Understanding
how to combine and balance flavors is an incredibly important cooking concept,
and it’s especially evident in Asian food. Almost every feature Asian dish is
like a jelly pearl – the first bite comes with bursting flavors on the tongue.
One obvious example is the curry, which has greasy sweet taste of coconut milk,
pure sweetness of sugar, umami taste of fish sauce, barely warm and charming
herbs, and irresistible sourness of a piece of lime. All those taste has
blended together and made a perfect balance of the dish.
Sometimes,
we have followed recipes but finished dishes still seem not right. They can be
lack of sweet or salty, meaning the balance has not been made. By understanding
regular spices right in the kitchen, we can adjust and fix those problems
without taking any professional class.
Let’s
start with a star of flavors.
If
a flavor balances another flavor, it means it counteracts or offsets that
flavor to achieve an even more harmonious taste. For example, spice balances
sweet and sweet balances spice. It’s why southern sweet and sour soup usually
takes even spoons of fish sauce and sweet; or in Thai hot pot, we can use more
sugar to reduce the spicy taste of chili.
Flavors
can also enhance each other. If you look at the Flavor Star, you see that salty
enhances sweet and vice versa. This is why there are sea salt caramels or sea
salt chocolate chip cookies. That light addition of saltiness actually
amplifies the sweetness of those caramels and cookies.
If
you keep this Flavor Star handy, you can learn how to create more dynamic
flavors, rescue dishes that have been overly flavored, and also how to amplify
certain flavors.
Salty/ Umami
We’re
lumping salty and umami together because they share a lot of the same characteristics.
If you ever end up with a bland dish, the likely issue is that it’s just
under-seasoned.
Standing
in kitchens long enough, we will understand that under-seasoned dish is the
most common mistake made by the show’s contestants, who are all professional
chefs. Even experienced chefs would consider twice when dealing with strange
ingredients. However, once we understand the relationship between savory and
the other 4, we will be more confident to save dishes lacked of saltiness.
The
most obvious choice is salt but indeed, we have dozens other ingredients to
enhance the umami of dishes. Instead of salt, we can use soy sauce or fish
sauce for broth, use parmesan cheese for western food, or salted butter to
sauté vegetables as side dishes. Some ingredients themselves have savory taste,
we just need to use the other flavors to enhance it up.
Sweetness
Sweet
taste is not as simple as candies or desserts. In fact, a combination between
sweetness and sourness/saltiness/bitterness/(even) pungency is always much more
delicious and impressive.
Sweetness
is always the main element in sauces and dipping sauces since in general,
sweetness can balance out all the other four. A full spoon of mild sweet sauce
can save an over/under-seasoned dish, as well as enhance the main flavors. We
might say sweetness is the last drop to complete a balance dish.
Naturally
sweet ingredients such as corns, sweet yams, carrots, daikon, or peas just need
a direct saltiness to make their sweetness bolder and more impressive.
Sourness
In
general, sourness is an annoying condiment because it has too many tones. There
are mild sourness with a hint of acridness from young leaves, russet sourness
from wild leaves to for sour soup (especially with chicken), harsh yet
extremely aromatic sourness from apple cider vinegar, and also smooth adorable
sourness from ripe pickled mustard.
Each
tone of sourness is only used for one or some specific dishes, such as tom yum
hot pot must have sour tamarind but not sour star fruits. It’s really
complicated but no one can deny the stimulating effects of sourness to both
gustative and olfactory receivers.
Sourness
can balance sweetness and spice out. That’s why some drops of sour liquid
always make better taste.
Bitterness
Typically,
you don’t want to add bitter to your meals, but if you do, according to the
Flavor Star, you should use it to balance out salty or sweet flavors. Human
instinct considers bitterness as toxins so the majority can’t bare bitter food
as dark chocolate, black coffee, beer, or bitter melon. However, if you like
it, you’ll be addicted to it. That’s the bitter truth.
Somehow
the bitter food usually has surprisingly uses. Most of them can help increase
the ability of digestive system while theobromine (C7H8N4O2) in cocoa or
caffeine in coffee can stimulate the nervous system, help to stay awake and
also reduce stress.
The
bitterness can be balanced out by sweetness or saltiness. Therefore, naturally
bitter ingredients as bitter melon, kale, or endive lettuce just need a pinch
of sweet, salty, or even sour seasonings to be perfect.
Spiciness
Even
though the flavor star shows that spiciness can be balanced out by sweetness
and sourness, in fact it is playing a specific role in the balance of a dish,
called a highlight.
Spicy
taste from hot peppers/chili is a compound of capsaicin (C18H27NO3), which
stimulates heat receptors and pain in the mouth such as burning sensation and
pain. Receiving that signal, the body’s nervous system quickly releases
endorphins to relieve pain in response, creating a calm and comfort feeling.
This may explain why spicy foods are so addictive. Another non-hot spicy taste
is peppermint. Its essential oil, instead, brings cool feeling, helps to wake
up the nervous system, and create a sense of wellbeing. All these feelings
really increase the taste of food up.
The
truth is someone’s appetite can be others’ worst horror – just as Vietnamese
durian. Tastes are absolutely subjective and individualistic, affected by tons
of inner and outer elements. Moreover, our taste receivers have always changed;
therefore, once we understand roles and relationships among the big basic 5,
we’ll have the elementary of how to balance both familiar and new dishes and
we’ll be much more confident to create our own dishes.
By Thu Pham