Opposites attract…

Ever wondered why the right way to eat gathiya-jalebi is to take one bite of each until you’ve gobbled it up? Or why sweet chocolate spread translates into a decadent snack when applied on buttered bread? And why salty almonds are addictive, or why fenugreek turns palatable the moment it hits lemon juice? Welcome to the befuddling world of tastes. To cook an epicurean meal is to take into consideration all these flavours and work them in cohesion. Here is our fool proof guide to matching core flavours with one another:

Sweet Salty

Watermelon and feta, salt and caramel, blue cheese and chocolate –

though these combinations sound odd at first, there are no two

flavours that work as well as sweet and salt. Salt enhances the

effect of whatever it is added to — bitter, sour, spicy or salty

foods. Added to a naturally-sweet ingredient like sweet

corn, sweet potato, caramel, jelly or almonds, salt cuts through the extra saccharine-ness, balancing the flavour by giving it a saline edge.

Sour Spicy

For an Indian palate, this combination works best. Spicy is like an

advanced version of salty — with more intricacies and dimensions. Salt

enhances the spice quotient of an ingredient and makes it more

palatable. Take for example Kerala’s masala-coated chips or jalapeno

bread rolls and wasabi-hinted mayonnaise. The spicy elements in these

combinations work to enhance the flavour of the overall dish. Most

chefs balance out this duo by adding a touch of honey or a pinch of

sugar to create well-roundedness.

Bitter Sweet

Bitter can be controlled if a dash of sweetness is added to it. This

gives you the health benefits of consuming bitter foods without having

to ingest the horrible taste! Add a drop of honey to a spinach smoothie or mix sweet chunks of pineapple to a kale

salad. Innately-bitter ingredients such as brinjal can be countered with

a touch of sweet saffron.

Umami Anything

Umami, the fifth taste, is hard to describe, but easy to detect once it’s

on your tongue. The rich savoury taste that feels like it has the

right amount of sweet, sour, salty and bitter is umami. Commonly found

in ingredients such as mushrooms, certain cheeses and soy sauce, umami

flavour goes well with anything. Combinations such as chilli sauce and

shiitake mushroom, bamboo shoot with sambal, truffle and

parmesan, tofu/seaweed and green tea show how umami

flavours can be paired with almost anything!