Foodpairing
Encyclopedia
Foodpairing is a method for identifying which food
s go well together. The method is based on the principle that foods combine well with one another when they share key flavor components
. Foodpairing is a relatively new method and is often confused with "wine and food pairing
", which is the practice of matching wine with food. Such a practice is often done by experience and has little scientific background.
design and provides new possible food
combinations, which are theoretically sound on a the basis of their flavor
.
Foodpairing provides possible food
combinations, which are solely based on the intrinsic properties of the different food
products, they are based on the flavor compounds
which are present in the products. This results in possible combinations that are innovative and are not influenced or restricted by cultural and traditional context of the products. This independence occasionally results in surprising and unusual combinations, for example: endives in a dessert, white chocolate
and caviar
, chocolate
and cauliflower
. Even as they are unusual, these combinations are quite tasty, because the combined food
products have flavor components
in common. The foodpairing methodology opens a whole new world of possible food
combinations.
Secondly, foodpairing is able to provide a basis for the success of traditionally settled food
combinations. It is not a coincidence that the vast majority of the traditional top hit combinations, like bacon
and cheese
, asparagus
and butter
have many flavor components
in common. By applying the foodpairing method to recipe design, the chance for successful combinations is certainly more likely.
Currently there are only a few websites that provide ingredient combinations based on foodpairing. Foodpairing is not to be confused with recipe based, ingredient match finders. These search engines provide matching ingredients based on their combination occurrence in a vast recipe database. Such tools do not provide ingredient matches based on the definition of foodpairing, nor do they offer new combinations, since a proposed match can always be found in another recipe. Nevertheless these tools can be an inspiration in recipe design.
, Heston Blumenthal
, chef of The Fat Duck
, discovered that caviar
and white chocolate
are a perfect match. To find out why, he contacted François Benzi of Firmenich
, the largest privately owned flavor
house in the world. By comparing the flavor analysis of both foods, they found that caviar and white chocolate had major flavor components in common. At that time they stated a hypothesis that different foods will combine well together when they share major flavor components, and foodpairing was born.
In 2007, a user-friendly platform for foodpairing was launched at Lo mejor de la gastronomia. It was a website where visitors could choose ingredients and view which other food
products could go well it. In 2009, The Flanders Taste foundation organized a gastronomic symposium, The Flemish Primitives, completely dedicated to foodpairing.
s are determined with the aid of gas chromatography, which in most cases is coupled with a mass spectrometer (GC-MS). The odorants are also quantified with other techniques. Key odorants
can be identified by comparing the concentrations of the odorants with their respective flavor threshold. Key odorants are the compounds that a human will effectively smell. They are defined as every compound that is present in concentrations higher than their specific flavor threshold.
For example, coffee
contains 700 different aroma compounds, but there are only a couple aromas
important for the smell of coffee because most of the aromas are present in concentrations that are not perceptible with the nose
; they are present in concentrations lower than their flavor threshold.
The key odorants are essential to compose the flavor profile
of the given product. The resultant flavor profile is screened against a database of other foods. Products which have flavor components in common with the original ingredient
are retained. These products could be combined with the original ingredient. With this information, a foodpairing tree is built.
The essence of foodpairing is the practice of combining different foods that share the same major flavor components. Comparing the flavors of individual ingredients can result in new and unexpected combinations, such as strawberries paired with peas
. This combination was adopted by Sang Hoon Degeimbre, chef of L’air du temps in Belgium
.
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
s go well together. The method is based on the principle that foods combine well with one another when they share key flavor components
Flavor
Flavor or flavour is the sensory impression of a food or other substance, and is determined mainly by the chemical senses of taste and smell. The "trigeminal senses", which detect chemical irritants in the mouth and throat as well as temperature and texture, are also very important to the overall...
. Foodpairing is a relatively new method and is often confused with "wine and food pairing
Wine and food matching
Wine and food matching is the process of pairing food dishes with wine to enhance the dining experience. In many cultures, wine has had a long history of being a staple at the dinner table and in some ways both the winemaking and culinary traditions of a region will have evolved together over the...
", which is the practice of matching wine with food. Such a practice is often done by experience and has little scientific background.
Introduction
The foodpairing method is designed to inspire chef, foodies, home cooks and food engineers. The method aids recipeRecipe
A recipe is a set of instructions that describe how to prepare or make something, especially a culinary dish.-Components:Modern culinary recipes normally consist of several components*The name of the dish...
design and provides new possible food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
combinations, which are theoretically sound on a the basis of their flavor
Flavor
Flavor or flavour is the sensory impression of a food or other substance, and is determined mainly by the chemical senses of taste and smell. The "trigeminal senses", which detect chemical irritants in the mouth and throat as well as temperature and texture, are also very important to the overall...
.
