For your amusement...
I have been thinking lately about when certain ingredients become apparent in flavor profiles and this has led me, inexorably, to a few theses:
1) That culinary flavor profiles can be described similar to the aroma wheel used in wine tasting, with some modifications.
Of course, we all know about the nose, palate and finish of wines. I propose that the culinary approach can, but doesn't always have to, include the following: nose, front, palate, finish, long finish. Many items, especially chilled ones, may not exhibit any nose at all (vichyssoise, ceviche, ice cream.) For some it is integral to the experience (paprikash, chicken soup, Sichuan hotpot.)The long finish is the affect a dish has one the palate after having more than a few bites. A cumulative effect, so to speak, due in large part to full saturation of the throat and nasal receptive cells. A perfect example is the heat found in Chinese dishes or hot pickles. You have to get halfway through to realize you are on fire. In the case of wine or beverages, Think about the flavor of the first couple drinks vs. being halfway through the bottle. I believe this is worth noting.
2) That ingredients become apparent at different points throughout the tasting experience and can be manipulated to become apparent at other points.
If one considers the primary flavors of sour, sweet, salty, spicy and unami to be similar to the primary colors in art/design, then secondary and tertiary flavors should also be considered. Below are some examples that I have thought up to illustrate my point. They are designed with just the main three phases in mind to keep it simple, yet prove my point. Format: Front ~ Palate ~ Finish
Sweet: Fondant ~ Thompson Grapes ~ Chinese Desserts, like sesame balls and Yam Jelly
Sour: Lime ~ Naval Orange ~ Schnitzel
Capsaicin: Tobasco ~ Sriracha ~ Habanero
Salty: Caviar (Oesetra) ~ Himilayan Salt ~ White Anchovy
Umami: Porcini Powder ~ Rainbow Trout ~ Rioja
Spicy: Black Pepper ~ Syrah ~ Yellow Curries
Bitter: Canned Greens? ~ ESB ~ Pickled Watermelon Rind/ Chinese Bitter Melon
Astringent: Alcohol (80 proof) ~ Tonic Water ~ Sichuan Pepper Flowers
Chemical: Garlic, Raw ~ Shallot, Raw ~ Vidalia, Raw
Animal, Land: Liver, Beef ~ NY Strip ~ Pork Loin
Animal, Sea: Salmon ~ Oyster, Atlantic ~ Scallop
Herbal: Parsley, Flatleaf ~ Lemon Verbena ~ Basil, Sangiovese
3) That progressive flavor profiles can be designed where each flavor falls away to the next- a heterogeneous flavor layering.
I've had some successes and some failures in this area recently. The idea, eventually, would be to draw up a chart that would help with creative visualization. The main snafu I have been running into is the effect of cooking on some of my designed profiles. It would seem that some of these recipes would do much better deconstructed. Of course, a larger chart could be designed that would address the issue of various cooking techniques' effects on flavor.
For argument's sake though, let's try to design a couple right now to illustrate my idea. Sichuan Pepper Flower au Poivre: Black Pepper ~ NY Strip ~ Pepper Flower ~ Pepper Flower. I placed the second p flower on the end to represent the long finish of the ingredient. So, you would have spicy ~ animal, land ~ astringent. Porcini Powder ~ Oyster, Atlantic ~ Vidalia Granita = umami ~ animal, sea ~ chemical.
That's the thrust of it, at the moment. I do hope to get some feedback from everyone on this, as it is a work in progress, for sure, and a pretty large subject with lots of gray and subjective areas. Thanks in advance!
