Questions tagged [flavor]
Questions on understanding and manipulating the flavor of foods. Not for "what goes with X?" which is generally off-topic. Please don't use if the only connection is that you want better-tasting food, this is implied in every question on the site.
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How to clear your palate between different flavored dishes when cooking?
I found myself making a couple of disparate-tasting dishes. One was a salad dressing with blue cheeses and garlic, and another was meat flavored with thyme and rosemary.
I tried to taste both while ...
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extracting banana flavour for an iced coffee
Now that the sun has started to shine in the frozen north I can start thinking on using my espresso machine for some cold drinks. I was thinking of a banana iced coffee. But I would like a more ...
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Great sauce but tiny hint of bitterness
Made a hot sauce recently that has common ingredients found in many hot sauces. Habaneros, onions, garlic, carrots, lime juice, sugar, vinegar, tomato, salt and fruit. I used a mix of habeneros and ...
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Molasses - “Full Flavor” vs “Mild Flavor”
What is the difference between Full Flavor and Mild Flavor of molasses?
Is it produced differently? Contents differ? Is the mild a diluted form of the other?
When to use which one in what kind of ...
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What is the delicious brown layer that appears when you fry or bake apples, plums, apricots, etc.?
When one fries or bakes various fruits, like apples, plums, and apricots, they acquire a (patched) brown to black layer where they have touched the pan or the hot air. It tastes deliciously tart and ...
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How can I get the most flavor out of cashews?
I'd like to make a soup that uses cashews for much of its flavor. For some reason, I can only use a limited number of cashews, but I can use them in any way I want.
How can I get the most cashew ...
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Does Paprika extract actually taste of Paprika?
I’m looking to use paprika extract to flavour a dish, however upon googling it there really is no mention of this extract being used in this context. From what I can see its use is mainly to colour ...
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How to make good looking cake pops?
I've tried to make cake pops a few times but they never came out as beautiful and tidy as the pictures I found on the web. I would love to try more and more to nail the goal but I think I must know ...
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What flavors complement pistachio (pudding specifically)? [closed]
My department at work is having a potluck holiday lunch, and I've settled on making something really easy and low-effort: a pistachio pudding pie.
Instant pudding in a store-bought crust actually ...
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Why did my salsa go bitter?
Recently I made 2 separate batches of salsa from the same ingredients:
1x Red Capsicum
1x Brown Onion
3x Green chilis
Half a head of garlic
Salt
Sugar
Lime Juice
The first batch was great. I dirced ...
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How do I make tasty seitan in a pressure cooker?
Today I made my first seitan. I mixed gluten some spices and herbs with cold water and kneaded a bit, then boiled in broth for 40 minutes; I failed to leave it undisturbed. When done, the chunks were ...
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Which wines have a strong, bitter flavor?
I experimented with adding wine and dark chocolate to a sauce. The result was generally OK, but the wine was not strong enough in comparison to the chocolate, I would have liked more of its taste to ...
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Dairy suddenly has an odd taste
Over the past year, more and more brands of dairy product — and some other products containing milk as an ingredient — have suddenly begun tasting odd to me. I can't quite describe the flavor; it's ...
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How do taco trucks get their soft taco shells to have a slightly oily texture and more complex taste?
When I get tacos from a taco truck or the more authentic Mexican restaurants here, the soft corn taco shells often have a somewhat oily texture and are a darker color than the shells are prior to ...
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Undoing the flavor effects of baking soda in cooking
I recently learned that if you put a bit of sodium bicarbonate on onion when frying it, the onion will literally melt away. This is absolutely amazing, and I love that trick.
But I tried it now when I ...
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How does the quantity of salt change after the steaming stage when cooking pulao?
When making pulao1, I taste the salt in the broth before the steaming stage (also called dum). At this time, the saltiness is just right. But after the rice has finished steaming, it is less salty ...
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How to make flavoured salt for potato chips
A chips shop offers potato chips (french fries, in the US) in different flavour like chicken, chicken roast, bar b q, et cetera. I saw they make simple potato chips and then add a salt type stuff to ...
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To chop or to blend?
Many dishes start off by finely chopping and then frying vegetables (usually onions, carrots, celery and maybe garlic) to get a good flavour base.
If you want to get the maximum flavour would it not ...
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Does butter reduce perceived sweetness?
In another question I ask about the ideal flour, sugar, butter ratio to use in crumble. It appears that the amount of sugar people add in their recipes depends more closely on how much butter is added ...
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GIving that alcoholic taste to yeast-leavened cakes (panettones)
For the last 3 new year evenings I've tried to make panettones (both chocolate and fruit ones) and my recipe is getting better, with the last one being the first reasonably successful one. However I ...
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After I eat some foods beer tastes weird?
I'm an obsessive home brewer. So I'm always trying to critically evaluate the flavour of beers I make with a view to constantly improving their quality. In particular I am searching for off-flavours, ...
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Used Sweetened yoghurt in savoury dish - how to correct?
While making lamb and spinach curry, by accident I used sweetened natural yoghurt, instead of unsweetened. How can I disguise the sweet taste? I have added more spices, and also lemon juice.
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How can goat milk be prepared to reduce the 'hairy' after taste it has?
I have bought goat milk as an alternative to cow milk. Others and myself say that there is a strong 'hairy' after taste which makes it less pleasant. Adding sugar does not dilute/reduce that taste. Is ...
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What are some flavors that have a strong early presence?
I've just started using Soylent and I'm in the process of making it more palatable. Most of the flavors I've tried adding help, but they come in as an aftertaste.
What are some flavors I can try ...
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Does the biological classification of food have a relation to taste?
As a concrete example, both tomato and potato are in the nightshade family as defined by their biological classification.
