I recently got the following comment: “Would you consider a video on acidity? The different
types, what sort of flavor (in addition to acidity) the types add, and when you'd be
better of with a certain type of acid, for example, when would you be better off with
lemon juice than pomegranate molasses.” Salt and acidity are my favorite topics in
the world. Of course, I’d consider a video about acidity. Here it is.
Acidity or sourness is one of our 5 tastes. Yes, there are only 5 tastes: salty, sweet,
bitter, sour, and umami. This usually comes as a surprise to people because they think
they can taste apples, oranges, bananas, chocolate, etc. The reason you can identify those ingredients
is smell. Humans can detect thousands of smells, but only 5 tastes. When cooks talk about seasoning,
they are talking about adjusting the taste. The two biggest ways to do that is by adding
salt and acidity to food.
I don’t know why many languages associate the word “sour” with “being down or
sad or lacking enthusiasm.” To me, acidity is the taste of happiness. It makes the food
bright and festive. Just think of ceviche, tomato sauce, a spring salad dressed with
a vinaigrette. Acidity is what makes the food sing.
Here are all the acidic ingredients I typically have on hand. Unlike salt, they all come with
some baggage (in a good way). Some are not just acidic, but also sweet, like tomatoes.
Pretty much all acidic ingredients come with a particular aroma: refreshing, funky, fruity,
nutty, etc. It’s really the smell that taps into your food memory more than the taste.
Imagine walking into a New York pizza shop or a French Bakery or a barbeque joint. It
triggers a memory in you before you put anything in your mouth.
If you want your dish to feel Italian, you might want to reach for tomatoes and lemons.
If you want it to feel Latin American, you probably want to use limes. And if you want
it to feel Middle Eastern, you probably want to use pomegranate molasses. There is no need
to be a purist about any of this. It doesn’t mean that you can’t touch up your bolognese
with a bit of pomegranate molasses. But if you want it to be reminiscent of Bologna,
you might want the majority of your acidity to come from tomatoes and white wine.
Besides trying to evoke a particular region, acidity can also help you evoke a time of
year. If you are dressing a hearty dish, like roasted brussels sprouts, pomegranate molasses
or balsamic vinegar might help you underscore that heartiness. If you are dressing a spring
salad, you might want to use a lemon or lime to underscore its freshness. These are not
rules. These are just ways to tap into people’s memories and emotions.
A very big question to consider when adding acidic ingredients is the timing. Do you add
them in the beginning or in the end of cooking? Here I can cleanly divide all my acidic ingredients
into 2 big categories. Beginning and the end. Tomatoes, wine, and any other alcoholic ingredients
are usually added in the beginning.
There are a couple of reasons for that: to evaporate the alcohol and to concentrate the
flavor. Vinegars, pomegranate molasses, and citrus juice are best added in the very end.
They are much more sour than tomatoes and wine, so you can only use a tiny bit. If you
cook them for a while, all the aroma will evaporate into the air before you serve the
dish. At that point you might as well be using distilled vinegar. The whole reason you squeezed
a fresh lemon or bought balsamic vinegar or pomegranate molasses is for their fabulous
aroma, so don’t let it get lost.
I know this is a video about acidity not alcohol, but any reasonable person should probably
be asking me right now, why do we cook with alcohol if we want it all to evaporate? First
of all, it never all evaporates. How much is left depends on how long you cook it, and
how deep a layer of alcohol you started with in your pan. For example if I poured a full
bottle of wine into my short-ribs and put them in a 300 degree oven for 3 to 4 hours,
I would have roughly 5% or the original level of alcohol remaining in the end of cooking.
So if someone who is pregnant tells you that they can’t have beef braised in wine, you
can explain to them that the amount of alcohol in one portion is roughly equivalent to 1
tsp of wine. Even if they ate the entire pot of those shortribs, they’d be just fine.
What’s interesting is the effect the alcohol has on how aromatic the dish is. Have you
noticed how vanilla extract is made with alcohol and not with water? And if you want to bloom
some saffron, it’s best to do it in wine and not in water. Alcohol’s volatility makes
it an amazing carrier of aromas. Basically, it encourages the ingredients to release some
of their particles into the air, which then enter your nose, so when you get close to
that beef stew you made with red wine, it smells so beefy. It’s no surprise that boeuf
bourguignon is so captivating and memorable. It just smells so much beefier because of
wine.
