Oftentimes, you will hear the criticism that a recipe is “one note.” Have you ever wondered what that means? Or, have you ever wondered why nearly every chocolate recipe calls for a tablespoon of coffee?
It has to do with flavor. There are actually 6 different flavors that we can perceive:
Salt
Umami
Spice
Sweet
Bitter
Sour
What we’re really saying when we say that a recipe that tastes “one note, ” is that the recipe is fundamentally unbalanced – this means that one of the above flavors is dominant, and others are either non-existent, or overpowered.
A dish that is unbalanced can be good, but it is ultimately forgettable. A dish that is balanced with many flavors all working together is complex, and exciting to eat.
Let’s look at the different flavors in more detail:
Salt
Enhances: general flavor, sweet
Balances: bitter
Common Foods: soy sauce, fish sauce, anchovy paste, parmesan cheese, bacon/cured meats
Salt enhances the flavor of any food. The best cooks salt each ingredient in a dish to taste before adding it to a dish, with the exception of pasta, rice, lentils, and beans, which needs the water to be salted before cooking. There is a fine line between perfectly seasoned, and over-salted – this is why it is best to salt each ingredient along the way, not all at once at the end.
There are many different kinds of salts out there, and each has a unique flavor and texture. To use with cooking, chefs prefer a kosher salt, since it has the “cleanest”” flavor and no color. Finishing salts can be used to impart additional needed salinity at the end of cooking, as well as texture – Maldon salt, which is flaky, is particularly good as an all-purpose finishing salt. Flavored or infused salts can also be used to bring additional balance to a dish before serving as well.
Umami
Enhances: sweetness
Balances: bitter
Common Foods: seafood, meat, aged cheese, seaweed, soy, mushrooms, tomatoes, kimchi, green tea, asparagus, miso, pickled vegetables, fish sauce
Umami is often described as the “6th flavor.” It is difficult to describe, and a relatively new concept in the food world. It is translated from Japanese as a “pleasant, savory taste,” and the definition has expanded to include descriptors like, “full-bodied,” and “meaty.”
The umami taste is a product of the amino acid L-glutamate, and as free glutamate (not an amino acid). Both occur naturally in foods, and in the food additive MSG – mono sodium glutamate. Glutamate is also increased via the fermented process, which gives fermented and pickled foods that earthy “funk.”
Sweet
Enhances: salt
Balances: sour, bitter, and spice
Common Foods: sugar, sugar substitutes, maple syrup, honey, jam, molasses, bbq sauce, carrots, sweet potatoes, corn, beets, fall/winter squash, peas, snap peas, fennel, parsnip, fruit
Sweet is not just for dessert! Sweet flavors exist in what we consider “savory” foods as well. Vegetables like carrots, corn, and beets, because they have a higher internal sugar content, are naturally sweet, and add that sweetness to dishes they are included in.
Dishes, either sweet or savory, can quickly become overly sweet without another flavor, or combination of flavors, to balance it.
Sour
Enhances: salt
Balances: spice, sweet, bitter
Common Foods: lemon, lime, orange, vinegar, tomato, yogurt, sour cream, pickled vegetables
Often referred to as “acidity,” sour flavors prevent a dish from becoming to sweet, spicy, or bitter. It is also described as being able to “brighten” a dish, particularly higher-fat dishes. Acidity can change the color of vegetables, so it is best added late in the cooking process.
Bitter
Balances: sweetness, saltiness
Common Foods: coffee, cocoa (unsweetened), grapefruit, beer, dandelion greens, endive, broccoli, spinach, kale, okra, bitter melon, radicchio
We rarely center bitter flavors in recipes, because they tend to be overpowering and unpleasant to our tastebuds. However, bitter ingredients (like coffee) are used to prevent a dessert from becoming too sweet, or a dish from becoming too salty. Additionally, some veggies are naturally bitter, like broccoli, and understanding how to manipulate that flavor is important for taking cookie to that next level.
Spice
Balances: sweet
Common Foods: Hot sauce, wasabi, horseradish, Dijon, harissa, siracha, gochujang, hot peppers, chili oil, augala, raw radish, pepper, watercress
Spice, or heat, comes from capsaicin, and is traditionally measured by the Scoville Heat Index (which is essentially a taste test in which an extract of dried pepper is diluted until heat is no longer detectable), though there are other, arguably more scientific ways of determining heat.
From mildest to hottest on the Scoville scale, here is a list of commonly used hot peppers:
Jalapeno
Cayenne
Habnero
Ghost Pepper
Pepper Spray
Pure Capsaicin
Capsaicin levels in hot peppers are not enough to be harmful, but capsaicin is acutally a toxic compound (lethal dose is 47.2 mg/kg). It binds to a receptor in the mucous of the mouth associated with heat and abrasion, which is why it produces a burning sensation in your mouth. There is no physical/tissue damage eating peppers, and you can build up a tolerance by frequently eating spicy food (as the receptors become depleted). The pain from capsaicin ingestion releases endorphins, which are natural painkillers, and also can produce a feeling of euphoria, which is why chile eating competitions have become so popular.
So, there you have it. The different flavors and combinations that can bring your cooking from “good” to “great.” Having a number of different flavors in a dish, and balancing those flavors correctly, can go a long way to creating complex, exciting recipes.
So, what can you do with this information? Why is it important?
This is going to be a controversial opinion. And maybe an unpopular one.
I have a theory. My theory is that part of the reason people don’t like to cook/meal prep is that the way we’re taught to do it just isn’t that interesting.