Foodpairing provides possible food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
combinations, which are solely based on the intrinsic properties of the different food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
products, they are based on the flavor compounds
Flavor
Flavor or flavour is the sensory impression of a food or other substance, and is determined mainly by the chemical senses of taste and smell. The "trigeminal senses", which detect chemical irritants in the mouth and throat as well as temperature and texture, are also very important to the overall...
which are present in the products. This results in possible combinations that are innovative and are not influenced or restricted by cultural and traditional context of the products. This independence occasionally results in surprising and unusual combinations, for example: endives in a dessert, white chocolate
White chocolate
White chocolate is a confectionery derivative of chocolate. It commonly consists of cocoa butter, sugar, milk solids and salt, and is characterized by a pale yellow or ivory appearance...
and caviar
Caviar
Caviar, sometimes called black caviar, is a luxury delicacy, consisting of processed, salted, non-fertilized sturgeon roe. The roe can be "fresh" or pasteurized, the latter having much less culinary and economic value....
, chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
and cauliflower
Cauliflower
Cauliflower is one of several vegetables in the species Brassica oleracea, in the family Brassicaceae. It is an annual plant that reproduces by seed...
. Even as they are unusual, these combinations are quite tasty, because the combined food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
products have flavor components
Flavor
Flavor or flavour is the sensory impression of a food or other substance, and is determined mainly by the chemical senses of taste and smell. The "trigeminal senses", which detect chemical irritants in the mouth and throat as well as temperature and texture, are also very important to the overall...
in common. The foodpairing methodology opens a whole new world of possible food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
combinations.
Secondly, foodpairing is able to provide a basis for the success of traditionally settled food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
combinations. It is not a coincidence that the vast majority of the traditional top hit combinations, like bacon
Bacon
Bacon is a cured meat prepared from a pig. It is first cured using large quantities of salt, either in a brine or in a dry packing; the result is fresh bacon . Fresh bacon may then be further dried for weeks or months in cold air, boiled, or smoked. Fresh and dried bacon must be cooked before eating...
and cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
, asparagus
Asparagus
Asparagus officinalis is a spring vegetable, a flowering perennialplant species in the genus Asparagus. It was once classified in the lily family, like its Allium cousins, onions and garlic, but the Liliaceae have been split and the onion-like plants are now in the family Amaryllidaceae and...
and butter
Butter
Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying...
have many flavor components
Flavor
Flavor or flavour is the sensory impression of a food or other substance, and is determined mainly by the chemical senses of taste and smell. The "trigeminal senses", which detect chemical irritants in the mouth and throat as well as temperature and texture, are also very important to the overall...
in common. By applying the foodpairing method to recipe design, the chance for successful combinations is certainly more likely.
Currently there are only a few websites that provide ingredient combinations based on foodpairing. Foodpairing is not to be confused with recipe based, ingredient match finders. These search engines provide matching ingredients based on their combination occurrence in a vast recipe database. Such tools do not provide ingredient matches based on the definition of foodpairing, nor do they offer new combinations, since a proposed match can always be found in another recipe. Nevertheless these tools can be an inspiration in recipe design.
History
Experimenting with salty ingredients and chocolateChocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
, Heston Blumenthal
Heston Blumenthal
Heston Marc Blumenthal OBE is an English chef and owner of The Fat Duck, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Bray, Berkshire voted Best Restaurant in the UK by The Good Food Guide 2007 and 2009, and voted best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine in 2005...
, chef of The Fat Duck
The Fat Duck
The Fat Duck is a restaurant run by chef Heston Blumenthal in Bray, Berkshire, England. The restaurant is known for its menu of unusual dishes, created following the principles of molecular gastronomy examples include: "snail porridge", "sardine on toast sorbet", "bacon and egg ice cream", and...
, discovered that caviar
Caviar
Caviar, sometimes called black caviar, is a luxury delicacy, consisting of processed, salted, non-fertilized sturgeon roe. The roe can be "fresh" or pasteurized, the latter having much less culinary and economic value....
and white chocolate
White chocolate
White chocolate is a confectionery derivative of chocolate. It commonly consists of cocoa butter, sugar, milk solids and salt, and is characterized by a pale yellow or ivory appearance...
are a perfect match. To find out why, he contacted François Benzi of Firmenich
Firmenich
Firmenich SA is a private Swiss company in the perfume and flavor business, it is the largest privately-owned company in the perfume and flavor business, and ranks number two worldwide., Firmenich has created many of the world’s favorite perfumes for over 100 years and produced a number of the most...
, the largest privately owned flavor
Flavor
Flavor or flavour is the sensory impression of a food or other substance, and is determined mainly by the chemical senses of taste and smell. The "trigeminal senses", which detect chemical irritants in the mouth and throat as well as temperature and texture, are also very important to the overall...
house in the world. By comparing the flavor analysis of both foods, they found that caviar and white chocolate had major flavor components in common. At that time they stated a hypothesis that different foods will combine well together when they share major flavor components, and foodpairing was born.
