Wednesday, October 08, 2008 11:26 AM
Experimenting with flavor combinations?
We’ve all tried some seemingly oddball flavor pairing. Honey and blue cheese. Salty pretzels and ice cream. Bacon and peanut butter. Beef and caramel. Tuna and grapefruit. What makes ‘em work? In theory, the trick to pairing two (or more) unlikely ingredients is finding foods that have at least one volatile compound in common. Whatever that means.
Deconstructing ingredients and making unique and bizarre flavor pairings might seem like the stuff of Top Chef and molecular gastronomy—with their anti-griddles and vaporizers—but for home cooks like us there are simpler ways to play with food. A light went on the first time I tasted strawberries drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Sweet and rich, with a tinge of tart, the combination turned average, out-of-season strawberries into a plate-licking dessert. How could two seemingly unmatched ingredients come together to create such an unexpected, incredible flavor? (And, I wondered, how could I make that happen more often?)
Enter: The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, authors of the bestselling What to Eat with What to Drink. Among other things, it’s an encyclopedia of flavor affinities. Entries on hundreds of ingredients—herbs and spices, seafood, meat, cheeses, nuts, veggies, fruits—are cross-referenced with classic and unusual flavor combinations.
Think about the possibilities…you’ve got asparagus in the refrigerator, but zero inspiration for what to do with it. Flip to the entry:
Almonds, anchovies, artichokes, basil, bay leaf, beets, bread crumbs, brown butter, unsalted butter, capers, caraway seeds, carrots, cayenne, cheese (chevre, Fontina, goat, Muenster, Parmesan, Pecorino, ricotta, Romano), chervil, chives, crab, heavy cream, crème fraiche, dill, eggs and egg dishes, fava beans, French cuisine, garlic, ginger, ham, hollandaise sauce, Italian cuisine, leeks, lemon, lemon thyme, lime, lobster…
You get the picture. And that’s barely half of the list.
Want a copy of the book? I’ve got one to give away. Post or link to your best, bizarre-food-pairing recipe in Comments, and I'll pick a winner.
(Also, if you’re into molecular gastronomy and playing with food, I highly recommend blog.khymost.org’s They Go Really Well Together (TGRWT) events. Recent events paired ingredients like cauliflower and cocoa, and bananas and clove.)