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.
God tier.
Almost always some acid. White wine, vinegar, lemon juice.
The soap gene people are going to hate me, but cilantro.
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?
I dig it. But I know several people who have the soap gene.
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.
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.
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!
Fat and vinegar.
Rice? Generous splash of white vinegar into the rice cooker, then a pat of butter at the end to melt in the residual heat. If you want something to pair with stir fry, try drizzling with sesame oil instead.
French fries? Toss 'em with a splash of malt vinegar (they already have oil from the frying).
Salad? Toss it with a splash of a good quality balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. Bonus points for tahini.
Stir fry? Splash some rice vinegar into the pan and drizzle sesame oil over the top at the end.
Pasta? Drizzle of a good quality balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil on the plate.
Pizza? Pat of butter right after you take it out of the oven to melt from the residual heat, then a drizzle of good quality balsamic vinegar.
Vinegar makes sense with rice (e.g. Sushi rice).
I have also started throwing in a piece of dried kombu into the rice cooker with the rice and water. It adds some nice extra flavor.
Malt vinegar on fries 🤤
For the umami thing, black garlic is really good. Kinda like fermented roasted garlic, really nice in soups and stews
My wife hates this one simple trick! For real though makes me gassy but its so good
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.
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
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.
Cocaine /s
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.
I buy a block of hot pot seasoning, keep it in the freezer, and shave some off whenever I need some spicy, salty, mouth numbing goodness. I found one that is made with beef tallow, too, which is nicer than the palm oil kind.
Sichuan peppercorns are great to use to boost many dishes too