There is no need to splurge on expensive wines because the more subtle notes of wine's own
aroma will be gone after you cook it and a cheap wine will make that beef smell just
as beefy as an expensive wine. For white, I use Charles Shaw’s Sauvignon Blanc from
Trader Joe’s, better known as Two Buck Chuck. At the moment, my favorite red wine to cook
with is this Languedoc-Roussillon table wine. It’s not expensive -- around $9. One thing
I would warn you about is cooking with reds that are too tannic. They can taste extremely
harsh and aggressive when cooked. That’s why I don’t like cabernet sauvignon in cooking.
Oh yeah, I should probably explain the term tannin. That’s the sandpapery feeling you
get in your mouth from red wines. Some more than others. White wines don’t have any
tannin. The tannins come from the skins of the grape. Reds are made with skins and whites
are made without.
Just a warning that your favorite type of wine to drink might not be your favorite wine
to cook with. I love pinot noirs for their acidity, but using too much of them in a dish
that goes through a long reduction can produce overly sour results, so I either need to use
more stock and less wine or choose a less acidic wine. So the moral of the story is
to experiment until you find a wine you like to cook with.
No need to open a new bottle every time you need some for cooking. Just keep your wine
in the fridge after you open it and use it up within a month or two.
Ok, enough about wine. Let’s talk about me. Where would your salad dressing be without
me, ha?
You are right mustard. You do have some pretty awesome superpowers.
What mustard gets you besides acidity is bitterness and emulsification. Bitterness is not a bad
thing. Coffee, chocolate, arugula -- those are all bitter ingredients. The key is to
balance bitterness with sweetness, acidity, and salt. The reason mustard is key in salad
dressings is its emulsifying quality. If you add some to your vinegar or lemon juice, and
then slowly drizzle in the oil, mustard can help hold them together. Not forever. It’s
not a strong emulsifier like an egg yolk, but just long enough for you to dress that
salad and eat it. I like Dijon mustard for its smell and it’s balance of bitterness
and acidity.
I often get questions in class about using bottled citrus juice. To me that completely
defeats the purpose. In order for the juice to be bottled, it has to be pasteurized and
stripped of oxygen which removes pretty much all of the aroma. At that point, why not just
use vinegar? It’s really not that hard to keep some lemons and limes on hand. If you
keep them in the fridge, they last for months, so I don’t even view them as perishables.
To me, they are pantry items that I always have on hand. In most cooking applications,
the citrus juice is used after you are all done with heat. You might add a squirt to
a finished fish dish or a vegetable. If you want to increase the aroma without increasing
the acidity, use the zest.
As far as the vinegars go, there are gazillion options. Why do I have the ones I have? I
guess I like having a range of intensity. Rice wine vinegar is the least sour and least
funky smelling. I love it in sushi rice and in quick pickles. Apple cider vinegar is more
intense and fruity. If I am using fruit in a salad, like apples or pears, it seems like
a good match. Red wine vinegar is really aggressive. I use it when I am dressing a salad made with
roasted vegetables, like my smoky cauliflower salad or making a very intense sauce like
romesco. The links for all these dishes are in the description below.
Balsamic vinegar has a very distinctive, somewhat funky aroma. It’s great in salads, bean
dishes, meat dishes. Unless you are shooting for a refreshing feel, you can’t go wrong
with balsamic vinegar.
I don’t buy expensive vinegars, and I don’t have any particular brands that I like more
than others. Though maybe it’s because I haven’t done a side by side comparison yet.
Canned tomato brands is something I do have an opinion on because I have done a side by
side comparison. The link to my taste test is below. I have settled on Pomi, but there
are many other good ones to choose from.
By the way, tomato paste is a fabulous acidity booster. Since I normally only need a spoonful
or two, I portion the rest of the jar and wrap it up in plastic wrap and store in my
freezer.
And last but not least is pomegranate molasses. One day I need to be buried with a bottle
of this stuff. It’s acidic, sweet, nutty, and viscous. To me it’s the most sensual
acidic ingredient on earth. My favorite brand of this liquid gold is Cortas.
Now you know all the acidic ingredients that live in my pantry. Do you have a favorite
acidic ingredient you want to share? Let me know in the comments.
Here are more thought provoking videos for you to check out and if you are ever in the
Boston area, maybe I’ll see you in one of my classes.