AN INTRODUCTION TO SEASONING

                        ...that makes the difference

         I think almost an entire book could be written about seasonings, so this will be one of very many articles. We can categorize seasonings, label them with certain properties, discuss how they are indeed seasonal to the time of the year, varied in specific uses, and particular to certain foods and certain cultures. We can discuss the best ways to grow them, preserve and dry them, where to buy them, how to use them. So after a few introductory articles I will write about each specific seasoning in its own article. And there will be some gardening articles specific to the time of year that certain herbs are planted, grown, harvested, and more. Ah this could take some time, but alas…

To start with let’s talk about taste. Our taste buds pick up four main receptive tastes. Bitter at the tongues back, sweet and salty at the tip, and sour on the sides. In recent years folks have really picked up on the classifying of a fifth taste umami, though it was discovered and named by a Japanese scientist over a hundred years ago, this is considered the taste of savory. I’m out on the jury with this one. it supposedly is tasted in the middle back of your tongue.

  There is a salt from an amino acid which was found in high concentration in a seaweed. The research scientist felt it had a different taste from the other four when eaten in a certain soup made with that seaweed. And this salt causes different chemical reactions than the other four tastes do, and in fact pulls the tastes of the others together in an enhancing way. They isolated this salt and began producing it as a flavor enhancer. It is umami.

 

  It is Monosodium (single salt molecule) Glutamate (referring to an amino acid) its seasoning salt, its accent, its in so many things…. I will say two things here before I go on. I’m not sure I agree with it being classed with the other four tastes,  for the reception with your taste buds is not its property, but I do believe it does a great deal to make savory things taste richer. And secondly I don’t think it’s harmful. OMG it was for a while was the big sin of “American” Chinese food, and then in each and everything.

    Calm down everyone. It happens to be naturally occurring in so very many foods, soy sauce being one, and not as an additive. But the MSG powder created, has been used to add to the amount of that which is naturally occurring, to foods in the food industry for more than a generation now. You might think they’re putting it in other things too, but it will not work on any foods. You cant sprinkle it in canned fruit and get a better taste from that fruit. 

    Also, Just so you know…NOTHING conclusive was ever found about any harmful effects, in fact it was a theory, and any testing only found that in massive levels it could be harmful to some who have sensitivities to it. Which my friends, is true of every single thing we eat. And it is in fact less toxic than simple table salt. But no ones saying use a pound of it in your food. And then like so many other fad things about food, well I say all things in moderation, mon cher.  If you have high blood pressure then watch your salt intake… but everyone in the world does not need to stop eating salt. That’s not moderation that’s excessive in the very abstention of the ingredient. I feel that most of the mysterious symptoms folks get from “food additives” or anything consumed is caused by the neurotic fussiness of what someone eats more than the ingredients. This is another article though so off my soap box for now.

   I do cook a lot from scratch, and with natural fresh ingredients, seldom using seasoning salt or such. However I do use seasonings a great deal, but I must admit with the MSG.. I like to add soy sauce as a flavor enhancer, and I use bouillon cubes often.

   It seems we have digressed,  but the tastes the tongue senses are part of this information and the Umami one needed to be addressed. 

    Receptive tastes are the basics. Sweet is to alert the body to energy providing food (sugars and carbs), it’s why it is pleasurable. Sour to show acidity of foods and according to your bodies needs your tastes will desire or shy away from sour. Salty is basic to everything. And our bodies need a balance of it to work properly. And while it seems that this excessive society has tempered out tastes to want evermore salt, your body will regulate that in what you are tasting and wanting under ideal circumstances. Bitter is there to warn your body of possible toxins, but not always, and to tell your body where alkaline exists. Once again if your body needs it your tastes should naturally crave it. Bitter foods in small amounts can compliment and add interest to foods. And sometimes such as in the bitterness of cocoa,  when sugar is added its heaven in the form of chocolate.  And if we go with Uamami, well… it tastes good… think of what pleases you in the taste of seasoning salt, and ranch dressing, and soy sauce. It’s a little different than just the salt taste isn’t it? Basic tastes are part of the story with seasoning. They are the base the foundation, the canvass you are working on, and that you need to be aware of. All foods have tastes, knowing how to use some other foods to enhance those tastes is the key. Seasonings are the AROMA part of what you taste. They have to do with the wafting sense which pulls adventure from the food. Apples are sweet, with a bit of sour in their taste, but apple pie with cinnamon sugar and nutmeg brings obvious aromas, and added to apples is a whole different experience. Seasonings have strong aromatic qualities that enhance the rest of foods that have in varying combinations the four/five basic tastes. The combination of taste with aromatic qualities is the tastiness, the flavor. And the flavor is the difference in why one persons apple pie brings folks back for more and others are just OK.

   The proper use of seasonings is essential and it’s a broad and extensive area to learn about. Some folks think if you just keep dumping more stuff in you are going to have more flavor. But not everything compliments the same way. And excess or let me say abundance has its place. Sausage has a great deal of seasoning and that works great there. But a large variety of seasonings is not always preferable. Say lets go back to apples, aside from sugar,  cinnamon and maybe a tad of nutmeg, are as far as you want to go there. (unless caramel is involved mmm). I’ve had apples cooked with cinnamon, allspice, cloves, ginger and nutmeg all together… it was NOT a nice dessert. And I noticed everyone else at the gathering wasn’t eating it either… lots of cobbler got hid under napkins. More is not always better. And tastes and flavors of things are best when used in a way where they can be experienced as a medley, with the nuances of various taste experiences there, not as an onslaught of one new heavy mixed flavor of all the combined ingredients at once.

    The next article will go into the categories of seasonings, and I hope to have a chart prepared for you. Those categories are: Spices, Herbs, Aromatics, and Capsicum cultivars (or lets just say)Peppers, though not all heat in foods comes from capsicum.

     In addition salt and sugar need to be addressed with the rest, though neither is really a seasoning. They are important in the use of seasonings. Sugar tempers, and compliments seasonings and tastes and salt enhances, brings out the flavor of seasonings and tastes. I’ve heard even chefs say salt does not really enhance other tastes it just adds a salty flavor. I get aggravated when folks don’t find out a true answer to something. Let me just say I’m a researcher and I want to always know why, and wont stop till I do. I’m not going to tell you something, without good reasoning or information to back it up. Salt, sodium, on a molecular level reaction, frees connections allowing certain molecules to escape (for lack of a better word) these escaping molecules are aroma from all foods. Salt indeed enhances taste. Not to mention all the other qualities it has but that’s also another article.

   Till later. Blessings mes amis