In the “Add a pinch of sugar” thread, many of you mentioned other things you like to add to boost the flavor in your dishes - MSG, tomato powder, soy sauce, etc. What’s an ingredient you find that you love to add to dishes to improve the flavor (or aroma, texture, or maybe even the way it looks)?
I am a big fan of mushroom powder. It adds a nice boost of umami with some additional flavor that comes along for the ride. Just throw some dried mushrooms into a spice grinder and grind until powder.
Smoked Paprika.
The soap gene people are going to hate me, but cilantro.
I dig it. But I know several people who have the soap gene.
Hey, did you know you can learn your way out of the soap gene response? I have the soap gene and hated cilantro when I first tasted it, but I love it now. Just had to retrain my brain. (Owning a Mexican restaurant for a couple of years forced my hand in this endeavor lol.)
There’s a recent gastropod podcast episode on this. All you need to do to start being ok with or liking something is to try it in small quantities a few dozen times.
Any secrets you care to share about upping my Mexican food game?
Almost always some acid. White wine, vinegar, lemon juice.
MSG
This is the correct answer, MSG is a legit game changer. Just 1/8 tsp does wonders in just about everything that’s lacking some oomph.
Greens with a little neutral oil, ginger, garlic, chinkiang vinegar, and that little bit of MSG, stir-fried over ripping high heat for about a minute, beats anything you can get at a restaurant.
It’s sad that some people are still afraid of MSG.
Fish sauce
Fennel seeds and a bit of oil in tomato sauce. First had it at a popular Italian place and I’ve loved it ever since
Salt, acid, fat, heat. In everything.
Acid: vinegar, hot sauce, or some type of citrus. Fat: butter or oil. Heat: Paprika if you only want to pretend but a actually spicy note goes well in almost everything, at least some black pepper.
The heat in “salt, acid, fat, heat” is physical heat from a fire, stove, etc.
And the heat in mine isnt. Always use a little spice. Except maybe desert. Go eat some mayo.
Cocaine /s
The perfect 5 spices:
Salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and MSG.
Almost everything you cook will benefit from these.
I feel like this must be an existing spice blend, because I agree.
Tony Chachere’s (pronounced sash-er-ee) Creole Seasoning. It was my go to meat seasoning when I was younger before I started branching out. Being from Louisiana, we put Tony’s on everything. It’s especially good on fries and eggs. You can basically just substitute the salt in any dish as it’s pretty salty on it’s own.
I am gonna have to get some and try it! I’m sure I’ve had it in a dish before but couldn’t tell you what it tastes like.
Shout out to Old Bay seasoning. Also really tasty on things. The celery seed in it gives it a very distinct flavor.
I do like old bay, mostly in seafood boils. But I grew up on cajun and that’s my heart, lol. Yeah you should have Tony’s around all over where you are. I remember when I lived in Japan I had to order it online, lol
Ginger paste. It’s kind of cheating, but I hate how much time it takes to finely mince ginger to the point where it just disappears into a recipe.
I’ve used it before. It’s handy! My mother in law makes huge jars of ginger garlic paste for using in dishes.
Anchovies
Worcestershire Sauce
Oyster sauce
Sesame oil
Kimchi/ferments/pickles
Gochujang
Chinese 5 spice
Balsamic, Chinese vinegar
Seasoned rice wine
Furikake
Chili oil
Hot sauce - especially a smoked habanero/chipotle
Better than bouillon but used like a flavor concentrate rather than stock
Some of my other favorites like berbere were already mentioned, periperi is in a similar vein
Splash of beer in a stew or bread recipe, also diastatic malt.
Gochujang is good in chili! Like not enough to read as gochujang, but it gives it a little “what is that flavor?” kind of deal.
Furikake is awesome. Buttered noodles with furikake is pretty tasty.
I’ve not tried peri peri. What’s it good in?
Oh also I forgot I went through a brief salt cured egg yolk phase. It was fun to play around with as a topping.
I could see that! I’ve never had it in chili. I found some at the international market near me recently with lemon that was nice for marinating.
Furikake and mayo on rice is my go to lol. I’ll have to try it with noodles some time. I just love the crunch.
I like using peri peri seasoning for meats but I imagine it’d good with roasted veggies as well. It’s salty, smoky, tangy. Although some of the better blends seem to have aromatics. The one I tried seemed like mostly chili and salt similar to soondae salt.
I’ll try peri peri out sometime! Salty and smokey sounds great.
Ajvar.
It’s good to use instead of tomato paste or ketchup in any recipe that calls for it. My favorite is using it as a glaze for meatloaf.
You also shouldn’t underestimate something as simple as smoked salt.
Had to go look up ajvar. It sounds delicious. I must find some.
Smoked salt is great. Love it for finishing dishes.
