As the saying goes, "The beauty of a dish lies in its flavor, and the beauty of its flavor lies in its seasoning." This shows that seasoning plays a pivotal role in the quality of a dish. Seasoning is the proper blending of ingredients and condiments, through a heating process to remove the undesirable flavors of the raw ingredients, enhance their natural umami, and increase the deliciousness of the dish. Cooking also follows a set of mathematical principles, and the rational application of these can add to the quality of a dish.
Borrowing Flavor from Other Foods
Adding Flavor refers to enhancing or borrowing the flavor of other foods. Although tofu and vegetarian ingredients like lettuce, potatoes, and wood ear mushrooms are highly nutritious, they are often "avoided by many" because they lack their own umami or have a very bland taste.
For these ingredients, we can "add flavor" using food ingredients or condiments with special flavors, such as shiitake mushrooms, chicken broth, douchi (fermented black beans), minced garlic, fermented bean curd, shrimp roe, yellow bean paste, shrimp paste, oyster sauce, as well as scallion oil, garlic oil, shiitake oil, star anise oil, chili oil, and Sichuan pepper oil. These can give vegetarian dishes and tofu a very rich and savory flavor, such as braised bamboo shoots with shrimp roe, hand-torn eggplant with sesame sauce, water spinach stir-fried with fermented bean curd, and braised lettuce with oyster sauce. "Claypot Tofu" borrows the rich flavor from chicken broth and meat broth. In "Muxu Rou" (wood ear pork), the wood ear mushrooms borrow the flavor from the meat and broth, creating a rich and enticing taste.
Removing "Undesirable" Flavors
Subtracting Flavor refers to reducing or masking the flavor of a food. In contrast to ingredients that need added flavor, some ingredients have unpleasant flavors. For example, beef, mutton, seafood, and animal offal often have a fishy or gamey taste, while vegetables like spinach, bamboo shoots, and bamboo fungus have a slightly astringent taste, making them difficult to eat if stir-fried directly.
For ingredients with a fishy or gamey taste, the following methods can be used to remove the odor. First, prepare the ingredients before cooking. For example, after scaling a fresh sea fish, rub it with some dry flour, let it sit for a moment, then rinse it clean. This not only removes the fishiness but also preserves the fish's freshness. When stewing beef or pork ribs, blanch them first. Second, make good use of seasonings during cooking. Spices like Sichuan pepper, cinnamon, pepper, and star anise can undergo an oxidation reaction with aldehyde and ketone compounds that cause the fishy taste, which not only reduces the odor but also adds fragrance. This is generally used for deboning meats like mutton. The fishy substances in seafood are mostly alkaline, so acidic lemon juice can neutralize and remove the fishy taste. Third, find good pairings. For example, white radish can reduce the gamey taste of mutton, tomato can mask the unpleasant taste of beef, and tofu can neutralize the fishy taste of fish.
Astringent vegetables often contain a high amount of oxalic acid. Blanching them before cooking will remove the unpleasant taste. Studies have shown that for vegetables like spinach and bamboo shoots, blanching in boiling water can remove 40%-70% of the oxalic acid.
Enhancing the "Umami" of Ingredients
Multiplying Flavor refers to mixing two or more substances that share the same taste, which can further enhance that flavor in a synergistic effect.
For example, the reason "braised chicken with mushrooms" is so delicious is that mushrooms are rich in guanylates, while chicken is rich in inosinates. During the slow stewing process, both release free glutamate. Their synergistic effect produces a umami taste that is far greater than the sum of their individual umami tastes when used separately. Dishes like "beef and potato stew" and "chicken and potato stew" also use this synergistic effect between umami substances to enhance their deliciousness.
Contrasting to Highlight "Deliciousness"
Dividing Flavor (Contrasting Flavor) refers to highlighting one flavor through contrast. For example, a small amount of salt can bring out sweetness, and sourness can enhance saltiness.
A trace amount of salt can make food that is already sweet taste even sweeter. For those who love sweets, this "subtle relationship" can be used in cooking to reduce the amount of sugar added. For example, when boiling corn, adding a little salt to the water after it boils can improve the corn's texture, making it taste fresher and slightly sweeter. A little sourness can increase the taste buds' sensitivity to saltiness. Therefore, in cooking, using more sour seasonings can enhance the salty taste and reduce salt intake.