/ck/ - Food & Cooking

feel

>>18336379
Smell what you're cooking, smell some spices you have on hand, see if any seem to "match" in your mind's nose. Taste stuff frequently

>>18336379
Fuck up a lot and keep trying. Add little by little because you can always add more if it’s bland but once you go too far you’re kinda fucked unless you can just make the whole batch bigger or cut it with another a counter flavor. Fat cuts spice and acid cuts saltiness.

>>18336379
here you go anon

>>18336379

>>18336379
.

>>18336419
No its cigarettes and women

>>18336532
no it's alcoholism so you wind up dumping tons of spice it there because your sense of taste is dulled

>>18336379
When you have access to good ingredients the only spices you need are salt and pepper. And MSG.

>>18336555
Your tastebuds are shot because you work in food service and chain smoke so you over spice everything which together with your alcoholism fueled sense of grandiosity results in a 2 star Michelin level dish

>>18336443
>tfw no sense of smell for 11 months because of Covid

>>18336600
precisely or you're a grandmother that's been in the kitchen for 70+ years with another few centuries of handed down experience from working with what you got

>>18336464
>Dried parsley
Useless

>>18337266
if you're buying it from the store but if you grow a decent strain and dry it yourself it has flavor, i use it in dip mixes because fresh adds a green/chlorophyll taste that really stands in dip/sauces

>>18336464
Here, have a slightly less jpeg crushed version.

>>18336379

Unironically feel, passion, and experience. Always remember to reflect on your failures and your successes.

In any other realm i'd consider the above advice trite and faggoty. But with cooking and spices you really do need to cultivate a sense for it and there's no substitute for experience.

As with all things that contain art, start with the traditions. Things we know that work and are universally accepted, even loved. Anon posted a good chart here. After you make something a good 20-100 times (depending on how slow you are) then start to experiment.

If you're having trouble with ratios; Season to taste after you have a small base of all the required spices. Get them all in the dish at a half measure, then go from there.

Another tip: taste your spices. Quality of spices vary wildly due to source and age. One pinch of cayenne from one container could be equivalent to a teaspoon from another. It's best to take a hardy smell and then the smallest of dab on your finger until you know your current batch of spices well.

Remember to have fun anon, and make things with love.

When you think you added the right ammount, double it.

>>18336379
Should look at how you add your spices. Do you bloom it in butter, season the oil first, add it at the end or while it's stewing at the start. Also how you cut or powder your spices or herb. Black pepper for instance should always be freshly cracked. whole cumin, nutmeg and other spices will generally be more vibrant when freshly ground and or toasted in a pan. execution is just as important as amount.

>>18338253
>the other day i sent my dad some photos that were png
>he refused to open them
>mfw i had to convert them to jpeg

>>18338328
this is solid info and rarely talked about in enough detail

>>18336379
Take a look into sausage making, buy a drug scale and experiment with spices. Adding half a g of anything per kg is mostly pretty safe. Some things should be used in way larger quantities like salt obviosly (depending if you're sensible when it comes to salt or not 10-20 g), pepper (2-4 g) or paprika or smaller quantities of potent spices like cinnamon, cloves or similar things.
For herbs use way more than most recipes recommend.

>>18336464
Coca powder in chilli?

>>18340315
Pretty common addition

>>18336379
>I'm so bad at seasoning
>How do you master it?

Be black

>>18340315
staple of Mexican food

>>18340321
Lol.
Lmao, even.

>>18340321
>paprika
>cayenne
>old bay
ez

>>18340315
its not really a seasoning it reduces acidity from the tomatoes and helps fill out the savory profile

>>18336379
>ctrl+f
>practice
>0 results

If you're ever lost, consult a few recipes before you make something, and analyze the results. It does get to a point where you just know your ingredients, and you can extrapolate for new ones based on how they compare to familiar ones. When you can trust your nose and tongue, they're pretty accurate at telling you the flavour compounds in something. It might be subconscious ("Dude, mango lassi's just so good after a blunt! Like, you don't even know dude!") or maybe a little forced ("Oregano and red wine play nicely with garlic, so... ... concord grape jelly with tarragon and shallot?") but you'll start catching the patterns and understanding your herbs, spices, how they play together, when to add them for the results you're after... It might start with research, but in the end, it's all practice.

the trick is adding a shitton of it

>>18336379
You are probably using shitty out of date spices

>>18340892
It depends on the herb/spice/etc. but, yeah, usually.

>>18336379
As you learn recipes and gain experience of the way things taste, you'll start to recognise common flavours in different foods that work together. Plants in the same family usually work well, eg. carrot, coriander, fennel are all Apiaceae. There's a saying that "things that grow together go together" which is usually true, though whether that's just because of cultures creating dishes with what was available I don't know.
Or you can get The Art & Science of Foodpairing and mechanically follow the giant tables of chemicals someone else has compiled.

>>18340892
was about to say it

>>18336555
>sex with a pregnant girl
>implying I would ever have sex with a girl old enough to reproduce.

Season in layers and dont try to fix a dish before its ready with a bulk of spices and salt because that negates the effect salt has during the cooking process. Meme answer: height is flavor the higher you season a dish from the better it tastes try to season from at least 4' above the pan

Seasoning is stupid. Eat whole foods as they are. Stop fucking with shit.

>>18343041
that's extreme even for 4chan

>>18343041
Holy based

>>18343070
Chewing is stupid. Eat whole foods as they are. Stop chewing on shit.

>>18338328
There's also the issue of some spices being too volatile for long-term cooking, thus needing to be added at or near the end.

>>18336464
don't add salt to your spice mix, add it later to taste

>>18344696
if you're experimenting yes you are right but once you know your recipe works its fine