The Flavor Matrix by James Briscione

[Anna N]

 Does anyone have this on their radar? 

 

Click.

 

“What were some of the most surprising flavor pairings you discovered?

- Strawberry and Mushroom.

- Blueberry and Horseradish.

- Clam and Melon.

- Tomato and Coconut.

- Coffee and Carrot.

- Avocado and Cocoa.”

 

I am just starting it and unfortunately it is not available in a Kindle edition but only in  another electronic format from iBooks. This makes it somewhat less enjoyable than it should be.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 18, 2018 by Anna N (log)

[xntrek]

I'd be curious to hear from anyone who has this and perhaps could offer a comparison to previous similar works such as "The Flavour Thesaurus" (ISBN:9780747599777) or "The Flavour Bible" (ISBN:9780316118408)... 

 

[liuzhou]

50 minutes ago, Anna N said:

unfortunately it is not available in a Kindle edition but only in  another electronic format from iBooks

 

I believe the iBooks format is "EPUB".  You can convert this to the Kindle format ("MOBI") by using the free conversion software from Calibre. There is a good, clear introduction here.

Edited March 18, 2018 by liuzhou (log)

[gfweb]

I can see blueberry and horseradish as a pair sort of. The rest....not really.  Mushroom and strawberry..seriously?  

 

Maybe I need to read the book. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

2 hours ago, gfweb said:

I can see blueberry and horseradish as a pair sort of. The rest....not really.  Mushroom and strawberry..seriously?  

 

Maybe I need to read the book. 

 

Blueberry and horseradish sounds pretty good.  I'll never know because, you know, the birds.  I once had a delightful blueberry hot sauce called Wild Blue Yonder:

 

https://www.specialtyfood.com/products/product/8649/pemberton-s-wild-blue-yonder-wild-blueberry-hot-sauce/

 

[Anna N]

7 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

I believe the iBooks format is "EPUB".  You can convert this to the Kindle format ("MOBI") by using the free conversion software from Calibre. There is a good, clear introduction here.

 

 Thanks. It doesn’t seem to want to cooperate on an iPhone and I no longer own a computer. 

[Anna N]

6 hours ago, gfweb said:

I can see blueberry and horseradish as a pair sort of. The rest....not really.  Mushroom and strawberry..seriously?  

 

Maybe I need to read the book. 

 In this case strawberries are made into a ketchup. 

[Anna N]

6 hours ago, gfweb said:

I can see blueberry and horseradish as a pair sort of. The rest....not really.  Mushroom and strawberry..seriously?  

 

Maybe I need to read the book. 

 To understand a little of what the book is based on you might scan the manufacturer’s note from the link I gave above on Amazon.ca 

[nickrey]

Looks very interesting. I've bought it on iBooks and will check it out. 

[rotuts]

thanks for the HeadsUp

 

I have it requested from my library.

[chefmd]

April issue of Food And Wine has an article about this book with a few recipes.  Coffee and five spice roasted rainbow carrot salad looks intriguing.

[Honkman]

This book sounds related to a German book called “Foodpairing: Harmonie und Kontraste” written by Thomas Vilgis - he is a well known professor who has written a number of cookbooks which rely heavily on chemistry and looks at key chemicals in many different ingredients and how they can be matched or oppose. He worked with some of the best known chefs in Germany for some of his books. If you can read German all of his books are highly recommended

 

https://www.amazon.de/gp/aw/d/3037804807/ref=mp_s_a_1_23?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅZÕÑ&qid=1521423471&sr=8-23&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=thomas+vilgis

Edited March 19, 2018 by Honkman (log)

[paulraphael]

One of those sample combinations, coffee and carrot, is explored in another book I'd like to check out: The Art of Flavor. I listened to an interview with the authors, and they used this as an example of an entirely new flavor being created by an ingredient combination; one that doesn't seem to reference its constituent parts. So I can imagine that some of the other pairings, like strawberry and mushroom, might be similar. 