However, I don't think a tomato tastes like a potato at all.
Obviously the ...
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How to get a cake or pie like flavor with tea?
My fiancée and I are becoming heavy tea drinkers. We wish to get our own flavored tea from raw leaves and other ingredients. I want to reproduce the flavor of an apple and cinnamon pie.
To do so, I ...
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Keeping the taste consistent in hummus after initial cooking
I make hummus a lot and love the taste. My recipe is pretty refined now - it could probably go commercial.
There's one problem though: the taste degrades substantially after a night or so, and I'd ...
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What is the maximum temperature to use when cooking with flavor oils?
I'm using standard LorAnn's flavoring oils, which are supposed to be for 'high temperature' cooking with candy.
So far 275 degrees F works as far as the flavor goes, but it's bad for efficiency, as ...
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Why does my apple crumble develop a bitter aftertaste?
I tend to make Apple Crumble in a very basic way, using Bramley apples cooked down with plenty of sugar ( enough to leave a little tartness to balance out the sweet crumble mix ) and a bit of cinnamon....
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Is sweet-tasting raw kale normal?
I just tried eating kale for the first time, raw, in a salad without any dressings, and to my surprise it did not taste bitter at all unlike descriptions of its taste that I've seen online. In fact it ...
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How to make sweet-tasting noodles?
I've never made noodle dough before, and I want to try it today. However, I'd like to make the noodles more sweet.
Is the base ingredient ratio for making the noodle dough one egg per 100g flour?
...
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What are the main flavours/aroma compounds of the Scottish soft drink "Irn-Bru" (Iron Brew)?
Those familiar with the Scottish soft drink Irn-Bru may be familiar with the marketing slogan: "made from girders." This is due to the drink's taste which some describe as having a metallic ...
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How to make beans more neutral tasting?
I am looking for a way to process beans, or a variety of bean that is as flavourless as possible, to get a "clean slate" for making vegetarian cutlets
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Can salt make sour fruit seem sweeter?
I got a little debate started via the comments on this answer. The poster suggests the use of salt to make a sour kiwifruit-sauce taste sweeter in the same way you would use salt to make something ...
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Why are my potatoes sour?
I've noticed that when we roast potatoes in the oven, they will often have a very sharp tangy aftertaste to me, and often that taste will linger in the back of my mouth for a while after I've finished ...
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How to infuse coconut flavor into nuts?
While traveling abroad, I purchased a small bag of salted cashews at a convenience store. I immediately noticed that they have a distinctively different taste from what I'm used to; slightly more ...
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What are good ways to flavor water? [closed]
I'm having a hard time to keep hydrated... and really, I think a good part of it is that straight water is really meh.
I know of ways to flavor water, but I find fruits to be a bother (you then have ...
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How to add flavor to potato soup (using minimally processed ingredients)? [closed]
I've made my first potato soup and it has no taste.
Just to get an idea this is how I made it: chopped and onion and a carrot and place them with some oil to fry. After the onion got brown, I added ...
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How to get the flavors to meld when I add fruit and sugar to plain yogurt?
I've recently taken a liking to greek yogurt. So far, I've been buying the Chobani low-fat and non-fat yogurts, which all have flavoring added. I've recently bought a container of plain greek yogurt, ...
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what is the ingredient that makes my takeout lo mein smoky tasting?
Have a great place for Chinese takeout. Love their Lo Mein. It has a great smoky taste. Alas when reheating left overs, the smoky taste is gone. Would like to replace/add to the Lo Mein, but not ...
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Amount of fresh rosemary
I am making a hearty vegetable soup in a 5 quart slow cooker. I’m not familiar with using rosemary in dishes and don’t want to ruin the soup. Can someone share with me the amount I should use to help ...
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Coconut rice; should it taste like coconut?
I made coconut rice yesterday with a simple recipe (coconut milk, water, tsp sugar, pinch of salt, rice, all in the rice cooker).
I was a little bit underwhelmed by the output; the rice was cooked ...
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Why is mixing good whiskey with cola/ginger ale frowned upon? [closed]
I ordered a Jameson and ginger ale at a pub the other night and my brother asked me why I wasn't ordering it neat or on the rocks, since it was "pretty good" whiskey. Right now I'm having some good ...
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What happens to lemon juice when boiled?
Does anyone know what happens to the flavor of lemon juice when it's boiled?
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Why does the sour taste in yogurt increase with time?
If we let yogurt sit for more days, the yogurt becomes more and more sour. Why does that happen?
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Why is vinegar not applied to rice used for onigiri like rice for sushi?
So sushi and onigiri (rice balls) are similar to a naive eye to me wherein there's some shaped rice.
Sushi usually gets some vinegar for taste and to help it stick to my understanding.
Yet onigiri ...
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Flavor of wasabi, horseradish, mustard, capers, and jalapeño
What is the name of the flavor of wasabi, horseradish, mustard, capers, and jalapeño?
Unfortunately, I'm not fond of the taste of the above ingredients.
To me, they taste similar.
I don't mind the ...
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Butter and Butter Flavored Shortening
I have a cookie recipe I am trying for the first time, and it calls for both shortening and butter. I only have butter-flavored shortening on hand for the shortening. Should I reduce the amount of ...
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What effect have bay leaves in a meat/tomato sauce?
A bolognese-type sauce recipe I usually do uses ground beef, canned tomatoes, onions, carrots, chilli, garlic and bay leaf. The bay leaf gets cooked with the rest for a while and the sauce tastes ...
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How to balance out sourness of lemon juice, specifically in a mayonnaise?
I've just made some mayonnaise, and it's turned out fine - texture wise. However, I used too much lemon juice when I made it. What are the possible ways to balance this out, mellowing the 'zing'? It's ...