Seasoning Basics

So-called seasoning refers to adjusting and harmonizing flavors. It involves using seasoning ingredients and methods to influence the original flavor of the ingredients before, during, or after heating, so that the flavor of the seasoning ingredients and the original flavor of the ingredients combine to create a delicious taste.

So-called seasoning refers to the adjustment and harmonization of flavors. It involves using seasoning ingredients and methods to influence the original flavor of the ingredients before, during, or after heating, resulting in a delicious combination of the seasoned and original flavors.

I. Types of Taste

1. Formation of Taste: Taste is a special sensation caused by certain taste substances stimulating the taste organs. Taste is a physiological sensation; besides the taste buds in the taste organs being sensitive to taste, olfactory and tactile nerve organs can also perceive taste.

2. Categories of Taste: According to the number and intensity of taste substances (chemical components), taste can be divided into two major categories: basic taste and compound taste.

(1) Basic Taste: When only one substance is prominent among the taste substances, it is relatively referred to as basic taste. Basic tastes include salty, sweet, sour, fragrant, spicy, fresh, and bitter tastes.

(2) Salty Taste: Salty taste is the main taste in cooking. Besides salty and fresh dishes that are mainly salty, other tastes such as sour, sweet, and spicy also depend on saltiness. Salty taste has the function of contrasting and enhancing flavor, eliminating and reducing flavors, and adjusting and harmonizing other basic tastes. Seasonings with a salty taste include table salt, soy sauce, pickles, salted fish, salted meat, etc.

(3) Sweet Taste: Next to salty taste, sweet taste is a major taste and is a pleasant one. Sweet taste has the functions of flavor transformation, contrasting and enhancing flavor, eliminating and reducing flavors, being able to harmonize the intensity of strong stimulating flavors, and showing a noticeable buffering effect on sour, spicy, and greasy flavors. Seasonings with a sweet taste include white sugar, honey, fruit juice, jam, maltose, and sweeteners (additives), etc.

(4) Sour Taste: Sour taste is a strong stimulating taste. In some dishes, sour taste has a special status. Sour taste has the functions of contrasting and enhancing flavor and eliminating flavors; it can buffer fishy, mutton, strong, musty, bitter, astringent, and greasy tastes. Seasonings with a sour taste include red vinegar, rice vinegar, white vinegar, vinegar essence, citric acid, plum sauce, etc.

(5) Spicy Taste: Spicy taste is a strong stimulating taste. In some local cuisines, spicy taste plays an important role. In addition to the function of contrasting and enhancing flavor, spicy taste more importantly has the function of eliminating flavors. It can buffer fishy, mutton, strong, musty, rancid, astringent, and greasy tastes, achieving the seasoning purpose of using righteousness to suppress evil. Seasonings with a spicy taste include chili peppers and their products, pepper and its products, ginger, garlic, mustard, onion, and their products, etc.

(6) Bitter Taste: Bitter taste is a special taste that, like spicy and sour tastes, cannot be used alone. Bitter taste has the function of contrasting and enhancing flavor, and it also has the function of buffering and eliminating flavors, being able to reduce fishy, mutton, strong, and musty off-flavors. Seasonings with a bitter taste include tangerine peel, tea leaves, grapefruit peel, and the inherent taste of vegetables themselves, etc.

(7) Fresh Taste: Fresh taste is a basic taste that people enjoy. Fresh taste mainly comes from amino acids (nucleotides, succinic acid, inosinic acid, etc.) produced by the decomposition of proteins themselves and other substances. Fresh taste is weaker in taste perception and is easily suppressed by sweet, spicy, and sour tastes. Only after contrasting and enhancing flavor with saltiness can its attractive taste be more clearly shown. Seasonings with a fresh taste include soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, MSG (monosodium glutamate), shrimp, crab, crab roe, beef essence, chicken essence, superior soup, etc.

(8) Fragrant Taste: Fragrant taste is one of the basic tastes that people enjoy. Fragrant taste is sensitively perceived by the olfactory organs and has the functions of contrasting and enhancing flavor and eliminating and reducing flavors. Seasonings with a fragrant taste are extensive and include volatile substances such as lipids, alcohols, and phenols. Seasonings with a fragrant taste include sesame oil, butter, fermented grains, Jiujiang double-distilled liquor, yellow wine, five-spice powder, onion, ginger, peppercorns, and fruits, osmanthus, jasmine, lotus leaves, tea leaves, etc.

