How to fix a recipe

[lovecooking64]

Have you ever seen the tongue diagram explaining the 5 taste receptors on the tongue? Probably everyone has at some point.

The taste receptors teach us of the 5 flavors we taste Sweet Sour, Salt, Bitter, and Umami. The important thing to remember when trying to “fix” a recipe is the opposite flavors. If the dish or sauce is too…

Sweet: add vinegar, wine, lemon
Sour: add sugar or honey
Salty; diluted it by adding more of the base
Bitter: add fat, a tab of butter will reduce bitterness

When cooking be sure to have the fixers with you. I always have brown sugar, white wine, salt, pepper, and oil with me. Most households will have butter in the frig, and possibly vinegar in the cabinet. I have dug through cabinets looking for fixers. This can happen when you pull some random recipe off the internet, or your client sends you a recipe to make for them. Being prepared to fix will never fail you! Play around with it. Knowing how to fix something is important to know and pretty easy once you done it a time or two.

Serving you,
Chef Donna

 

[Morning Glory]

The taste receptors teach us of the 5 flavors we taste Sweet Sour, Salt, Bitter, and Umami.

Hey - what about hot (as in chilli hot)? Some say there are 7 tastes: bitter, salty, sour, astringent, sweet, pungent (eg chili), and umami.

Its good advice you give here - something I do automatically when cooking is to taste look for that right balance. Salty is the most difficult thing to fix as you can't always dilute the base.