The Oldways Table Excerpts: Stories, Lessons, and Recipes from Each Chapter

Chapter 10: Condiments
Oldways Condiment Challenge: Smell the Taste

We invite you to go to the best gourmet food store you can find, and buy these three culinary gifts of the gods: balsamic vinegar, mustard, and chutney.

We want you to buy the top-of-the-line version of each: no cheap substitutes, no knockoffs, no pretenders to the Throne of Taste. Ask for help from someone who works in the store and who seems to care about teh foods and is willing to spend some time with you on which of the condiment treasures to buy.

One unbreakable rule: you want the classic, traditional version of each condiment; do not let yourself be talked into a gussied-up "contemporary version." For example, get the smooth version of a good mustard, and not the version with the seeds. There is nothing wrong with mustards with seeds; it's just that you want the classic, smooth, brownish-yellow mustard from France.

When you get home, and have a half hour or so to play with your new culinary treasures, get three nice clean white plates, three teaspoons, and open up each jar or bottle. Scoop or pour out a dollop of each of the three condiments so that when you place it in the center of its own plate, it is about the size of the circle between your thumb and forefinger when you make the "OK" sign.

Look at each of the dollops carefully, trying to make a visual assessment of its colors and textures. Is it red? Brownish-red? Chocolate brown? Yellow? Tan? Cream?

Now touch each dollop with the tip of your finger, and draw out a smudge or stroke of it. You are trying here to get a tactile assessment of each one -- is it thick, smooth, runny, sticky, oily, stiff? Something else?

Now sniff each one a few times, and try to put words around what you smell. Sharp? Musty? Pungent? If you closed your eyes and someone put a taste on your tongue, do you think you would know each one from the other?

Now, three quick steps.

First, stick out your tongue and take a taste of one of the condiments with the tip of your tongue, and hold it on your tongue for five seconds or so without taking your tongue back into your mouth. Think about what you are tasting, and try to put words around it. Sweet? Bitter? Bittersweet?

Second, pull your tongue back into your mouth, hold your nose, and draw in a breath or two through your mouth. Identify what you taste, and remember it.

Third, now close your mouth, and draw in a couple of breaths through y our nose. Identify what you smell, and remember it.

You'll quickly realize that most of what you "taste" only becomes apparent when you are drawing in your breath. As counterintuitive as it tis for most people, the taste buds on your tongue can differentiate only for taste qualities: sweet, salt, bitter, and sour. (A fifth taste quality -- umami -- has recently been discovered; it has to do with a "satisfaction" sensation.)

All the other "tastes," such a floral, vanilla, oak, apple, grassy, caramel, or herbaceous are "tastes of smell." Your olfactory senses can differentiate thousands and thousands of different such smells, many of which are not foods (gasoline, for example, or smoke, or sweat). They are not truly "tastes" at all.

You've now made friends with your condimenti, and even gotten to know them a bit.

The challenge is to figure out which of your food friends "they'll go well with." Aceto balsamico and Parmigiano-Reggiano are a well-known natural fit, as are strawberries and aceto balsamico. But mustard and raspberries would be terrible together. We know cheese omelets; would Parmigiano-Reggiano be a good companion for eggs? Chutney is terrific with meats, whether they be hot roast beef or cold roast beef sandwiches.

One of the greatest pleasures of the table is understanding how taste and smell complement each other, and using this understanding to put combinations on your table that exploit your absolutely incredible ability to smell the tastes!

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