AMAZING FLAVOR LOVE CONNECTIONS
Today we are exploring beautiful flavor connections. Why do some things taste especially good when they come together on your tongue?
It turns out, there’s a scientific explanation for flavor affinities. You don’t need a scientist to tell you that peanut butter and jelly have a love connection. Coffee and chocolate are a famous pair. Tomatoes yearn for cheese. While garlic and bacon each play beautifully with lots of other flavors.
But now, thanks to a new understanding about why things taste the way they do, we’ve got some fascinating new ideas about flavor connections for you...
Now, chefs who are into molecular gastronomy and other edgy experiments, sommeliers who want to stretch the envelope, and the foodies who love them, are creating and enjoying new connections that will send you and your tongue off to a beautiful new happy place.
Our sense of taste is all about a chemical process. The way we perceive flavor is determined by how our bodies react to combinations of chemical compounds in the foods we eat.
Scientists have mapped flavor compounds found in foods around the world. They have discovered that ingredients will taste great together as long as they share enough flavor compounds in common -- even surprising combos, like blue cheese and chocolate!
Researchers Yong-Yeol Ahn, Sebastian E. Ahnert, James P. Bagrow, and Albert-László Barabási, analyzed the ingredient combinations favored in over 56,000 recipes popular with people in different cultures around the globe.
They found that chefs do tend to connect the same ingredients together to form signature flavor profiles. They began to see evidence of a “flavor network” emerge. They published their findings in Scientific Reports.
More recently, building on these findings, Michael Moyer, Scientific American's special projects editor and editor of the September Food issue, and interactive designer Jan Willem Tulp have created "The Flavor Connection," an interactive taste map.
Epicurious, All Recipes, and the Korean site Menu Pan were the three sources used for recipes in this taste-love connection quest. For example, the Epicurious recipe for Orange Clove Pound Cake with Strawberries highlights flavor-linked strawberries and cloves.
The recipes are grouped into geographically distinct cuisines (North American,Western European, Southern European, Latin American, and East Asian.) There are both distinctions and overlaps.
Lemon and chicken taste great together in so many recipes, from French, to Italian, to Chinese, to Greek, and more. Why? Because lemon is a chemical relative of chicken. There’s flavor resonance between the two ingredients.
The map is interactive. So click around and explore.
Beef connects with many flavors. Perhaps that why it is a food that often inspires fierce cravings. One surprising finding is that beef is not flavor connected to red wine, while it is very much connected to caviar. Go figure!
This Guys Food Blog turned us on to the beautiful Wagyu & Caviar Tartlet, created by Chef Justin Cogley of Aubergine, the Restaurant at L’Auberge, in Carmel, California. A dollop of finely chopped A5 Kagoshima Wagyu beef tartare is nestled in a pastry shell, topped with salmon caviar and a micro amaranth leaf.
Cogley has a flavor map embedded in his brain. He has an instinct for detecting unusual yet genius flavor connections. Most of the dishes on his menu are a testament to this special talent. Another connection we like, in particular is the one he made between Canadian sturgeon caviar, sea grapes, milk and kombu gelees, together with sea urchin.
Playing on the classic connection of PB&J, Cogley brings joy to the world with Foie Gras, wrapped in grape gel, with ash roasted leeks, hibiscus jelly, and a slice of brioche.
Connecting the Asian flavor profile, which typically includes fermented soy and ginger, Cogley drives along the flavor map and ends up at a whole new fascinating taste destination.
He pairs slices of barely grilled A5 Wagyu from Kagoshima with sake, nori, meyer lemon, plum puree, pickled baby ginger, soy salt, and he adds an unexpected umami hit with a bit of porcini.
Jackie Dodd, of The Beeroness, knows just how well beer connects with so many different foods. She plays with these connections all the time. One surprising, yet spot on connection is between apples and beer. Dodd created Beer Poached Apples with Amber Ale Caramel Sauce to celebrate this marriage made in heaven.
See full recipe here.
Strawberry, Basil & Lime Pops
Strawberries and basil connect on many levels. Find their links on the map. And see for yourself in this fabulous recipe for Strawberry Basil Lime pops by Kitchen Mischief.
Ingredients:
- 10 ozs strawberries, stems removed
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 teaspoon lime zest
- 1/2 lime, juiced
- 5 basil leaves, roughly chopped
Instructions:
- Mix ingredients together.
- Pour into popsicle molds.
- Freeze until firm.
- Enjoy their connection with your tongue!
So explore the myriad of flavor connection possibilities on the map. We bet you’ll be saying “of course!” to many and “gotta try that!” to many more.
Read more about Beautiful Connections, as it relates to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact including A Bounty of Beautiful Connections and New Beautiful Brain Connections.
Enter your own images and ideas about Beautiful Connections in this week’s creative Photo Competition. Open for entries now until 11:59 p.m. PT on 06.22.14. If you are reading this after that date, check out the current BN Creative Competition, and enter!
PHOTO CREDITS:
- Photo: By Dennis Wilkinson. Coffee & Chocolate Cake.
- Photo: Courtesy of Spoon University. Molecular Gastronomy.
- Photo: Courtesy of Lillie Belle Farms. Smokey Blue Truffles.
- Image: Courtesy of Yong-Yeol Ahn, Sebastian E. Ahnert, James P. Bagrow & Albert-László Barabási. Figure 1: Flavor Network.
- Image: Courtesy of Yong-Yeol Ahn, Sebastian E. Ahnert, James P. Bagrow & Albert-László Barabási. Figure 2: The backbone of the flavor network.
- Image: Courtesy of Yong-Yeol Ahn, Sebastian E. Ahnert, James P. Bagrow & Albert-László Barabási. Figure 4: Flavor principles.
- Photo: by Doniree Walker. Red Wine.
- Photo: Courtesy of ThisGuysFoodBlog. Aubergine’s Wagyu & Caviar Tartlet.
- Photo: Courtesy of ThisGuysFoodBlog. Aubergine’s Uni & Caviar, with Raw Milk & Kombu Gelees.
- Photo: Courtesy of ThisGuysFoodBlog. Aubergine’s Foie Gras “PB&J.”
- Photo: Courtesy of ThisGuysFoodBlog. Aubergine’s A5 Wagyu Rolls with Asian Flavors & Porcini.
- Photo: Courtesy of The Beeroness. Beer Poached Apples with an Amber Ale Caramel Sauce.
- Photo: Courtesy of Kitchen Mischief. Strawberries and Limes.