We’ve gotten caught up in the convenience crutch of batch roasting food on a tray in the oven, and dumping an all-purpose seasoning on it without a) understanding why that seasoning works, and b) truly creating a food experience that we can connect to and get excited about. And we call that cooking. Frequently.
Except for in most parts of the world known for their cooking, what we do doesn’t really qualify.
Now, don’t get me wrong, meal prepping and batch-cooking food is a great habit, and there is nothing wrong with convenience, but the more and more I think about it, and the more and more I study food and cooking, the more I feel that convenience can rob us of a true connection to food and flavor. With convenience comes detachment in the many processes and techniques of cooking, and limits us to nothing but the very basics, which over time results in boredom. When we get bored with our own cooking, we view even average restaurant meals as food that we can’t possibly get at home. What does that do for our confidence in the kitchen, and our willingness to try new things? What impact does this have on our relationship with food?
We’re turning meals into an obligation, into nothing but fuel so that we can keep working/training/taking care of the kids. We forget that eating involves ALL of our senses – it is an experience, and one that should be savored and enjoyed.
We’re not settling for mediocrity in our professional/personal/athletic lives. Why should we settle for mediocrity in our food?
What if we could make great, interesting food (at most budgets) right in our own homes? Yes, even if we meal prep. Yes, even if we’re are on a limited budget (I recognize there is a certain amount of privilege in these statements, though one could make the argument that some of the most delicious, complex dishes in world cuisine are made by those with the very least resources).
We just have to understand food on more than just a basic level. We don’t have to go to culinary school. We don’t have to become world class chefs. We simply have to stop and ask why before we put that TJ’s Everything But the Bagel Seasoning on everything (yes, yes, it’s delicious). We have to start thinking about each individual ingredient we put on a plate, and why it’s there. We have to start really tasting our food, and seeing how the different tastes interact with each other, and what effect that has on our eating experience.
THINKING = UNDERSTANDING. UNDERSTANDING = APPRECIATION. APPRECIATION = CONNECTION.
Think about what we could do with our relationship with food with more thoughtful preparation.
There are a few ways to begin our re-connection journeys with food:
Cookbooks, Cooking Shows, Online Food Blogs and Recipes
This is a great place to start if you are a beginner, and still very new to food. Remember, cooking is a creative process (yes, process), and as you practice more and more you will start to see patterns, understand how ingredients go together, and feel more comfortable with experimenting and changing recipes. THAT’S where the magic happens. The first steps in connection are thinking and understanding – you have to think about and understand ingredients and flavors, and that comes from exposure and experience. When I was starting to cook, I read cookbooks for HOURS, and watched Food Network daily. Even now, when I am at my computer, I always have a cooking program on in the background.
That being said, even as you start to understand food and flavor, you never want to stop learning. Fill your social media with chefs and blogs that cook the food that you want to master. Subscribe to email lists. Experiment with new cuisines. Take risks in the kitchen. Some may not turn out (I am reminded of the time I made a 5-spice mushroom sauce for a steak. Did not work), but that’s okay, as long as you learn from it.
The Rule of 3 Flavors
Once you are more familiar with foods, flavors, and recipes, you can begin to experiment a little more with flavors. This method also works with meal prepping, and can be as simple or complex as you want to make it!
Here’s an example: you want to prep chicken, rice, and spinach.
The base flavors that you have there are earthy, umami (ish), and bitter. That’s not a particularly exciting or pleasant combination of flavors on their own.
But, before you reach for your obligatory all-purpose seasoning blend, try adding 3 flavors (+salt) to your dish instead:
Salt each component of your meal prep well (hint: probably more than you think)
Just before baking, coat chicken in a mix of hot sauce and honey (to suit your palate) – this also can be a marinade (marinade for 30 minutes). This adds spice (heat), and sweetness to balance it and the bitterness from the spinach.
Cook, covered, at 350 degrees in the oven until cooked through. A pan on the stove runs a greater risk of burning the sugars in the honey.
Just before serving, sprinkle with lime juice, a sour flavor, to further balance the heat and to brighten your dish. (HINT: cooking citrus tends to make it bitter, so wait until just before serving)
Elevate your rice – cook in vegetable broth/stock for more flavor, and melt in butter before serving, for richness (and because casein dulls the pain from the heat. Non-dairy works as well, for richness, not for pain-relief). As the rice is steaming after the water is boiled away, add the spinach to cook, and mix into the rice.
I would say that the flavor you must add to (almost) every dish after salting, which goes without saying, would be acid. From there, choose the two flavors that you feel would best compliment the ingredients that you are prepping.
Again, experimentation is key here, and with experimentation, both successful and unsuccessful, you learn and grow!
Build Dishes from Ingredients
The most experienced cooks and chefs build dishes from a single ingredient, or group of ingredients. Inspiration can come from what looks particularly nice at a store or market, or based on idea/concepts that you saw in a cookbook, or online. Figure out the primary flavor from your starting ingredient, and build in more balancing flavors from there!
Everything said and done, the most important thing you can do is to learn about each ingredient – where it comes from, the season in which it tastes the best, how it tastes raw vs cooked (or even if it can be eaten raw), what the predominant flavor is, what foods and flavors balance it, what foods and flavors enhance it, etc. Once you begin to understand food as almost a blank canvas, as see all of its possibilities, you will inevitably be more connected to it in a positive way. And that is nothing but positive for our relationships with food.