In 2007, a user-friendly platform for foodpairing was launched at Lo mejor de la gastronomia. It was a website where visitors could choose ingredients and view which other food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
products could go well it. In 2009, The Flanders Taste foundation organized a gastronomic symposium, The Flemish Primitives, completely dedicated to foodpairing.
Methodology
Foodpairing starts with an analysis of a food. The aroma compoundAroma compound
An aroma compound, also known as odorant, aroma, fragrance or flavor, is a chemical compound that has a smell or odor...
s are determined with the aid of gas chromatography, which in most cases is coupled with a mass spectrometer (GC-MS). The odorants are also quantified with other techniques. Key odorants
Key odorants
A Key odorant is a volatile compound that is present in concentrations higher than their specific flavor threshold.Key odorants are these compounds that you will effectively smell. Food products contain a lot of different volatile compounds, odorants. Some of them are present in such small...
can be identified by comparing the concentrations of the odorants with their respective flavor threshold. Key odorants are the compounds that a human will effectively smell. They are defined as every compound that is present in concentrations higher than their specific flavor threshold.
For example, coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
contains 700 different aroma compounds, but there are only a couple aromas
Aromas
Aromas may refer to:* Odors, particularly pleasant ones, or* Aromas, California, or* Aromas, Jura, one of the 545 communes of the Jura département, in France* Aromas Coffee, an Australian coffee house...
important for the smell of coffee because most of the aromas are present in concentrations that are not perceptible with the nose
Human nose
The visible part of the human nose is the protruding part of the face that bears the nostrils. The shape of the nose is determined by the ethmoid bone and the nasal septum, which consists mostly of cartilage and which separates the nostrils...
; they are present in concentrations lower than their flavor threshold.
The key odorants are essential to compose the flavor profile
Aroma compound
An aroma compound, also known as odorant, aroma, fragrance or flavor, is a chemical compound that has a smell or odor...
of the given product. The resultant flavor profile is screened against a database of other foods. Products which have flavor components in common with the original ingredient
Ingredient
An ingredient is a substance that forms part of a mixture . For example, in cooking, recipes specify which ingredients are used to prepare a specific dish. Many commercial products contain a secret ingredient that is purported to make them better than competing products...
are retained. These products could be combined with the original ingredient. With this information, a foodpairing tree is built.
The essence of foodpairing is the practice of combining different foods that share the same major flavor components. Comparing the flavors of individual ingredients can result in new and unexpected combinations, such as strawberries paired with peas
PEAS
P.E.A.S. is an acronym in artificial intelligence that stands for Performance, Environment, Actuators, Sensors.-Performance:Performance is a function that measures the quality of the actions the agent did....
. This combination was adopted by Sang Hoon Degeimbre, chef of L’air du temps in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
.
See also
- CookingCookingCooking is the process of preparing food by use of heat. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely across the world, reflecting unique environmental, economic, and cultural traditions. Cooks themselves also vary widely in skill and training...
- Culinary ArtCulinary artCulinary art is the art of preparing and cooking foods. The word "culinary" is defined as something related to, or connected with, cooking. A culinarion is a person working in the culinary arts. A culinarian working in restaurants is commonly known as a cook or a chef. Culinary artists are...
- FlavorFlavorFlavor or flavour is the sensory impression of a food or other substance, and is determined mainly by the chemical senses of taste and smell. The "trigeminal senses", which detect chemical irritants in the mouth and throat as well as temperature and texture, are also very important to the overall...
- Flavor threshold
- Food combiningFood combiningFood combining is a term for a nutritional approach that advocates specific combinations of foods as central to good health and weight loss...
- Key odorant
- Molecular gastronomyMolecular gastronomyMolecular gastronomy is a subdiscipline of food science that seeks to investigate, explain and make practical use of the physical and chemical transformations of ingredients that occur while cooking, as well as the social, artistic and technical components of culinary and gastronomic phenomena in...
- Molecular mixologyMolecular mixologyMolecular Mixology is the term applied to the process of creating cocktails using the scientific equipment and techniques of molecular gastronomy....
- OdorOdorAn odor or odour is caused by one or more volatilized chemical compounds, generally at a very low concentration, that humans or other animals perceive by the sense of olfaction. Odors are also commonly called scents, which can refer to both pleasant and unpleasant odors...
- RecipeRecipeA recipe is a set of instructions that describe how to prepare or make something, especially a culinary dish.-Components:Modern culinary recipes normally consist of several components*The name of the dish...
- Wine and food matchingWine and food matchingWine and food matching is the process of pairing food dishes with wine to enhance the dining experience. In many cultures, wine has had a long history of being a staple at the dinner table and in some ways both the winemaking and culinary traditions of a region will have evolved together over the...