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.
Real talk
God tier.
I know this is controversial, but garlic.
I agree. I’m always generous with the garlic. Best way to start is frying garlic and onions in butter/oil.
I like adding the garlic gradually as I cook, so that I get the full range of flavors that develop
Why would it be controversial? Garlic is delicious, and none of us are vampires. Or at least I’m not. I promise. >_>
Oh, I was just being a smartass.
Just don’t make out with me because I’ll give you garlic breath by proxy.
Almost always some acid. White wine, vinegar, lemon juice.
Fish sauce
I made caramel one time with some fish sauce in it. It was pretty good!
It’s like a cheat code for food.
Edit: which I find out two seconds later is a phrase someone else already used. But the sentiment stands. Fish sauce is magic.
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?
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, removediang 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.
Ethiopian Berbere seasoning. A lot of places make a blend with too much cayenne, but if you can find one that isn’t especially spicy, it’s an incredible earthy umami flavor you can put in almost anything.
A coworker of mine brought some back for me from Ethiopia. It’s so good!
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.
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.
Salt
Cinnamon
I like to throw a cinnamon stick into stews sometimes, or in chili.
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
Cocaine /s
Anchovy paste. When I make tomato sauce I like to fry all my aromatics together with some minced calabrese salami and then I push everything to the side and sautee about a teaspoon of anchovy paste in the reserve oil until it gets fragrant and then incorporate it in with everything else and finish the sauce and oh hell it is amazing. It’s not for every dish but when you want to drop a killer umami bomb into something like a broth or a stew it is unreal.
Yes! So good! I need to go out and get some anchovy paste now.
Just get decent oil packed anchovies. The fish that they use for paste are of lower quality. Deviled eggs is another dish where a bit can do some pretty heavy lifting.
Good call! I can def. see it in deviled eggs.
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.