 

This could be the exact value of a book like this—the discovery of combinations that no one would think of because they sound terrible. 

 

Art of Flavor is a more conventional book, in that it's the product of a chef and a perfumer finding overlap in their creative processes. They then attempt to systemetize a process of combining and balancing flavor.

 

I have and enjoy The Flavor Bible, which is probably the most conventional (conceptually) of all these books, but is useful for its rigor. It doesn't attempt to discover new possibilities; it just catalogs combinations that have been discovered by hundreds of chefs around the world, and ranks these combinations based on how standard or harmonious they are.

 

All these approaches seem useful, but I find the one explored in the Matrix the most exciting.

 

Edited to add: the Flavor Matrix team has a website which gives access to their flavor pairing engine. I haven't played with it yet, since last I checked you needed a paid account. But it looks open now. The project is a collaboration between IBM's Watson AI team and some chefs, including the book's author.

 

Edited March 19, 2018 by paulraphael (log)

[Anna N]

24 minutes ago, paulraphael said:

Edited to add: the Flavor Matrix team has a website which gives access to their flavor pairing engine. I haven't played with it yet, since last I checked you needed a paid account. But it looks open now. The project is a collaboration between IBM's Watson AI team and some chefs, including the book's author.

 Too bad that it requires a Facebook account. 

[paulraphael]

5 hours ago, Anna N said:

 Too bad that it requires a Facebook account. 

 

I was able to use it without creating an account. It wouldn't let you?

[Anna N]

32 minutes ago, paulraphael said:

 

I was able to use it without creating an account. It wouldn't let you?

Minimally.  But I see no way to create an account other than through Facebook. 

[rotuts]

Facebook is Evil.

 

.

[paulraphael]

Well, I played around a bit with the Chef Watson site (still no account required). It gave a big thumbs-up to some of my favorite flavor combinations, but then we came to bit of an impasse.

 

I put in Gin, Campari, Sweet Vermouth.

 

Chef Watson said: zero synergy.

 

Interesting. So I've been liking the wrong drink all these years. I asked Watson for suggestions; he ditched the gin and substituted salt cod.

 

Who's coming over for cocktails?

Edited March 21, 2018 by paulraphael (log)

[mgaretz]

This book has been in my local Costcos.  I looked through it for a few minutes.  Looked up cherry, one of my favorite flavors, to see what they paired it with.  No entry for cherry.  Next to where cherry would have been, there was a page for citrus.  Really?  Like orange, lemon, lime and grapefruit all taste the same?  I passed.

[THS]

On 19.3.2018 at 2:45 AM, Honkman said:

This book sounds related to a German book called “Foodpairing: Harmonie und Kontraste” written by Thomas Vilgis - he is a well known professor who has written a number of cookbooks which rely heavily on chemistry and looks at key chemicals in many different ingredients and how they can be matched or oppose.

@Honkman I recently bought The Flavor Matrix and in comparison  with an excerpt of Foodpairing: Harmonie und Kontraste it has a lot more ingredients and provides more flavor combinations and simplifies most ingredients into main categories. In contrast  Foodpairing: Harmonie und Kontraste provides more recipes (The Flavor Matrix only provides one per ingredient) and more in depth information based on recipes and ingredients.

 

An excerpt of Foodpairing: Harmonie und Kontraste by the publisher is available here: http://www.fona.ch/fonashop/foodpairing-harmonie-und-kontrast-detail.html

[THS]

On 21.3.2018 at 6:19 AM, mgaretz said:

No entry for cherry.  Next to where cherry would have been, there was a page for citrus.  Really?  Like orange, lemon, lime and grapefruit all taste the same?  I passed.

@mgaretz Cherry is listed under "stone fruit" which is technically the right category. My main complaint about this book sofar is that the Table of Contents is not always useful and you have to use the index. It would be also nice to see a list of all ingredients that were recommended and with what other ingredient they were paired with.

All citrus fruits taste definitely not the same but when you compare them to other ingredients they share a large quantity of the same aromatic compounds.