TASTE BALANCE DEMONSTRATION
Umami
The fifth taste
Umami is a protein taste, specifically the taste of L-Glutamate. Virtually everything that grows, plant or animal, produces L-Glutamate. But remember, we are always talking about the dominant taste in foods.
It is hard to define taste. The only way of defining taste is to give food examples (e.g. honey is sweet, vinegar is sour).
Hence, the only way to define umami is to give some examples of ingredients that are high in umami, that is, ingredients that have a dominant taste of umami.
Foods high in umami....
Meat (especially aged and braised)
Chicken stock
Shellfish (e.g. lobster, clams, scallops, and oysters)
Mushrooms (especially shiitake)
Ripe fruits and vegetables
Fish sauce and soy sauce
Many snack foods (through the addition of hydrolyzed proteins)
Meats are high in umami and when they are braised or aged more L-Glutamate in the form that elicits the umami taste is released. MSG has the highest % of L-Glutamate (about 80%). Taste a little MSG dissolved in warm water and you’ll really be able to experience the taste of umami. In fact, chicken stock is so high in umami that if you add some yellow food coloring to the MSG broth you can fool people into thinking it is chicken stock. Imagine the taste of a shiitake mushroom. Tastes kind of beefy. That’s umami. Umami is a taste we crave. That’s why the snack food industry ads hydrolyzed proteins
(L-Glutamate) to junk food. Those sneaky……
Balancing taste
Salty and sour tastes in food will make wines taste milder (sweeter, fruitier, less acidic, less tannic or bitter)
As we experienced during the taste balance demonstration.
Sweet and savory (umami) tastes in food will make wines taste stronger (drier, less fruity, more acidic, more tannic and bitter)
We experienced what sweet tastes do to wine but we didn’t experience what savory (umami) tastes do.
Savory tastes are more subtle and we would want to have an umami tasting (which would last about 1 hour) so participants can get a grasp on what umami is before we used it in a food and wine demo.
The fifth taste
Umami is a protein taste, specifically the taste of L-Glutamate. Virtually everything that grows, plant or animal, produces L-Glutamate. But remember, we are always talking about the dominant taste in foods.
It is hard to define taste. The only way of defining taste is to give food examples (e.g. honey is sweet, vinegar is sour).
Hence, the only way to define umami is to give some examples of ingredients that are high in umami, that is, ingredients that have a dominant taste of umami.
Foods high in umami....
Meat (especially aged and braised)
Chicken stock
Shellfish (e.g. lobster, clams, scallops, and oysters)
Mushrooms (especially shiitake)
Ripe fruits and vegetables
Fish sauce and soy sauce
Many snack foods (through the addition of hydrolyzed proteins)
Meats are high in umami and when they are braised or aged more L-Glutamate in the form that elicits the umami taste is released. MSG has the highest % of L-Glutamate (about 80%). Taste a little MSG dissolved in warm water and you’ll really be able to experience the taste of umami. In fact, chicken stock is so high in umami that if you add some yellow food coloring to the MSG broth you can fool people into thinking it is chicken stock. Imagine the taste of a shiitake mushroom. Tastes kind of beefy. That’s umami. Umami is a taste we crave. That’s why the snack food industry ads hydrolyzed proteins
(L-Glutamate) to junk food. Those sneaky……
Balancing taste
Salty and sour tastes in food will make wines taste milder (sweeter, fruitier, less acidic, less tannic or bitter)
As we experienced during the taste balance demonstration.
Sweet and savory (umami) tastes in food will make wines taste stronger (drier, less fruity, more acidic, more tannic and bitter)
We experienced what sweet tastes do to wine but we didn’t experience what savory (umami) tastes do.
Savory tastes are more subtle and we would want to have an umami tasting (which would last about 1 hour) so participants can get a grasp on what umami is before we used it in a food and wine demo.
Tongue Shui
If the wine tastes too strong, add lemon, vinegar, mustard and/or salt to the food.
We most often are adding sources of acid and/or salt to balance the food with the wine. By balancing the food with nice acidity and saltiness, the food will pair with a number of wines.
If the wine tastes too strong, add lemon, vinegar, mustard and/or salt to the food.
We most often are adding sources of acid and/or salt to balance the food with the wine. By balancing the food with nice acidity and saltiness, the food will pair with a number of wines.
If the wine tastes too mild, add sugar or honey and umami ingredients to the food.
Less often the food will make the wine taste too mild (much like the lemon did to the white zin). We then add sweet and savory (umami) ingredients to the food to put the “backbone” back into the wine.
What about spicy food?
Chilies and other spicy-hot food will make wines taste stronger.
