Attention all gourmet fans – onenew trendis conquering the cooking world and delighting everyone who likes to experiment with unusual ingredients in the kitchen or enjoy unusual ingredients on their plate. The so-called food pairing pampers the senses of taste and provides great culinary surprises. That's why more and more chefs, as well as amateur chefs, are resorting to this trend. But what is food pairing? We'll explain it to you in this article and give you a few great recipes as examples that you can repeat at any time.
Food Pairing Definition – What is it?
“Food pairing” basically means nothing more than combining foods. You might think that you do that with every recipe. However, this does not mean the usual combination, but rather the interaction of flavors that at first glance actuallydon't seem to fit together at all. It is pure science and is necessary because our tongue can only distinguish 5 different tastes (sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami, i.e. spicy). Scientists are therefore looking for molecules in foods and drinks and combining similar ones in different foods to create unique dishes.
But what's the point if our tongue can't distinguish between them? Well, it's not just the tongue that plays an important role when it comes to perceiving the taste of a dish. Our nose, i.e. our sense of smell, also influences our sense of taste, as it can distinguish up to 10,000 different aromas. And so seemingly strange combinations turn out to be like chocolatewith caviar, kale with lemon or raspberries with cucumber as real flavor bombs - simply because certain key flavors go together. For this purpose, aroma profiles are created that provide information about the main aroma components and are illustrated in the form of a “food pairing tree”. Cooks can then use this system to get an overview of foods that go together and use them in their dishes.
Food Pairing – What can you combine?
The following food pairing examples are guaranteed to convince you of the trend once you try them:
Food pairing list as an example:
- Paprikawith mango, litchi or apricot, coriander, lemongrass, ginger or mint, pistachios, fennel, spinach, carrots and tomatoes
- Melonwith cucumber, fennel or tomato, blood orange, mango, strawberry, kiwi and apple, with vanilla, cardamom, mint, basil or coriander, peanuts or cashews
- Food Pairing mitTomatowith kiwi, violets, Darjeeling tea or soy sauce
- cherrywith rhubarb, plum and banana, eggplant, beetroot, cauliflower, onions and horseradish, peppermint, anise, cinnamon and pepper, pistachio, hazelnut, almond, macadamia, peanut, coconut, dairy products and coffee, quinoa and balsamic vinegar, pork, bacon, Game, lamb and poultry
- Kalewith apple, lemon, white cabbage and pepper, ginger, thyme, oregano and chili, pumpkin seeds, walnuts or hazelnuts
- Blueberrieswith avocado, rocket, peach or carrots, cinnamon, vanilla, ginger or coriander, coconut flakes, poppy seeds, almonds or pine nuts
- Chocolate with coffee, Banana, Feige, Muskat, Chili
- carrotswith sesame, parsley, litchi and peach
- Rote Bethwith chestnuts, blueberries, hazelnuts or balsamic vinegar
peppermint
Of course, these are just a few of the many possible combinations. There are now numerous books available that list such combinations. This means you can use a food pairing table or a food pairing database to put together the perfect dish or an extraordinary snack. With a food pairing app you can do differentTypes of wine with matching foodscombine.
Tomato and other foods
Combine apple
What goes well with strawberries?
So with a little courage you can create wonderful dishes. You can experiment using the schemes yourself and try out your own combinations. Of course, it can also happen that you choose a combination that doesn't turn out to be so delicious. Take it with humor and try something different next time. If you're not that keen on experimenting, you can also use tried-and-tested recipes to get to know and love the world of food pairing. We have put together a few recipes for you that you can try.
Eggplant with goat cheese and pomegranate
- Aubergine
- Goat cheese or fresh goat cheese
- Shallots, chopped
- Chives, chopped
- pomegranate
- optional: walnuts and coriander
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Cut the eggplant into slices and crumble over itSpread goat cheeseor spread with cream cheese. Scatter shallots and chives on top and finally pomegranate seeds and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.
Shrimp with vanilla and cinnamon
- Shrimp
- Garlic
- Chili
- vegetable oil
- Pulp of a vanilla bean
- Cinnamon
- Pfeffer
- Salt
For this interesting food pairing, first fry the shrimp in vegetable oil with garlic and chili. Then season them with a little cinnamon, salt and pepper and add the vanilla pulp. As a side dishPasta is suitable.
Fruity and cheesy pizza with peach and Camembert
Fruit on pizza is actually nothing new. Many like the exotic taste of Hawaiian pizza, where pineapple is combined with ham and cheese. So how about this variant: Coat ithomemade pizza doughas usual with tomato sauce and then top it with thin pieces of peach and Camembert. Finally, sprinkle dried thyme over your creation and bake the pizza.