(9) Compound Taste: Compound taste is formed by mixing two or more single basic tastes. Most of the tastes encountered in real life belong to mixed taste types.

1) Sweet and Sour Taste: Seasonings with a sweet and sour taste include tomato sauce, sweet and sour sauce, and hawthorn sauce.

2) Sweet and Salty Taste: Seasonings with a sweet and salty taste include sweet soybean paste.

3) Fresh and Salty Taste: Seasonings with a fresh and salty taste include soy sauce, shrimp soy sauce, fermented tofu, shrimp paste, fish sauce, salty fermented soybeans, soybean paste, and seafood sauce, etc.

4) Spicy and Salty Taste: Seasonings with a spicy and salty taste include chili paste, pickled chili peppers, spicy soy sauce, garlic spicy sauce, and mustard sauce, etc.

5) Fragrant and Spicy Taste: Seasonings with a fragrant and spicy taste include curry sauce, turmeric powder, and chili oil, etc.

6) Fragrant and Salty Taste: Seasonings with a fragrant and salty taste include pepper salt, three-flavor salt, Huai salt, garlic salt, onion salt, and fragrant fermented brine, etc.

II. Seasoning Methods

There are seven methods for seasoning cooking ingredients: seasoning only before heating, seasoning only during heating, seasoning only after heating, seasoning before and during heating, seasoning before and after heating, seasoning during and after heating, and seasoning before, during, and after heating.

1. Seasoning Before Heating

Generally known as basic seasoning. This involves using seasonings to influence the ingredients before heat treatment and formal cooking, allowing the ingredients to have a certain basic flavor while also removing off-flavors and enhancing deliciousness. For some dishes, seasoning before heating is important. The vast majority of animal-based cooking ingredients require necessary basic seasoning before cooking.

2. Seasoning During Heating

This refers to seasoning the ingredients while they are being heated during the cooking process. Seasoning during heating can determine the flavor characteristics of a dish. For cooking methods such as braising, stewing, and simmering, as well as some situations where pre-heating seasoning is impossible or post-heating seasoning is unsuitable, seasoning during heating plays a decisive role in the production of the dish; therefore, seasoning during heating can also be called important seasoning.

3. Seasoning after cooking and heating

Seasoning after cooking and heating plays a crucial role in some cooking methods, such as steaming, frying, blanching, and roasting. For ingredients that are difficult or impossible to season adequately before cooking and heating, or that cannot be easily or sufficiently seasoned during cooking and heating, seasoning after cooking and heating can determine the taste and characteristics of the dish.

Three, Principles of Seasoning

Seasoning is an important part of cooking. To do a good job of seasoning, the following principles must be mastered.

1. Appropriate, timely, and orderly addition of seasonings: According to the quality characteristics of the cooking ingredients, use suitable seasonings first. At the same time, it is necessary to understand the nature of the seasonings themselves and apply them appropriately. When adding seasonings, the right time should be chosen. When using multiple seasonings, they should be added in a certain order according to the different properties and performance of different varieties, in order to maximize the harmonious effect of the seasonings themselves.

2. Seasoning according to the nature of the cooking ingredients: When adjusting the taste, the nature of the cooking ingredients should be fully understood. Do not follow a single pattern. For fresh ingredients, the seasoning should highlight the deliciousness of the cooking ingredients; for ingredients with fishy, mutton, foul, smelly, bitter, astringent, or greasy flavors, heavier flavors should be used to suppress the unpleasant flavors or use seasonings to remove them; for ingredients with weak flavors, the taste should be enhanced during the seasoning process.

3. Reasonable seasoning according to seasonal changes: People's tastes vary with the seasons. Spring prefers sour, summer prefers bitter, autumn prefers spicy, and winter prefers salty. Seasoning should consider these changes in taste.

4. Seasoning according to the specific requirements of the eater's taste: The tastes of people in different regions vary greatly. When seasoning, the taste requirements of the eaters must be fully understood.