On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 1100

root word meaning “salt,” which is the original concentrated flavoring, pure mineral crystals from the sea (p 639) Our primary foods — animal flesh, grains and breads and pastas, starchy vegetables — are pretty bland, and cooks have found or invented a vast range of ingredients with which to make them more flavorful The simplest are seasonings provided by nature: salt, pungent black pepper and chillis, sour juices of unripe fruits, sweet honey and sugar, distinctively aromatic herbs and spices More complex are prepared condiments, many of them foods preserved and transformed by fermentation: sour and aromatic vinegar, salty and savory soy sauce and fish sauce, salty and sour pickles, pungent and sour mustard, sweet and sour and fruity ketchup And then there are s auces, the ultimate composed flavorings The cook conceives and prepares sauces for particular dishes, and can give them any flavor They always include seasonings, sometimes condiments, and sometimes artfully intensified flavors of the primary foods themselves, or of other foods, or of the cooking process In addition to their heightened flavor, sauces give tactile pleasure by the way they move in the mouth Cooks construct sauces to have a consistency somewhere between the resistant solidity of animal or plant tissues and the elusive thinness of water This is the consistency of luscious ripe fruit that melts in the mouth and seems to feed us willingly, and of the fats that give a persistent, moist fullness to animal flesh and to cream and butter The fluidity of a sauce allows it to coat the solid food evenly and lend it a pleasing moistness, while the substantial, lingering quality helps the sauce cling to the food and to our tongue and palate as well, prolonging the experience of its flavor and providing a sensation of richness A last pleasure that a sauce can provide is ...condiments, and sometimes artfully intensified flavors of the primary foods themselves, or of other foods, or of the cooking process In addition to their heightened flavor,... sauces give tactile pleasure by the way they move in the mouth Cooks construct sauces to have a consistency somewhere between the resistant solidity of animal or plant tissues and the elusive thinness of water This is the. .. The fluidity of a sauce allows it to coat the solid food evenly and lend it a pleasing moistness, while the substantial, lingering quality helps the sauce cling to the food and to our tongue and palate as well, prolonging the