Food Pairing – Blumenkohl with Cacao
- Cauliflower
- unsweetened cocoa powder
- Butter
- Salt
Cook the cauliflowerCook as usual in salt water. Heat butter in a pan and briefly fry the cooked cauliflower. Finally, sprinkle the cauliflower with cocoa and the extraordinary dish is ready, which is suitable as a vegetarian snack in between meals or can be served as a side dish with meat (e.g. for a food pairing with beef). You can also make the cocoa cauliflower sweet by mixing the cocoa with powdered sugar before sprinkling.
Food pairing with mango, mozzarella and walnuts
- Mozzarella
- Mango
- Walnuts, chopped
- olive oil
- Coriander
- pepper and salt
A delicious snack, which you don't even have to cook for, you get with this food pairing idea. Cut the mozzarella and mango into slices and arrange them alternately on a plate. Scatter walnuts on top and drizzle with olive oil. Season with pepper, salt and a few coriander leaves.
Goat cheese baked with pear and honey
- 1 slice of goat cheese roll
- 1 pear
- 2-3 EL Honig
- 3-4 tbsp olive oil
- Thymian
- Rosemary
- a little grated lemon peel
- a little grated ginger
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Place the slice of goat cheese roll in an ovenproof dish. Cut the pear into very thin slices and spread them around (alternatively, you can fill several pear halves with pieces of cheese and continue with the next steps). Sprinkle everything with the thyme and rosemary and drizzlewith the honeyas well as olive oil. Finally, use a small rasp to grate a little lemon peel and ginger over the cheeseand pears, then bake everything for about 10 minutes. If you are preparing pear halves, increase the baking time and, if necessary, reduce the temperature to 150 degrees so that the pears can soften without burning.
Mashed potatoes with apricots
This is also a rather bold combination, but one that is worth trying out. Prepare your mashed potatoes as usual and serve with apricot jam. Sounds unappetizing? But it's not at all! You could also serve the following snacks made with dates and bacon:
Dates wrapped in bacon
This food pairing idea is incredibly tasty and super quick and easy to make. You can serve this appetizing finger food at a party and surprise your guests. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Wrap each date with a slice of bacon and insert a toothpick through to secure the bacon. Spread all the bacon rolls on a baking sheet and bake the rolls in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. The dateswith bacontaste best warm.
Tipp: You can also fill the dates with goat cheese beforehand.
Chocolate and caviar to snack on
- white chocolate
- Caviar
All you have to do for this interesting food pairing is melt white chocolate in a water bath and then form blobs on baking paper. Then add a teaspoonful of caviar to each blob. This treat not only tastes delicious, but also looks very elegant. Perfect if you want to impress your guests. If you want it to be particularly chic, you can also use silicone moldsfor chocolatesMake chocolate balls filled with caviar.
Cookies with pine nuts and rosemary
Rosmarin insweet cookies? Well, of course!
- 1/4 cup pine nuts, ground or chopped
- 1 large sprig of romaine, chopped
- 250 g Flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 150 g Butter
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1-2 tsp grated lemon peel
Process the seeds, rosemary, sugar, butter, salt and flour into a dough and form it into a large ball, which you first put in the fridge for half an hour so that the dough becomes firmer. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Then mix the lemon peel with a little sugar, form several rolls of dough, roll them in the sugar-lemon mixture and then cut them into slices (about half a centimeter thick). Spread the resulting cookies on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake them for 15 to 20 minutes. Then let it cool down well.
Chocolate mousse and onions
What sounds rather unappetizing at first actually tastes very tasty. So it's worth giving it a try: Prepare your favorite chocolate mousse as usual. Chop an onion and fry it in a pan. Use tasteless oil for this. Once the onions have cooled, you can transfer them overdie Moussedistribute and enjoy this extraordinary food pairing. If you want it to be even quicker, you can also use ready-made fried onions.
Food Pairing with Beer im Dessert – Die Crème brulée mal anders
- 500 ml Sahne
- 150 ml wheat beer
- 100g brown sugar
- 1 packet of vanilla sugar
- 6 eggs, yolks and whites separated
Preheat the oven to 140 degrees and bring a liter of water to the boil. Heat the cream in a small saucepan, but be careful not to bring it to the boil. Cook again in another pot, stirring constantlythe beerAdd half the sugar and the vanilla sugar and then remove the pot from the heat. Whisk together the egg yolks and quickly stir in 3 tablespoons of the beer mixture. Then slowly pour in the rest of the beer mixture, stirring quickly. Now stir in the hot cream.
Pour the cream into fireproof bowls and place them on a deep baking tray. Then pour water into the tray around it. The molds should be half submerged in water. Bake the cream for 45 minutes. After it has cooled, sprinkle it with the remaining sugar, which you caramelize either with a torch or in the oven on the highest level.
