[chefhow]

When I am developing products for customers I will often times use different acids in formulation depending upon what else is in the seasoning.  Citric acid (like the lime you used) is often used as a "top note" as well as a flavor enhancer when working with strong flavors.  For cheese and foods that contain lots of cheese try using items that have lactic acid, it brings out the flavor or the cheese itself without working against the other flavors and finally when using fruits and mild flavors try using some apple juice ( great source of Malic acid) as a flavor enhancer.  These will all "brighten" the overall flavors of the dish without over powering or killing the nuances of other flavors.  Remember, its always easy to add a little more to the dish than take it away so use them a little at a time.

 

[philip terry]

thanks for the tips... That explains why my old man put apple in his old fashioned English curries and one of my favorite drinks soya milk has added apple juice... 

One thing that has boggled my mind for a while.........  is discerning in my mind the flavor differences by how the main ingredient is cooked. For example; poached, steamed, roasted....

How does the cooking method affect the flavor....? Since techniques such as sous vide have become more and more popular...

 

[boar_d_laze]

Yes. Different methods of cooking the same things result in different textures and tastes. Asking for a complete description of the differences is asking too much. 10,000 words couldn't give you the amount of knowledge that a couple of chickens and two hours of experimentation would.

There aren't real, comprehensive answers to the questions you're asking in this thread, because the questions themselves are overly broad. In essence, you're asking for a book.

The physiology of flavors is complex, involving the taste bud, palate and nose. How you manipulate them -- and at bottom, that's what you're doing -- can be still more complex or quite simple. So far the descriptions of taste bud receptors as sour, sweet, salty, and bitter -- plus umami, is still incomplete. Although not one of the specific papillae, HOT! is also a primary sensation occurring on the tongue. When you consider the way palate and purely aromatic stimuli affect the way the brain interprets the taste signals, you've got an awful lot of stuff going on. Then add texture.

The idea of "balance" is very important, so are "depth of flavor," "layering," "brightness," and a score (at least) of other things. You use your experience with flavors, techniques, and your virtual palate (what I call the ability to imagine and predict tastes) to begin the creative processes of developing a new dish or "reverse-engineering" something prepared by some else.

You're questions are interesting, but premature in the sense that you lack the culinary and scientific expertise for the answers -- if anyone could give them -- to make sense. Make your questions more specific to dishes you've actually cooked or would like to cook, and you'll start to see the general rules emerge from the welter of specifics and exceptions. At the moment it's like talking to someone who's just started his first algebra class, asking how to solve three-body, gravitational problems.

The more specific you are, the more likely you are to get meaningful answers.

BDL

 

[philip terry]

Very good points made which I have taken on board... 

Apologies for using this thread as a bit of a mind dump, but any minor detail that reduces uncertainty is in my mind extremely valuable for transforming a dish from very good to masterful. My initial strategy was to refine my understanding of flavor principles brilliantly as opposed to getting technical on certain dishes.  

I understand new light is being shed all the time in the area of grasping flavor, especially with Unami there seems to be a lot of uncertainty. 

I can particularly relate to what you are saying about the virtual palate. I find writing an array of 'food adjectives' and 'cooking verbs' a good way of imagining what could be the next scintillating dish. Also reading the adjectives used to discern varieites of ingredients like olive oil and rice... I recently discovered a wild pecan rice. And anything with a 'hint of nuttiness' in my book is a thumbs up. 

When you say 'depth of flavor'... I imagine you mean long lasting, lingering flavor. Do you have any examples of how you created a lingering long lasting sensation on the palate?

 

[philip terry]

Here's an example; on Masterchef, Oli recently poached a quail. He justified this by saying he wanted to "preserve the delicate flavor"... 

Monica's reaction to this was "sounds like something my Granny would make" 

In the end Oli pulled it off after hearing Michel Roux's comments on the dish. As being "moist succulent and deliscious" despite the intial scepticism. Greg also mentioned he had never seen this done before...

So, what would be the difference if we were to be as descriptive as possible in discerning the difference in flavor of poaching, roasting, steaming, sauteing a quail in order to preserve the best natural flavor....?