This will be a guide for newbies and amatuers that are trying to make their own foods, drinks, and desserts taste better without following a particular recipe. Sometimes individuals don’t have the recipe to make something, or they just don’t want to use one. It is a great feeling to be able to know that you can make decent foods or meals taste better without having to constantly refer to an exact recipe. That is what this guide will aim to do. This will also help individuals create new foods, drinks, and desserts from scratch.
Understanding Flavor Types
The first thing that people need to know is the five main ways that the human tongue tastes food and drinks. This information is extremely important to know, as it will help to clear up the confusion that some individuals might get to why they see some chefs or restaurants throw in “random” ingredients and still get good results.
These are all the five main ways that humans taste food with their tongue:
- Bitter.
- Salty.
- Savory.
- Sour.
- Sweet.
Savory is sometimes referred to as “umami”. Umami is what most individuals probably aren’t familiar with hearing, but they have probably heard savory before. It is used sometimes to explain the flavor of meat. It means that the flavor of the food or drink is really pleasant to the human taste, yet it doesn’t exactly fit into the category of one of the other four main flavor types. An example of this is a steak that is described as being “beefy”. Fried chicken that tastes really good is also a good example.
Each one of these flavors can make food or drinks taste better or worse, depending on how much of each flavor is in the food or drink. Foods and drinks that are considered to be the best by most people usually have a mixture of these flavors. It can be a balance between 2 flavor types or a combination of 3 or more of the specified flavor types.
Sweet
Sweets are a great example, as the flavor of many sweets can be enhanced by adding in bitter or salty flavors for example. Sweet flavors can synergize well with the correct ratio of bitter, salty, savory, or sour. Sweets most commonly have salts in combined in the ingredients as well. Some of the best chocolate chip cookies have salt.
When an individual that is trying to make their sweet foods/desserts or drinks taste better, adding in one of the four main flavor types can drastically enhance the overall flavor. Adding in some salt to a cake mix, for instance, can make a sweet cake develop a wonderful buttery sweet flavor. It can create a new experience for the person eating the cake, and even make the cake turn out better than most professionally made cakes bought from stores.
Spicy
Spicy foods and drinks are sometimes combined with sweet flavors to create the well known “sweet and spicy” combination. Some of the most popular Asian dishes use this combination. Spicy also works well for making foods that are savory taste better.
Savory
Savory foods can turn out better with the assistance of adding in a more prominent sweet or spicy flavor. Sour is sometimes used too.
Sour
Sour works extremely well for sweet foods, desserts, and drinks. Sweet and sour is a natural combination that is found in nature’s many fruits. Sour can also be used to balance out the flavor of foods that are too sweet or too bitter.
Bitter
Bitter works extremely well with sweet. Some of the most popular drinks in the world use this combination. These drinks include, but are not limited to, bubble tea, coffee, tea, and soft drinks. The most popular soda, classic Coca-Cola, is made using extreme bitterness that has been neutralized by the sweet flavors of sugar or syrup. Some of the most popular teas and coffees are enjoyed by most from tea and coffee flavors that are extremely bitter.
Taste Testing For The Best Results And Its Importance
It is extremely important for foods, drinks, or desserts to be taste tasted as they are made when trying to make them taste good without using a recipe. The person making the food or drink should repeatedly taste the product after each time of including new ingredients that are bitter, salty, savory, sour, or sweet in flavor.
Taste tasting before the food or dessert has finished cooking is a good idea if a person doesn’t want to completely ruin their experiment. Also, an individual can find themselves even creating their first meals, desserts, or drinks with superb flavor by ensuring that they always taste test.
Note: individuals should taste test foods, drinks, and desserts that contain ingredients that need to be properly cooked first to the correct temperatures before they are considered to be safe to eat (taste test). Instead, the person should seek out other safe and clever ways of taste testing their products before it has finished cooking.
One way to taste test food or desserts that have ingredients that aren’t food safe to eat until they are cooked, is to take a small sample of that product with the ingredients and cook it first. A smaller portion of the food will usually cook faster. Cooking this small sample faster may mess up the texture of some food or desserts, but atleast it will be safe to eat without risking a food borne illness from undercooking.
Taste tasting all foods, drinks, and desserts should always be done, especially when trying to make them without instructions. It will be a rewarding experience creating custom foods, drinks, and desserts from scratch that taste better if this is done, once it has finished.
Familiarize Yourself With Each Flavor
Familiarizing yourself with each unique bitter, salty, savory, sour, and sweet ingredient added to the food, drink or dessert, can greatly help with making future foods and drinks taste better. Until an individual is familiar with the ingredient that they are using, they should always add small increments of these flavor types, and then taste test afterwards.
It isn’t a good idea to dump a lot of one specific ingredient into a food or drink, just because that ingredient tastes really good on its own. An individual should taste the ingredient first if possible so that they can get a measure of how strong the flavor of the ingredient is. Doing this can save a food or drink from becoming a complete flavor mess to fix (too salty, sweet, bitter, or sour).
For foods, drinks, and desserts that have sauces and creams that are added to them, the best way to make them is to make them separately from the food or drink first. Evaluate how it tastes first, before it is added to the food or drink. Then, these additions can be added to the food or drink in increments and taste tested as a whole.
Cake is actually a great example again, as many cakes heavily depend on the cream, toppings, and/or frosting that are added to them to determine their flavor. The cream is always made separately from the cake itself, and then added on later. When trying to make food or drinks taste better, sometimes it is easier to do so by preparing certain parts separately from each other and taste tasting them before combining them.
This is what is done with broth and seasonings when it is cooked with foods. The broth or seasonings are made first before it is added into foods to enhance the flavor. Getting used to the flavor and strength of flavor of each addition can make making foods and drinks taste better a lot easier and less complicated.
It should also be taken into account the strength of the flavor of these extra additions. Combining too much can make the foods too much of the flavor type, if the flavor is already strong with the food or drink before the cream or other extra additions are added.
