Mine probably isn’t that secret these days, but almost every sauce I add nutritional yeast to. Curry, chilli, bolognese, it just makes them all better.
Acid. Lemon juice, lime juice, vinegar, and/or wine. Salt and acid make the existing flavors fucking pop.
For anything cheesy, add a touch of nutmeg. Not enough to identify it, but enough to know that something changed.
Taste as you go.
Funny story. My partner was making mince meat a little while back and instead of adding nutmeg they accidentally added cinnamon. Actually turned out really good!
Moroccans (and probably others) use cinnamon in savoury dishes like tagines and stuff, so not a terrible mistake to make!
Cinnamon is awesome on pepperoni pizza; throw it on before baking.
Agree with acid. Fuck nutmeg though, I’m tired of sauces with nutmeg. It does not give it a je ne sais quoi, it just makes it taste like fucking nutmeg.
That’s just too much nutmeg.
Correct, and that’s my problem with it: it gets abused too often, so it’s on my “this is why we can’t have nice things” list.
I had to learn to not go overboard with nutmeg, because it’s a very strong flavor that quickly overpowers a dish and when it does, it doesn’t taste nice. But in the correct quantity on the right dish, it’s brilliant.
Nutmeg is great in creamed spinach as well
I have a different secret ingredient in my creamed spinach.
Couldn’t tell you. Every time I make something really good that’s worth repeating, the recipe is immediately wiped from my mind forever. It’s like some monkey’s paw curse that I can only make the thing the most delicious way once.
Also, butter.
I have the same issue with seasonings. I can never remember how much of what i used to make a perfect dish. With all the smart things being made, what we need are smart seasoning containers, just think after a long cooking you sit down to eat and can pull up an app to see you used 2 grams of this 5 grams of that. You mark the dish then next time you’re cooking you pull up the app and it reminds you on how much to use.
You could weigh the containers before and after
Im to dumb and lazy too do that. Hence why smart containers would be nice.
Never measure. Just throw. You know you’ve seasoned it enough when the spirits of your ancestors step in.
I still pine for that ham bone soup I drunk-made after Christmas that one times.
The other secret ingredient is … time
Often I’ll make something and it doesn’t quite taste that great immediately after making it … especially tomato based recipes
Then when you let it sit for a day … it tastes a whole lot better the next day.
True. A lot of sauces are the best in leftovers, but every time, I’m like, “no, this doesn’t taste right, it’s not good, mom taste it and help me,” and then she’s like, “yeah dummy, it’s been on the stove for 5 minutes, give it some time.” I’m not patient.
Tomatoes are shy and take time to work into a dish. That’s why I like to have my sauce simmering before I start the water when making pasta.
Bolognese, i’ll have that simmering for 2-3 hours before i even think about starting the spaghetti,
I get the same. I make something that everyone says is delicious and I genuinely have no idea how much of what went in. I guess it just comes with knowing the basics well enough.
either that, or it only tastes so good the first time, even if your recreate it exactly.
That’s why I’m designing a recipe app where I can keep notes etc for everything I make.
the recipe is immediately wiped from my mind forever
You guys are getting recipes? Jk.
Smell, taste, and timing are the keys to great food. Take a whiff and add what’s missing.
Methodical testing is for sharing results after you have a solid grasp of what tastes good.
MSG
A few years ago I got a big shaker of just straight MSG crystals in the “ethnic foods” aisle of the grocery store, and I put it in so much stuff. It just makes everything taste better. Particularly anything umami
Removed by mod
You can get that anywhere worldwide professional cooks shop. No, it’s often not in grocery store in English speaking countries, but it’s at the wholesaler in 3 lb jars and 10 kg buckets, and (one of the reasons) food tastes better in a restaurant. The other reasons are excessive sugar, fat, cream and butter of course.
King of Flavour
The magic spice
The MSG must flow!
Monosodium glutamate
Uncle Roger approved
Generally, salt or MSG. I find people tend to under-season their dishes, and not layer flavors as they cook.
MSG comes in many forms: cheese, tomato, mushroom, fish sauce, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce… MSG powder.
I’m not taling Uncle Roger portions here. Just a teaspoon of the naturally occurring stuff, a couple splashes of the sauces, or just or a pinch of straight MSG is all it takes to add a bit of savory depth to a dish. I get good feedback about my cooking. Occasionally I overdo the salt, but no so much as to render it inedible. It helps to move the table wine along.
