Flavor is a crucial element of all food pairing. Flavor is different than taste. The tongue recognizes tastes – the familiar sensations of salty, sour, bitter and sweet, as well as savoriness, called umami. Flavor encompasses much more of the sensory experience of also eating, and by vaping…approx all sensing is by smell of the ejuice, approx just 5% is sensed by tastebuds.
Finding Harmony:
Even if two flavor notes line up together, a deft hand may still be required to make a combination sing…
Many factors influence how those items are best combined and balanced, including the culture of those tasting a mix and even the qualities of the individual flavors, and or nuance versions, and extra flavorings to help combine a mix.
-This notes are by food, but also says that whatever eg. strawberrys, they can taste differently…just as we sense by flavors of DIY Nuances of the different ones between brands dont taste alike.
“If you start to add strawberry to lobster you have to be a very good chef,” says cooking chefs “The chance is very high that you will add too much sweetness to this dish. You have to be able to make a really good balance in the flavors comined to get it right, nice tasting.”
-Thats because the strawberry is sweet, the more strawberry, the more sweet such dish would get.
Back to DIY… some flavors are sweeter than others, even if not are candyversions of flavor. You need find a good balance between the parts by your own palette wishes of taste, to get it taste best.
The combination of flavors to notes is as chords on a piano. Some will join together in a more pleasing way than others. Two wildly differing sets of odor molecules might not mesh if they didn’t have any accompaniment. (eg. the lobster, and chocolate as its pairing).
“That’s not to say that a really talented chef couldn’t make lobster and chocolate work,” said a Chef. “I’m sure there’s a combination with an appropriate set of ingredients where those dissonant chords do actually produce a pleasing sound.” -yep… it can be done, and even get to taste nice… IF find the right accomplished flavors to make it together!
There’s no single better way to learn how to combine flavors for best mix than to go to the mixintable and try doing something!
Foods and condiments(spices) go hand in hand. Unless if you somehow like your food bland and uninteresting, there’s no use for foods not to be paired with the condiments of your choice. Sure, you might (and likely will) prefer different condiments compared to your personal preferences, but that’s what makes the world go round.
- in DIY theres same thing, even if not only spices, but also flavorprofiles/nuances of each flavors. eg as a touch lemon to get a duller flavor brighter.
Most of us use culinary tradition to decide which foods should go together, Chemical compounds in food, called aromatic compounds , create aromas that are interpreted as flavor by the nose and are reported to our brain," Because cocoa has similar aromatic compounds to steak and porcini mushrooms, they are natural pairs.
- DIY flavorings are aromatic compounds.
Take It One Step at a Time
Instead of conceptualizing a mix with a bunch of different ingredients, remember the more flavors used, the less chance to sense each one. Flvor chemicals “bond together” and give new flavorcombinations, new “tastes”… with many just as easy can be a muddle. The more overlap there is between two types of similaritys of taste , the harder they were to tell apart.
Start with one base flavor— like carrots, for example.( not normal flavor in DIY ejuice, but shows anyway how it functions )
A carrot’s flavor is earthy, citrusy and spiced. Taste-wise, we also get a little sweetness and crunch for texture. Next, builds off the ingredient’s characteristics. Think about how going to eg. season the carrots to enhance their flavor— a little coffee (more earthy), coriander seed (more citrusy) and cumin (more spiced). This enchangings will adjust nuances of either flavoer or whole mix depending on amounts used.
Finally, we can complements the ingredient with other elements that enhance the mix, Chewy and creamy are great textures to add to a crisp note . Grains will give a chewy earthiness to complement the carrots flavor, and yogurt will give creamy and sour to oppose the sweetness.
Flavor is weird. Making good mixes is all about the right combinations of flavors. Some combinations work really well together, other ones… well… they simply don’t. The funny thing is, some of the flavor combinations you see really don’t look like they would work, yet they end up working very well.
Under, i focus on some common combinations of flavors:
Peanut Butter and Chocolate - that flavor combination can be found in many things. The high fat nature of both ingredients is one reason why the two flavors complement each other so well. ( both fatty, but originally just one have a salty taste : salty vs sweet )
Salted Caramel - Salt and caramel does not sound like it should work, but it actually does. The sharpness of the salt makes the caramel seem a little bit less sickly sweet. Most of the time chocolate will be a third ingredient here, and complements the other two flavors perfectly. ( salt vs sweet )
Apple Pie and Ice Cream - Apple pie is a pretty traditional snack, but pairing it with vanilla ice cream is also a common tradition and a great flavor combination. The coolness of the ice cream also works very well with apple pie when it is warm. (varm vs cold)
Peanut Butter and Jelly - While both peanut butter and jelly/jam) are common spreads for bread and for toast, the combination of peanut butter and jelly flavors is largely an American tradition. Like when pairing peanut butter with chocolate, it seems to be the saltiness and savory nature of the peanut butter that makes it work really well with the jelly. After all, jelly does tend to be a bit over-sweet, especially if you are eating a high sugar type. ( salt vs sweet )
Raspberry and Chocolate - Raspberry and chocolate is another combination that works great because of the contrast in flavors. Chocolate tends to be sweet and smooth, while raspberries are also sweet, but have this little tart note. ( sweet alike, tartness is contrasting to help give a bit more depth of flavor )
Chocolate and Peppermint - The combination of chocolate and peppermint works well with both milk and dark chocolate. There is something about the sweetness of the chocolate and the sharpness of the mint that makes this combination work very well. Chocolate and mint is also a great way to end a meal, helping to refresh you while muting any cravings for sugar. ( contrasting flavors: sweet soft chocolate vs sharp mint. )
Caramel and Vanilla Ice Cream - Vanilla ice cream is wonderful, because it has a sharper and less sweet flavor than many other types of ice cream. That makes it a perfect complement to caramel, which is sweet and a little bit sickly on occasion. However, the trick is to get the right ratio of caramel to ice cream to make this flavor combination work. ( less sweet vs much sweet )
White Chocolate and Caviar - this does work great by taste, that too by contrasting notes. salty caviar vs fat white choco.
Here in the examples you can se reasons for fit together mentioned.
Complimenting flavors doesnt always says only accenting similar notes… thats done for more depth, a fuller flavor… complementing by contrating flavors are more common to get a mix taste great.
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I will show two different mixes here, the only difference is in one, its rosemary infused salmon flavor. In the one with the salmonflavor all the other parts in taste are there… also a fruity gritty cake taste. In the salmon version it get a faint note of a savory flavor, the salmon in mid-back . One more sense by olfactory is triggered, enchanging it to get the fruit be less pronounced, and loose more of its sweetness, but in fact pronounce a touch more the cheesy/yogurt notes. If used less salmonflavor, same effect can be done, without getting any taste of salmon. Salmon did here complement the cheesecake/yogurt. BUT, are a true contrasting flavor from the rest!
You know, lobster’s most closely-related foods , do highlights affinity to strawberry by food-pairing combinations… Strawberry does also have many similaritys to tomato chemically (more than lobster) as i found out does enchange a strawberry taste , without easy giving taste of tomato, but more pungent strawberry note !
This way i know even shrimp/crab flavors would fit with tomato adjusted strawberrys in a mix. - IF wanna do a such savory mix 