Taffel

Man talar ofta om de fem grundsmakerna - salt, sött, surt, beskt, umami - som om de vore jämlika. Det är inte riktigt sant.

En viktig skiljelinje går mellan "små" och "stora" smakämnen. Salt och surt är smaker som kommer från små i det här fallet laddade delar av atomer delar av atomer eller små molekyler. De har på grund av sin storlek betydligt lättare att ta sig in i smakcellerna på diverse olika sätt, och därmed är det inte särskilt enkelt att ta reda på precis hur det går till. Gissa kan man... och det är precis vad forskarna fortfarande får göra (åtminstone om detaljerna).

This month's pairing of rose and apple seems to have produced a bunch of interesting dishes, mostly desserts. Two common observations or problems seem to be that the rose flavour tends to "fall flat" on its own, and that it is hard to get the amount exactly right - neither too weak nor overpowering.

The apple and cardamom went very nicely together in the muffins tastewise, but the fruit pieces should have been a little bit larger, and there was only a faint hint of rose. The buttercream had a clear grassy note from the olive oil, which made the combination taste far more like tearose than damask rose. The acidity from the citric acid granules was very nice, but rather unexpected together with rose.

Overall, not a culinary sensation, but quite tasty and nice to look at if you get some decorative muffin cups. It was very tricky to estimate the right amount of rose taste; the interval between hardly noticeable and overpowering seems to be quite narrow.