The other day, at the library, I was delighted when I found another bookshelf of cookbooks. This is a book I have read about and been coveting for a while. It has a couple interesting first chapters talking about the components and types of flavor, but I love chapter 3- "Flavor Matchmaking: The Charts." 350 pages of every ingredient, taste, and type of regional cuisine you can imagine. It breaks them down into season, function, taste, weight, volume, techniques, tips and affinities. For example, for apples, the season is autumn. Mint has a function of chemical cooling, cinnamon or cayenne would have a function of chemical warming. Taste would be sweet, salty, astringent, umami, bitter, hot or sour. Weight is the perceived lightness or heaviness of the food- e.g. meringue vs. chocolate molten lava cake, or salmon compared to beef, pinot blanc vs. merlot. Volume is the meekness or assertiveness of the flavor- flour compared to cloves. It recommends cooking techniques to use on the ingredients. My favorite is flavor affinities. Some things just "go together," and sometimes, I have an ingredient I love, but I only know how to use it one way. I love those suggestions on what to pair them with. So helpful.