Back incollege, I was a waitress at an Italian restaurant. A lady came in ordered a dish with lots of tomato in it, then demanded I tell the chef she was allergic to MSG, in an accusatory way. What she didn’t know is that I was going to school for a medical based degree, and recently had a professor go off about how MSG is in tons of foods naturally and not to believe the craze about it being bad for you.
“Oh my gosh! You’re allergic to MSG!?! I’m sorry, but all tomatoes contain MSG. Please choose another dish” … “I’m sorry, ma’am but mushrooms have MSG in them too. I’ll talk to my chef and see what suggestions he might have.”
She changed her tone “I’m not allergic, I just don’t want it added… it’s bad for you… blah blah”
I didn’t get tipped, but it was hella satisfying to passive- aggressively educate her.
Based
^ Not this.
No, I think he’s using it as it was meant to be for once “Based on fact”
Yeah, I’ve a customer like that, absolutely convinced he’s allergic to MSG. Pours ketchup all over everything.
Citric acid. It’s like adding lemon juice, except without any added moisture, so it works where too much moisture could pose a problem, like when you are making a pizza, nachos, or frying something in oil. It also never goes bad and is incredibly cheap, I use it all the time and am not even halfway through the $15 bag I bought like 8 years ago.
You can also add citric (and malic and tartaric) acid in the right proportions to turn a sweet juice like orange or pineapple into the equivalent of lime or lemon, and then use that juice like you’d use lime or lemon in cocktails or other recipes
MSG in everything except eggs. Doesn’t go well with eggs for some reason.
In my experience it goes well with eggs too!
Bahaha someone else on here recommended MSG and I was like, “Oh yeah, I should go make some eggs and sprinkle some MSG on there.”
Dry yellow mustard powder in mac and cheese. Not the fiery English or Chinese stuff, just boring American yellow mustard.
I just add a bit of bottled mustard, about half a teaspoon to a box of mac I find to be good, too much more and you start to taste the mustard distinctly.
Adding a bunch of black pepper to it also does good things in my opinion
I use about 2 teaspoons of dijon, and then also something spicy, like Cayanne Pepper.
MSG.
Well as a Hispanic, I’m obligated to say adobo, sazon and or sofrito…
But cumin is fire in a lot of things too… Like wanna add flavor but no salt? Sprinkle in a lil cumin. Mac n cheese with cumin is a vibe.
Doesn’t taste Mexican without some Goya or at least some Knorr.
Just like adding a pinch of salt can improve any dish, adding a dash of Worcestershire sauce can improve them for the same reasons but different taste group.
And more generally, if you taste something and feel like it’s missing something, go through each of the taste groups and consider if that is what it’s missing. Sweet, salty, acidic, umami are the main ones (I’ve never felt like a dish is missing bitterness, but maybe that’s a weakness in my cooking). Spicy isn’t a flavour group but can add to a dish and/or mask a lack of balance.
Also, do this balancing act after you’ve added all the ingredients because they can bring their own biases to the dish.
In my experience, when a dish tastes like it’s missing something, most of the time it’s acid. My go-to is a healthy squirt of yellow mustard.
Smoked paprika. It throw it in a lot of stuff you wouldn’t guess it was in, as it adds a little bit of a smokey flavour.
Been on a huge S. Paprika kick lately. Not sure why I never thought to use it before. It’s basically works wonders on anything (where appropriate)
Even where you wouldn’t think it is appropriate. I make pizza crusts from scratch, and sometimes I put a bit in the dough to give it some flavour.
Sounds delicious (in dungeon) and wholly appropriate—really what I mean’t was savory things. I don’t think it’d be good in, say, lemonade (then again, maybe it would be?).
It’s quite good even just on popcorn.
Salt :D
Lots of home cooks are shy with seasoning in general (but especially salt). While not impossible, it’s fairly hard to over season stuff.
That’s why if you ever look at “miracle season alls” the first ingredients are usually something like “Salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder”.
If you want to be amused, look at these ingredients lists. Often the only difference is what food coloring is used.
For example.
https://www.heb.com/product-detail/tony-chachere-s-original-creole-seasoning/172479
I’ve also found that coarser salt works WAY better for certain stuff.