The burn that you get from chilies is not a primary taste. Chilies have a taste component (e.g. pickled chilies are acidic) but as we know, there is also something else. The heat of chilies comes from a chemical called capsaicin. Capsaicin is an irritant and will actually inflame nerve endings, make them raw and more receptive to everything. They will amplify the alcohol, acid, and tannin in a wine and hence make the wine stronger. Hence, with spicy food like Thai and Mexican, you have to choose a mild wine (e.g. sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio). Mild wines with residual sugar are even better. The sweetness of the wine makes the burn of the food more enjoyable (e.g. gewürztraminer, white zinfandel, reisling)
Cheese
We want to talk about cheese for a couple of reasons. First, we think of cheese with wine as a “natural”. It’s not necessarily. Some cheese works better with specific wines than others. Secondly, when serving cheese with wine, you generally do not make taste adjustments to the cheese – you serve it as it is, so you have to pick the right one.
Basically you can divide cheese into 2 major categories - young/fresh and aged/dry.
Fresh, un-aged cheeses are high in milk sugar (lactose) and umami. They are sweet and savory and can be difficult to pair with stronger wines.
Aged cheeses, on the other hand, have a high concentration of salt and acid, and can be paired with a wider selection of wines, mild to strong. Reggiano-Parmigiano, for instance, is a very wine-friendly cheese and can be paired with almost any wine.
Beyond taste balance – Body and Flavor
Body - weight, texture, mouthfeel
Generally speaking, we want the "body" of the wine to match the food we serve. Body refers to how the food or wine feels in your mouth. Heavy-bodied wines, that is to say, wines that are higher in alcohol and tannins, have a lot of texture. You can feel them in your mouth. These heavy wines need to be served with food that is weighty and textural. With a big, bold cabernet sauvignon, serve a chewy New York Steak. A delicate fish with a light sauce would pair better with a light-bodied wine, like sauvignon blanc.
Flavor
Mirroring flavors between food and wine can often give you one of those “magical” marriages where the food seems to be perfect with the wine. As I said before, chefs often like to mirror flavors. You can enhance the pairing with flavor mirroring as long as you have taste balance. Going back to the example of zinfandel with berry and black pepper flavors, you can, for example, use berries and black pepper in a sauce to pair with the zinfandel, but if the sauce is too sweet from the berries and too spicy from the black pepper, the sauce will make the zinfandel taste strong. You have to have taste balance.
Less often the food will make the wine taste too mild (much like the lemon did to the white zin). We then add sweet and savory (umami) ingredients to the food to put the “backbone” back into the wine.
What about spicy food?
Chilies and other spicy-hot food will make wines taste stronger.
The burn that you get from chilies is not a primary taste. Chilies have a taste component (e.g. pickled chilies are acidic) but as we know, there is also something else. The heat of chilies comes from a chemical called capsaicin. Capsaicin is an irritant and will actually inflame nerve endings, make them raw and more receptive to everything. They will amplify the alcohol, acid, and tannin in a wine and hence make the wine stronger. Hence, with spicy food like Thai and Mexican, you have to choose a mild wine (e.g. sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio). Mild wines with residual sugar are even better. The sweetness of the wine makes the burn of the food more enjoyable (e.g. gewürztraminer, white zinfandel, reisling)
Cheese
We want to talk about cheese for a couple of reasons. First, we think of cheese with wine as a “natural”. It’s not necessarily. Some cheese works better with specific wines than others. Secondly, when serving cheese with wine, you generally do not make taste adjustments to the cheese – you serve it as it is, so you have to pick the right one.
Basically you can divide cheese into 2 major categories - young/fresh and aged/dry.
Fresh, un-aged cheeses are high in milk sugar (lactose) and umami. They are sweet and savory and can be difficult to pair with stronger wines.
Aged cheeses, on the other hand, have a high concentration of salt and acid, and can be paired with a wider selection of wines, mild to strong. Reggiano-Parmigiano, for instance, is a very wine-friendly cheese and can be paired with almost any wine.
Beyond taste balance – Body and Flavor
Body - weight, texture, mouthfeel
Generally speaking, we want the "body" of the wine to match the food we serve. Body refers to how the food or wine feels in your mouth. Heavy-bodied wines, that is to say, wines that are higher in alcohol and tannins, have a lot of texture. You can feel them in your mouth. These heavy wines need to be served with food that is weighty and textural. With a big, bold cabernet sauvignon, serve a chewy New York Steak. A delicate fish with a light sauce would pair better with a light-bodied wine, like sauvignon blanc.
Flavor
Mirroring flavors between food and wine can often give you one of those “magical” marriages where the food seems to be perfect with the wine. As I said before, chefs often like to mirror flavors. You can enhance the pairing with flavor mirroring as long as you have taste balance. Going back to the example of zinfandel with berry and black pepper flavors, you can, for example, use berries and black pepper in a sauce to pair with the zinfandel, but if the sauce is too sweet from the berries and too spicy from the black pepper, the sauce will make the zinfandel taste strong. You have to have taste balance.
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