixes, you are the quality control expert. Growing and harvesting herbs from your garden gives you control over freshness of the ingredients. You control the source. Blending your own seasonings also allows you to choose ingredients to meet dietary needs like gluten-free, sugar-free or salt restricted. Once you grow and use your own herbs you will never look at store-bought the same way again. Realistically, though, you probably won’t be growing every herb or spice mentioned in this book, so for seasoning ingredients that you do purchase, choose sustainably sourced and organic ingredients; they will give you the highest quality and best flavor.

Start in the garden. Grow your favorite herbs. Grow them because you like the flavor, then let your taste buds be your guide. Get up-close and personal with the plants in your garden, their flavors and fragrance. Take a leaf…taste it, smell it, rub the leaf until the oils release on your fingers. You quickly learn to recognize the flavor personality of each one: the pungent herbs like rosemary, where a little measure of fresh rosemary as seasoning goes a long way – or the subtler herbs like marjoram that will smell slightly sweet, yet distinct, like its close relative oregano. Marjoram is so subtle that you will find it in recipes where other spices and herbs won’t overpower it. All those aromatics connect back to flavor.

GET TO KNOW THE FLAVOR OF HERBS

In basic recipes that call for a specific herb, you might want to experiment or add more unique flavorings. The best way to do that is to become familiar with the taste and how it blends with other things. The following is a sampler of herbs you are probably already familiar with. How would you put in words the flavor of your favorite herb? This would be a moment I wish these pages were scratch and sniff.

BASIL: a clove-like, anise flavor. Very strong with recognizable pungency.

CHIVES: delicate onion taste. Can be overpowered by strong flavored herbs, so it is best to use as a single herb in recipes to enjoy the oniony flavor.

CILANTRO: strong, lemony-lavender taste. Unique and easily lingers its aroma into other ingredients.

DILL: light, familiar smell of pickles. Delicate flavor, very distinct fragrance.

MARJORAM: mellower, sweeter version of oregano. Can be used as a substitute for parsley or oregano in recipes.

MINT: potent, cool and refreshing. Adds a note of sweetness on the tongue.

OREGANO: strong, aromatic, familiar flavor in Italian cooking.

PARSLEY: mild taste. The flat-leaved variety is more flavorful. Good for adding color in recipe mixes.

ROSEMARY: pine-like taste that holds up strong in cooking and roasting.

SAGE: dry, earthy flavor, familiar in poultry stuffing.

THYME: pungent flavor with an earthy, lemon-peel aroma. Can be used in place of oregano or rosemary.

IN THE GARDEN

Think of your garden as a flavor producer. We know what a fresh vine-ripened tomato tastes like or a fresh-picked strawberry popped in your mouth. The next level of flavor in the garden comes from the parts of the plants we use as seasonings: the leaves, stems and seeds. Essential oils in the plant tissues give off pungent and sweet flavorings. That’s where herbs come in. Herb plants grown in the garden are loaded with fragrance. Essential oils can be in the entire plant from the leaves, stems, seeds and right down to the roots. These micro droplets of oil in the plants are made up of chemical combinations that create distinct fragrance and flavor. Nature is a wonderful alchemist.

Let’s take a peek at Nature’s science at work:

BASIL: In that simple basil leaf you throw in pesto there is camphor, estragole, eugenol, plus a few others. Those components combine to create basil’s distinct scent. You often hear basil’s flavor described as clove-like. The small, woody seed pod that we know as the spice clove is also heavy in eugenol, so our nose smells that similarity that connects the aroma and flavor back to basil.

MINT: Fresh mint leaves can have up to 70% menthol in their natural oil. Menthol is a stimulant and causes a sensation of cold in the mouth and on the skin. (The mint in that mojito or mint julep is actually chilling the alcohol for you.) Another bit of flavor magic: Mint alone can be a bit stinging on the tongue because of the high percentage of menthol. But adding sweet flavor to it takes away the sting.

TARRAGON, STAR ANISE, FENNEL:

Sometimes there are higher percentages of certain organic components that are also in other plants, causing us to smell or taste something similar in two or more herbs – like the licorice taste of tarragon, anise star and fennel. It is the organic compound estragole which is an isomer of anethole. Both have the familiar aroma and are commonly found in plants that taste like licorice. The balance that sets it all apart is that fennel is sweeter in its licorice flavor because it has less of the pungency of estragole than tarragon.

LAVENDER AND LEMON: One of the best examples of how the chemical similarities of plants can affect the flavor of food is the mixing of lavender with lemon. Lavender can be a bit medicinal in taste because of the high camphor notes in the plant’s essential oil components. It is earthy, almost a bit musty in flavor. Lemon is high in limonene, which gives us that tart, sour bite on the tongue. Most lavenders (based on the soil they are grown in) have a small percentage of the same component of lemons (limonene). So, there is a small thread of taste and aroma relationship that can enhance each other. Adding lemon to lavender tones down the mustiness and pungency of the camphor, making some culinary lavenders taste sweeter. The acidity of lemon or lime also kicks up flavor when herbs have been simmered or lost some of their flavor strength after harvesting.

Aromatherapists know this by way of healing with essential oils. Mixing one oil with another makes each plant’s healing qualities better. But it’s important to know the characteristics of each and how they work together. And so it is the same with culinary blending.

TOO MUCH, TOO LITTLE, OR JUST RIGHT?

In culinary blending, mixing salt, vinegars and other strong bases with herbs can enhance the better side of them, or it can go so far as to destroy their flavor. Call it a delicate balance, something you learn very quickly when you’ve added way too much cilantro or rosemary to something. You’ve kicked in too much of those essential oils that overpower the taste buds. Fun stuff, really.

Why talk about this in a simple herb flavor book? It’s all about mixology and not just throwing this plant with that plant and hoping vinegar makes it better. Take a second look at some of your favorite herbs and what it is you like about them. Sweet? Then they can be used in desserts or fruity infused waters. Spicy hot? Use them in rich meat dishes, sauces, heavy vegetables and meat-based stews. Get to know your favorite herbs and think about the base flavors you are tasting. Becoming familiar with a single herb will help you blend and mix it to your personal taste with other things for a culinary adventure.

I just find it fascinating how those simple plants we call herbs are real powerhouses of flavor. So why not capture that fresh, pure flavor of herbs from the garden and use it to season our food?

Let the mixology begin!