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.
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 🤤
The perfect 5 spices:
Salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and MSG.
Almost everything you cook will benefit from these.
I feel like this must be an existing spice blend, because I agree.
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Why would it be controversial? Garlic is delicious, and none of us are vampires. Or at least I’m not. I promise. >_>
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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
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
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
Anchovies
Worcestershire Sauce
Smoked paprika.
Almost always some acid. White wine, vinegar, lemon juice.
Citric Acid and real Liquid Smoke make most things pop.
Liquid Smoke is like a cheat code. Makes everything better. See also: Gravy Master
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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?
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.
I’ll try peri peri out sometime! Salty and smokey sounds great.
Oh also I forgot I went through a brief salt cured egg yolk phase. It was fun to play around with as a topping.
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The flavor of parsley is super underrated. And it does look nice.
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!
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
Cocaine /s
