Residents at our Apartments in Gainesville Can Become Better Cooks by Learning How to Balance the 5 Types of Flavors

The key to developing great meals is being able to balance the unique flavors of individual ingredients. Our taste buds are designed to detect 5 distinct flavors – sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami – each of which can help contribute something special to a dish. Understanding what flavors each food imparts can help improve your cooking and allow you to create incredible meals with a wide variety of ingredients.

While no ingredients provide just one flavor, there are a few good sources to provide each:

• Sour – Citrus fruit and fermented foods such as wine, sauerkraut, and vinegar can all provide sour notes in meals, helping to balance sweet and salty flavors.
• Sweet – Sweet flavors most commonly come from fruits, berries, certain grains like corn, and other plant derivatives such as syrups from sap and honey. Try using sweet flavors to balance bitter and sour tastes.
• Salt – While there are a wide variety of salts available to add directly to a dish, many foods such as cheeses or brined products like pickles can bring a salty flavor to a dish as well. Salt can balance sour flavors and makes a great complement to ingredients with umami.
• Bitter – This flavor is one of the most sensitive in the palate, but vegetables like broccoli and seeds like cocoa and coffee can be very pleasant and make a delicious complement to sweet or umami flavors.
• Umami – Only recently recognized as one of the five basic tastes, it’s considered a rounding flavor. It’s present in meats, seafood, oils, and fungi, and helps balance bitter and salty flavors very well.

Bellamay Grand residents can enjoy practicing how to balance flavors in the spacious kitchens at our apartments in Gainesville. To learn more about our available units, contact us today.