What’s something you add to (most of) your dishes that gives it a signature taste or a special kick?
I like to throw a pinch of chicken bouillon in a lot of different dishes, sometimes in lieu of salt or in addition to. The bouillon I use also has onion, garlic, and paprika so it gives everything a subtle but welcome kick.
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A little bit of Dijon mustard goes great in a lot of things. Also love ground sumac.
Time.
No matter what dish it is, more time spent makes it better. Taking that few extra minutes to get a real nice brown on the ground meat, getting a nice char or caramelization on the onions and peppers, letting the pot of soup just sit and simmer for a couple extra hours. Being able to just relax and let flavors develope helps out so much.
Time is why your grandparents cooking was always the best. Why that bowl of chili hits so much better the second day. Why BBQ is so amazing.
Take the time to really enjoy making food. The best part is, for most things, it’s not a lot of added time to make it much better.
Straight up MSG. If you taste a savory dish and something’s missing it’s most likely umami. And a pinch of that stuff will add it without any other flavors. Sure, you can also use mushroom powder, nutritional yeast, bouillon cubes or fish sauce, but all those introduce additional flavor notes that I might not want in my dish.
This.
Bought a big thing of msg, put it in a salt shaker, add it to any savory dish and it’s amazing.
Also theres no good evidence that MSG has any ill effects. One doctor wrote into a magazine once saying he got a headache after binging on Chinese food and thought that maybe MSG was the reason and a huge panic happened.
An alternative that brings an umami punch to a full soup pot full of sauce or stew is a single anchovy fillet that you have chopped into paste. There won’t be any fishy flavor at all, and people will BEG you to tell them your secret, and then refuse to believe you when you tell them. It’s a truly enjoyable bit of chaos.
Oh, and I am talking like 1 fillet for 2-3 gallons of sauce/ stew.
Hatred or anger. Screw cooking with love.
For me it’s less of an ingredient and more of a process. So many recipes call for just cooking the onions until translucent. Screw that. I’m building a fond. We’re browning those suckers.
Beyond that, every dish gets more of its own secret ingredient. My burgers get a whisper of cinnamon, my lasagna gets nutmeg, my pumpkin soup gets smoked paprika
This is one of the core parts of my jammy onion recipe. It’s either served as topping for burgers, steak, etc. or turned into French onion soup.
If youre ever craving that vintage Americana experience of a vintage road side diner, crack open a beer and leave it on the back of the stove over night to go stale. Cook your onions with half the oil you’d normally use, and if they get dry or the fond darkens, deglaze with the stale beer. When the mess gets to a color between burnt coffee and old motor oil, your done. What you get is a semisweet preserve with a hint of the texture you cut the onions into. The taste is a heady mix of smoke, deep fried sides, strong onions, and that you’d imagine the dive bar in every noir film smells like. A situation that isn’t as off-putting as it sounds and becomes a lingering sense of nostalgia almost immediately.
For added effect, use a beer you have a complicated relationship with, like the beer ne you shared with a former partner or the drink of choice for a family member that passed.
I haven’t made french onion soup in a bit. This might be my call to do so
Garlic. Just garlic. And then add more garlic. 😆
But seriously, a pinch of MSG can make a big difference.
I don’t know about ‘most’ of my dishes, but I do use an awful lot of smoked paprika…
Citric acid. You can add that little bit of brightness without also adding moisture. A little goes a long way. Sometimes if something tastes like it needs more salt or spices, it might actually just need a little acid.
Lemon juice or vinegar. Works great with heavy or spicy dishes to make them just a little bit lighter.
I don’t really have one myself, but there was a lady I knew growing up who made, hands down, the best chili ever. She wouldn’t reveal her recipe or secret ingredient to anyone and swore she’d take it to her grave.
Years later, she and her daughter got into a fight and the daughter posted her mom’s chili recipe on Facebook to spite her. The secret ingredient was, apparently, grape jelly.
Where’s the rest of the owl??
It works on almost every savoury dishes.
Lately, it’s been smoked paprika. It makes so many dishes better. Eggs, roasted potatoes / vegetabls, chicken. I’ve tried it in many dishes I otherwise would not have and I’ve been loving the flavor it imparts.
Soy Sauce.
If it’s savory dish I always add a splash or two. It’s extra salt and umami to everything. I love it
Have you tried Maggi seasoning? It’s similar to soy sauce, but has a wider flavor profile compared to soy sauce. It’s basically a bottle of concentrated MSG with herbal and spiced flavors.
Edit: Actually, I take it back. I just found out that Maggi is owned by Nestlé :(. Stay away.
I have not. I just always have soy sauce so it’s my go to. I also like to add fish sauce for similar reasons but that’s more specific.
Also oyster and hoisin sauce!
Love those!!! I do like to put hoisin in my burgers. They are too Asian spice coded for all dishes which is soy sauce is not.
Specially in chickpeas, beans and lentils. But is good in stews also
I love adding nutmeg and white pepper to any kind of bechamel-based dish I make.
My secret is basically paying attention to different uses of chilis. Hot sauce, chili oil, chili powder, whole chilis, and chili flakes can all provide heat, but they do it in different ways.
Hot sauce also provides acid, which is good for some things. It’s obviously also water-based, so it dissolves into aqueous solutions.
Chili oil can incorporate other flavors that can’t be extracted in aqueous solutions, and it won’t affect any crispy or crunchy elements the way hot sauce would.
Chili power, when labeled “chili powder” is often underwhelming (this is highly dependent on region/culture as different peppers are used in different places). Cayenne is obviously good for heat, smoky paprika is really good for any time you want a little smoke flavor. Anything that actually calls out the specific pepper can be great.
Whole chilis are great. Specifically, I really like to use dried Mexican chilis in different blends. I’ll also use fresh peppers, but they provide different things to the food.
Chili flakes have a similar problem to the powder where if they dont tell you what type, it’s probably not great. I specifically like ancho chili flakes and Aleppo pepper flakes, both of which typically dont have the seeds, which I find unpleasant.
I go Ancho chili powder.
