This is a really well-presented discussion of a sometimes-difficult topic! Personally I enjoy the technical side of cooking (breads, custards, time and temperature control, and so on) while my wife has much better flavor intuition. My brother in law called us The Reasoning and The Seasoning at our wedding.
When I was in grad school I bought a book called The Flavor Bible. Literally they just asked a bunch of chefs “What goes with X?” for a bunch of different X, and published the resulting lists, plus some annotation for what was a particularly popular or classic pairing. It’s the only food-related book I brought with me when I downsized to live in an RV. I still consult it sometimes when I’m stumped.
And yeah, tangzhong is an excellent choice for better cinnamon roll texture. I tried it for the first time this past Christmas. Sadly I had to throw them all out, and the frosting, and a few other baked goods, because there was something wrong with the coconut sugar I’d used. I could totally see a five-spiced version (probably less gooey than I usually make) served alongside a Thai sweet chili chicken.
Much appreciated! I figured it was the kind of topic rarely given a clear theoretical treatment, so I felt up to writing these. I’m a lot better with flavor combinations than technique, though I’m no slouch there either. I credit that to my ability to rotate flavors in my mind. As for the sixspice buns, they end up reasonably gooey anyway, and you could serve them up alongside whatever, though yeah, I think they’d go hard with Thai sweet chili chicken.
This is a really well-presented discussion of a sometimes-difficult topic! Personally I enjoy the technical side of cooking (breads, custards, time and temperature control, and so on) while my wife has much better flavor intuition. My brother in law called us The Reasoning and The Seasoning at our wedding.
When I was in grad school I bought a book called The Flavor Bible. Literally they just asked a bunch of chefs “What goes with X?” for a bunch of different X, and published the resulting lists, plus some annotation for what was a particularly popular or classic pairing. It’s the only food-related book I brought with me when I downsized to live in an RV. I still consult it sometimes when I’m stumped.
And yeah, tangzhong is an excellent choice for better cinnamon roll texture. I tried it for the first time this past Christmas. Sadly I had to throw them all out, and the frosting, and a few other baked goods, because there was something wrong with the coconut sugar I’d used. I could totally see a five-spiced version (probably less gooey than I usually make) served alongside a Thai sweet chili chicken.
Much appreciated! I figured it was the kind of topic rarely given a clear theoretical treatment, so I felt up to writing these. I’m a lot better with flavor combinations than technique, though I’m no slouch there either. I credit that to my ability to rotate flavors in my mind. As for the sixspice buns, they end up reasonably gooey anyway, and you could serve them up alongside whatever, though yeah, I think they’d go hard with Thai sweet chili chicken.