2y ago

What's an ingredient you love to use to amp up your cooking?

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.

71 comments

Smoked Paprika.
- Real talk
- God tier.

- I agree. I'm always generous with the garlic. Best way to start is frying garlic and onions in butter/oil.
  
  I like adding the garlic gradually as I cook, so that I get the full range of flavors that develop
- Why would it be controversial? Garlic is delicious, and none of us are vampires. Or at least I'm not. I promise. >_>

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
- 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.
- I made caramel one time with some fish sauce in it. It was pretty good!

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

The perfect 5 spices:
Salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and MSG.
Almost everything you cook will benefit from these.

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

Cocaine /s

Salt

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

Tony Chachere's (pronounced sash-er-ee) Creole Seasoning. It was my go to meat seasoning when I was younger before I started branching out. Being from Louisiana, we put Tony's on everything. It's especially good on fries and eggs. You can basically just substitute the salt in any dish as it's pretty salty on it's own.
- I am gonna have to get some and try it! I'm sure I've had it in a dish before but couldn't tell you what it tastes like.
  Shout out to Old Bay seasoning. Also really tasty on things. The celery seed in it gives it a very distinct flavor.
  
  I do like old bay, mostly in seafood boils. But I grew up on cajun and that's my heart, lol. Yeah you should have Tony's around all over where you are. I remember when I lived in Japan I had to order it online, lol

Oyster sauce
Sesame oil

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.

Ginger paste. It's kind of cheating, but I hate how much time it takes to finely mince ginger to the point where it just disappears into a recipe.
- I've used it before. It's handy! My mother in law makes huge jars of ginger garlic paste for using in dishes.

Anchovies
Worcestershire Sauce

Not very special at all, but I like adding finely chopped flat leaf parsley on top of savory dishes. Looks nice and I really like the taste of parsley.
- The flavor of parsley is super underrated. And it does look nice.

Citric Acid and real Liquid Smoke make most things pop.
- Liquid Smoke is like a cheat code. Makes everything better. See also: Gravy Master

Shallots and butter. Most things I make including cakes, I’ll reduce down some shallots, butter, and roasted peppercorns. Really adds to any dish

Anchovy paste. When I make tomato sauce I like to fry all my aromatics together with some minced calabrese salami and then I push everything to the side and sautee about a teaspoon of anchovy paste in the reserve oil until it gets fragrant and then incorporate it in with everything else and finish the sauce and oh hell it is amazing. It's not for every dish but when you want to drop a killer umami bomb into something like a broth or a stew it is unreal.
- Yes! So good! I need to go out and get some anchovy paste now.
  
  Just get decent oil packed anchovies. The fish that they use for paste are of lower quality. Deviled eggs is another dish where a bit can do some pretty heavy lifting.

- Pomegranate molasses is fantastic. I'm really curious about apple syrup - I've been seeing a lot of it lately online.
  Celery leaves are delicious! I love them in stir fries and salads.
  I feel like I read that tomato leaves aren't actually toxic. I think I've even seen recipes using them sautéed. I love how they smell. I'll have to do a search on they and see if I can find it. Using a few in sauce seems like a great idea.
  Edit: not what I was looking for, but there is this: https://www.foodrepublic.com/1291167/things-didnt-know-about-tomatoes/

Ajvar.
It's good to use instead of tomato paste or ketchup in any recipe that calls for it. My favorite is using it as a glaze for meatloaf.
You also shouldn't underestimate something as simple as smoked salt.
- Had to go look up ajvar. It sounds delicious. I must find some.
  Smoked salt is great. Love it for finishing dishes.

Smoked paprika.

Butter

A little bit of sherry can add a surprising improvement to some dishes.

mustard seeds in any tomato sauce based dish. the taste is negligible but they just make it look more tomatoey
- Huh! Interesting. I'll have to try this.

What sort of dishes will MSG really make pop? Sometimes I feel like I’m lacking something and I can’t put my finger on what it is. I’m thinking MSG may fill that void.
- Almost everything!
- Any savory dish will instantly level up with MSG.
- Almost everything. It fills in that 5th flavor profile of umami and really rounds things out.
  I'd avoid adding it into dessert, though. Tried this once. It was not good.

71 comments