If it is too fine, for some stuff you have to use a ton or it just disappears, and I don’t really like the result. But if you get the stuff that comes in giant crystals, that’s fantastic for steaks/chicken, stuff where you lay it onto the surface of something to season it. It’s like uneven salt lets you have spots that are way saltier than what would be enjoyable if you salted the whole thing that much, and it ends up tasting better than the same amount of salt applied more evenly.
Sauces, or anything where I want it dissolved, is the only time I use the fine stuff anymore.
I’m pretty much the same way, though I do throw in a bit of fine salt on occasion for the iodine content. I don’t eat a ton of seafood which makes getting the rda of iodine difficult.
While not impossible, it’s fairly hard to over season stuff.
I disagree here. Unless you’re used to overseasoned food already, it’s pretty easy to be heavy handed on the salt.
Yes and no.
Some salts are easier to work with than others. Kosher salt, in particular, is fairly hard to over season with because you can visually see just how much you’ve thrown onto a steak or such. Fine salt, on the other hand, is a lot easier to over season with.
But then it also depends a lot on the dish. Sauces are really hard to over season. The sea of fluid can absorb a fair amount of salt before it’s noticeable. Meats are similar. A steak can have a snow covering of kosher salt and it won’t really taste super salty.
Bread, on the other hand, will be noticeably worse if you throw in a tbs of salt instead a tsp.
But salt wasn’t specifically what I was thinking when I wrote that. Herbal seasoning garlic, rosemary, thyme, sage, etc, generally won’t overpower a dish if you have too much of them. Especially if you aren’t working with the powdered form. (Definitely possible to over season something with garlic salt/powder).
Coffee: just put like a 16th or 32nd of a teaspoon of cayenne in the grounds, gives a depth of flavour people love. Just a miniscule amount, they should never spot it for what it is.
Use a real fucking measurement Jesus christ
It is a “real fucking measurement,” just not one you use. 1 US teaspoon is approximately 5 ml.
I recognize that US measurements are stupid and don’t make any sense to those who don’t use them, i.e. the entire rest of the world, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t real measurements.
Don’t get me wrong, I totally wish I didn’t have to have a chart giving me conversions between teaspoons, tablespoons, and cups on my fridge, but recipes in the US are all in our dumb measurements so it’s what we’re used to. I also wish everything would be measured by weight instead of volume, but here we are.
A (1) teaspoon might be used as a measurement. 1/32 of a Teaspoon is asinine.
Admittedly, yeah. Technically in the US’s stupid system that should be “a half pinch.”
A pinch being 1/16 teaspoon.
Lol, of course they have a name for it
Are all those recipes that call for a “pinch of this” or a “dash of that” suddenly making more sense to you?
I just thought it meant “a bit”, and it basically does because noone can really measure a 16th of a teaspoon
They literally make the spoons for measuring it.
what the fuck are you talking about? They didn’t make teaspoons for measurement purposes… It’s right there in the name.
is this a joke or are you just removed?
expressing a 16th of a teaspoon in mL is just awkward. I’m Canadian, believe me, i understand both systems perfectly well and use what works best situationally.
Are fractions upsetting?
A “table spoon” is already not a proper unit, fractions of it are just abhorrent
Americans use sticks and tablespoons to measure butter and it does my fucking head in. A tablespoon of oil, however, is perfectly acceptable.
“…and then just add .03 pounds of coffee per .0005 tons of cayenne and you’ll be the toast of the town!”
About a quarter of a millilitre.
found the chemical technician
My ex used to go insane following her mother’s recipes for things, which she had to “feel”. Write an SOP or GTFO was usually her motto
learn to cook
Specifically cayenne?
Yes, for a specific effect. It gives a smoky depth of flavour and much improves some shitty coffees. The dude here saying a pinch salt, that works too but a different effect.
I’ve used a dash of salt in french press when I have very few options over how its made, it takes off the bitterness and adds no saltiness.
Not an ingredient necessarily, but I toast rice with spices before cooking it. I throw some oil and garlic in the pot I’m going to cook the rice in, then put in the rice and (for mexican-like dishes) garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, cumin, a little oregano, a little cayenne pepper, and salt. I mix that all up continuously over medium heat for a couple minutes, then I add the water and cook the rice. It makes an incredible difference in taste
Not to discount your rice idea, but isn’t this essentially the directions for Rice-A-Roni?
It completely is and it completely works wonders.
You do similar with risotto too.
Your “secret recipe” is risotto.
