Food pairing

[highchef]

Is anyone familiar with this site? I was looking for a flavor pairing chart (along the lines of the one in "the sweet kitchen") and came across this site. First reaction was "wow!, looks like a site for serious foodies!".... Then I realized that's what we were! Check it out Here

[ChrisTaylor]

The URL is broken. Try this http://www.foodpairing.be/

EDIT

Also, that's cool. Cooking some steaks tonight and I'm surprised to hear they should go alright with white chocolate and smoked salmon. I mean, hazelnut? Sure. Popcorn? Heh. Milk chocolate? Really?

EDIT 2

Seemingly white and milk chocolate go well with everything ...

Edited April 13, 2011 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[gfweb]

any foams?

[ChrisTaylor]

I tried the combination of grilled beef and milk chocolate tonight. Man. Don't try this at home, kids. Curiously, it made the chocolate taste even more like chocolate than a neat chocolate bar. The chocolate flavour dominated the beef. Now maybe you could have some potential for something nice if you used a very small quantity of milk chocolate ... but I don't know what you'd do about that really greasy mouthfeel. That wasn't the sexiest thing I'd ever run over my tongue.

Edited April 13, 2011 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[highchef]

i think this may be too avante guard (spelling?) for me, does require trust on a molecular level. Maybe if I was writing a cookbook I would invest, but I'm not near that....

chris, you are very brave. I'm content to read and speculate!

[nickrey]

Also, that's cool. Cooking some steaks tonight and I'm surprised to hear they should go alright with white chocolate and smoked salmon. I mean, hazelnut? Sure. Popcorn? Heh. Milk chocolate? Really?

Shudder. Don't believe everything you find on the Internet and don't try this at home.

Edited April 14, 2011 by nickrey (log)

[Katie Meadow]

The only way I know of for steak and chocolate to be happily married is to include some unsweetened cocoa in a dry rub for grilling, along with red chile, cumin, paprika, what have you.

Steak and white chocolate should go under a new thread called "two disgusting ingredients." Add smoked salmon to the same plate and that may qualify for the already existing "three disgusting ingredients."

I've never been a big fan of surf 'n' turf meals, but a mouthful of smoked salmon and rare steak seems particularly unappetizing.

[bmdaniel]

Here is a potentially better version of the same idea that just got released:

http://www.foodpairing.com/en/free-trial

[ChrisTaylor]

Hey, I'm willing to give damn near anything a go in the name of science and food. I mean, it's my understanding that these food pairing things--from these dinky Flash-based ones to the really expensive perfume software Heston Blumenthal talks about all the time--suggest combinations that 'could' work based on some arbitrary number of common flavour molecules. Some of the combinations (like, say, white chocolate and caviar) are famous for being surprisingly good friends. Others ... not so much.

Still, I do have Niki Segnit's Flavour Thesaurus coming in the mail. I'll be curious to see if it has, er, better suggestions or if it, too, reckons white and milk chocolate go with everything. I'm interested in that, anyway. I mean, I figure it'd be the fat component, right?

Too, that second food pairing gizmo, it's basically saying spinach and milk chocolate are equally good friends with grilled beef.

[nickrey]

One book that I use quite often for food pairing ideas is the Flavor Bible.

[bostonapothecary]

the creative linkage strategy they use on the site is to create overtones of certain aromas. i just picked up a book about it; "taste buds and molecules: the art and science of food with wine" by francois chartier. the idea is kind of billed as the end all be all of aroma pairing techniques, but i think it is over hyped.

the creation of overtones is just one creative linkage technique among many. if all aromas can be classified in terms of gustation (because of a synaesthesia-like sensory linkage), you can also link aromas from different divisions across olfaction and gustation. (ie. sweet aroma, bitter aroma, but you can also have something like many dry wines... sweet aroma, acid gustation)

two ordinary tones that have the potential to form an overtone can be combined to create the extra-ordinary. extra-ordinary sensoriality is very important to beauty.

cocktails are a good way to illustrate the point. i think its best to prove an avante-garde pairing in a drink (simplified texture) before you try is with textured food.

orange ordinary

2 oz. gin

1 oz. orange liqueur (300g/l sugar)

1 oz. lemon juice

apricot ordinary

2 oz. gin

1 oz. apricot liqueur (300g/l sugar)

1 oz. lemon juice

orange-apricot extra-ordinary

2 oz. gin

.5 oz. orange liqueur

.5 oz. apricot liqueur

1 oz. lemon juice

the orange and apricot create an overtone and because it exists between two known spaces we often find it more compelling. this is very commonly done with aromas that increase the perception of sweetness.

corpse reviver no. 2

1 oz. gin

1 oz. triple-sec orange liqueur

1 oz. lillet

1 oz. lemon juice

spoonful of absinthe

lillet is orange peel aromatized so the triple-sec linkage is almost like alliteration. the result is a spectacular overtone (the aroma of the wine base is also a significant contributor to the overtone). the anise in the absinthe is another aroma that increases the perception of sweetness, but it is perceived as a distinct interval. we like the sensation of these intervals because we are attracted to the space it takes up within the mind's eye when we perceive the drink.

it is harder to create overtones from aromas that decrease the perception of sweetness (it is also hard to classify them) because you usually end up with distinct intervals. an interesting example of an overtone might be the linking of juniper and angelica which is common to gin. the tonality of gin’s drying aromas likely becomes more extra-ordinary when angelica tonally modifies juniper.

besides beautiful overtones we also enjoy the tension between sweet aromas and the anti-sweet, but not everything "works" (is harmonious).

to use a cross sensory analogy, the aroma of smoke (anti-sweet) might be inharmonious with very "light" sweet aromas like muscat, but "darker" aromas like blackberry with the smoke might be harmonious.

margarita

2 oz. blanco tequila

1 oz. orange liqueur

1 oz. lime juice

tequila is laden with aromas from a particular part of the umami spectrum which as we all know is delicious with the grapefruit-like overtone produced by the sweet aromas of the orange liqueur and fresh lime.

all these examples are simplified. not all of the units we pair are composed of one single division like only sweet or only umami. most everything is a set of aromas. to go back to the pairing website, it seems like their linkages work not because of the things they have in common, but because of the extra things in the set.

besides the overtones some linkages might create, a lot of the pleasure might come from the tension of every other aroma that rides along.

satan's whiskers.

.75 oz. gin

.75 oz. sweet vermouth

.75 oz. dry vermouth

.75 oz. orange liqueur

.75 oz. sour orange juice

2 dashes orange bitters.

every component here has some degree of orange aromatizing which might make them seem to go together, but what really makes the drink (aromatically anyhow) is the tension between the orange overtone and everything else (juniper in the gin, various drying botanicals in the vermouths, and cardamom perhaps in the bitters).

.5 oz. kirshwasser

.5 oz. mezcal

.5 oz. sweet vermouth

.5 oz. dry sherry

.5 oz. yellow chartreuse

.5 oz. sloe gin

the aromas of this drink are seemingly unrelated and create a vast collage of the different divisions, all fairly harmonious or an easy to acquire acquired taste.

i do not think using a microscope to see various common molecules in ingredients is going to tell us what "goes together" (is harmonious). we probably need to deconstruct the multi-sensory perception of flavor, categorize aromas (probably with raw human empathy), and develop a theory of acquired tastes and harmony.

a delicious journey.

[highchef]

boston, that's amazingly well put, thank you.

I bought the flavor bible, and am using it a lot. It's well done.

[nannipigg]

Champagne and strawberries is one of my favorite pairings!!lol