Mastering the Grill_ The Owner's Manual for Outdoor Cooking - Andrew Schloss [54]
The importance of aroma to the perception of flavor is evident to anyone with a stuffed nose. In fact, with your nose held shut, it is difficult to tell the difference between foods that have the same texture. If you have any doubt, hold your nose and take a bite each of apple and pear. They both feel wet and crisp, and they both taste sweet and tart. But release your nose and they immediately distinguish themselves. You can try the same thing with an onion to an even greater dramatic effect. Hold your nose and take a small bite of onion. Most people perceive no flavor at all (a few perceive sweetness). Now release your nose and you will be enveloped in a cloud of onion-ness.
The reason aromatic chemicals in plants are so smelly is that they are volatile, meaning they are small and light enough to evaporate from food, fly through the air, and travel up your nose. Since all molecules travel faster when they are heated, cooking food causes more of the volatile aromatic chemicals to escape, which is why cooked and cooking food is so much more fragrant than raw food, and why hot food often tastes better than the same food cold.
So why do some parts of a plant have more flavor than other parts? The parts of plants that we use for seasoning are those with the most concentrated aromatic elements, which make up the defense system of the plant. A plant’s leaves, bark, seeds, and roots are designed to irritate and possibly sicken any animal that comes into contact with the plant, in the botanical hope that the aroma alone will keep predators away. In small amounts, these powerful aromatics can also make our food more alluring. Herbs are the leaves, either fresh or dried, of a plant. Spices are the bark, seeds, and roots.
You probably have never tasted a spice alone; if you do, you will find that it is far from a pleasurable experience. Raw clove anesthetizes anything it touches, oregano is unpleasantly bitter, and unadulterated pepper feels as if it is burrowing a cavity into your tongue. All of these reactions (the reason behind the medicinal reputations of many herbs and spices) come from the potent concentration of volatile substances in a seasoning. But if you dilute a spice or herb, let’s say a few milligrams of oregano in several pounds of tomatoes, what was once unpleasantly bitter (and toxic) becomes mildly aromatic (and safe).
The flavorful components in a seasoning are more soluble in oil than they are in water, which is why the presence of fat or oil in a food increases its aromatic properties. The alcohol and acetic acid in vinegar, which are related to fat molecules in structure, can also dissolve the aromatics in a seasoning; that is why they are standard parts of the structure of marinades and brines.
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SEASONING COMPATIBILITIES
Although spices and herbs have their own distinct flavors, most of them fall into a few families of plants, as shown in the following chart. Within each family, the spices tend to have a similar flavor profile, giving you a framework from which you can begin to make pairings. Keep in mind that many classic spice blends span families, such as ginger, allspice, nutmeg, clove, and cinnamon.
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FAMILIES OF HERBS AND SPICES
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If you have a question about the compatibility of two or more seasonings, smell them side by side. If the combined aromas are pleasant, the flavors will work together. Likewise, if you want to know whether a recipe would benefit from the addition of another seasoning, take a bite and, with the food still in your mouth, sniff some of the seasoning. You will instantly know what the additional flavoring will do to the recipe.
Although there are resemblances between some seasonings within a family that are close enough to allow one herb or spice to be substituted for another (fennel and anise, mace and nutmeg, allspice and clove), the ability to