Introduction
Chocolate is the ingredient of choice when it comes to designing and preparing sweets. This book provides fresh, unique, and modern ideas for plated desserts, sweet drinks, and petit-fours (which we call bites). The unique nature of these recipes comes from the fact that chocolate is used in every one of them -- even the savory ones. While chocolate is traditionally used by some countries in select savory dishes, such as mole poblano (a turkey stew with bittersweet chocolate), we have taken the concept of chocolate cuisine to a broader spectrum.
Preparing fish, shellfish, or meat dishes with chocolate may seem unconventional, but once it's understood how to incorporate its exclusive taste profile and characteristics, chocolate is an equally incredible component in savory preparations as it is in sweet.
In order to design dishes with non-conventional flavor combinations -- such as chocolate with savory foods -- it is valuable to understand how we perceive and taste food. Although the following material is not exclusively related to chocolate, it provides a broader understanding of food design, which is necessary when preparing and serving savory chocolate-based dishes.
The process of flavor perception is multi-sensory and distinctly individual. Each person sees, hears, and tastes differently. Key influencing factors in food appreciation include: memory, culture, and context. An individual may have loved a particular food as a child, yet no longer finds that food appealing. Eating grasshoppers may be considered disgusting to some, but is a delicacy to others. Smelling a dirty sock might repel some, yet a similar odor within cheeses has no effect on others.
To the inexperienced, the idea of chocolate cuisine may be visualized as a piece of meat served with a sweet chocolate sauce. This misconception is due to the memory of chocolate classically being used in a sweet context. When designing and presenting savory chocolate dishes, it's best to think of chocolate as a spice rather than a main ingredient -- an underlying element rather than an overtly bold one. Be aware that too much chocolate can make a savory dish too sweet and cloying.
Contrary to popular belief, taste (what is typically referred to as flavor) is actually more of a matter of smell. Research demonstrates that up to 80% of what we perceive as taste is actually perceived by our sense of smell. Aroma is registered in the olfactory epithelium, which contains hundreds of receptors. Aromatic components in food are released during mastication and these vapors are related to the speed of mastication as well as the length of time the food is masticated. The longer a food is masticated, the more vapors (flavor) are released into the nose. When you eat fresh pineapple, you taste the sweetness of the fruit, but the flavor associated with pineapple is actually the aromatic makeup of the fruit recognized through smell. So, it's best to think of taste in terms of what we perceive when a food is in contact with our taste buds. Whereas flavor should be thought of as the combination between what we taste and what we smell.
What we taste are really only four different types of true taste perceptions: sour, sweet, salt, and bitter. (Recent research in the field of neuro-physiology points also to a fifth category, "umami.") We register these tastes through thousands of taste buds, which bind to a specific structure of a taste molecule. Sweet receptors recognize different types of sugars; sour receptors respond to acids; salt receptors respond to metal ions, and bitter receptors are triggered by alkaloids. It was thought for a long time that the tongue is broken into four taste areas: sweet on the tip, bitter at the back, sour on the sides, and salt along the edges. Today's findings provide evidence that the tongue can actually taste all the stimuli in any one area.
Aroma plays a very important role as far as flavor compatibility. In many cases, certain foods go well together (such as fish and chips or strawberries and cream) because they have a key aroma molecule in common. This food pairing approach is becoming increasingly popular by identifying and combining certain foods that contain the same aromatic molecules. Examples of same aromatic molecules in the context of chocolate are caviar and white chocolate, green peppercorns and dark chocolate, or caramelized cauliflower and cocoa. Understanding flavor pairing is of particular value in chocolate cuisine. One can start with established sweet flavor pairings, such as chocolate with berries, port, nuts, or ginger. These can be transformed into a savory dish like Duck with Spiced Almond Crumb, Stewed Cherries, and Chocolate Port Reduction (see page 62).
Flavor within a dish is acquired in two ways: through the addition of an aroma or through the initiation of a chemical reaction. Fresh herbs and spices provide aromatic elements, the same as good quality extracts like vanilla, mint, or bitter almond. Typically, products in their natural state provide superior and more complex results than aromas. This is largely due to the fact that many aromas simply don't contain as many aromatic molecules. However, there are some ingredients that prove the contrary, such as vanilla. A controlled testing showed that artificial vanilla was preferred to natural vanilla extract. This reveals how distinctly individual the process of flavor perception is, and potentially references the fact that most people grew up in households where artificial vanilla was used to make celebratory sweets, forever linking the artificial flavor and feel-good memories. The other option for flavor is chemical reactions. These are typically initiated when several components come into contact with one another for a certain amount of time at a certain temperature. For example, the Maillard reaction is initiated when amino acids and carbohydrates are heated together. It produces pleasant aromas or flavors such as the crust of baked bread, browning of meat, roasting of coffee beans et cetera. The process of making chocolate also involves a reaction through the roasting of the cocoa beans, which provides another flavor dimension to savory dishes.
Temperature has a great effect on food. A bitter flavor, for example, is less noticeable when the food is hot than at room temperature. As a test, make a bitter brew of coffee and compare the taste of the hot versus the cold version. Another way to manipulate bitterness is to add a little salt to a bitter element (i.e. bitter dark chocolate sauce). This can make it taste, or at least be perceived to taste, sweeter. Sweet flavors are less noticeable when cold than warm. For example, take a sip of soda pop at room temperature versus the same drink cold from the refrigerator. A good quality, high cocoa percentage dark chocolate is typically quite bitter, whereas white and milk chocolate can be somewhat sweet. By playing with temperature, white or milk chocolate preparations can be made to taste less sweet when served cold. As you can see, temperature is particularly important when cooking with chocolate.
The form of chocolate used in a preparation can drastically influence how a dish will taste and look. Using chocolate in a bar form is one option, but the various components that make up chocolate are also available individually, each providing distinct characteristics with taste and texture benefits. Cocoa nibs, for example, are dried, roasted cocoa beans, which are then cracked into nibs. This pure form of chocolate is unsweetened and perfect to make clear chocolate infusions or broth. Unlike chocolate in bar form, cocoa nibs add a chocolate flavor, but don't change the appearance or consistency of a dish. Cocoa nibs are also great to add texture to a sweet or savory dish. Another variation is cocoa butter, which can be use instead of (or in conjunction with) other fats to provide distinct flavor profiles in sauces (see page 160 for more details on cocoa butter). Cocoa powder (sweetened or unsweetened) offers a richer chocolate flavor than chocolate in bar form. Cocoa powder is great to use as part of a rub or to intensify a sauce or braising liquid. For further information on chocolate's uses in sweets, please refer to our first book, Wild Sweets: Exotic Dessert and Wine Pairings.
At its roots, cooking is similar to performing a laboratory experiment. Cooking involves the combination of a range of ingredients in various forms (liquid, solid, gas), exposed to a sequence of chemical reactions (such as caramelization or gelatinization), for a given amount of time, at a specific temperature. One of the main reasons cooking failures occur is because one is more preoccupied with the effect rather than the cause, which one tends to implement automatically. Understanding how these elements (liquid, solid, and gas) react in different conditions is the key to consistent results.
Our dishes are abundant with modern tastes and textures that stimulate all the senses. In the Sweet and Savory recipes, we have provided two options for each dish; one is intended as an elegant version for special occasions while the other (denoted with the "e" symbol) is intended for simpler, everyday meals. For best results in reproducing our recipes we recommend the use of a scale for precise measurement.
At Wild Sweets, we implement a philosophy of "culinary constructivism" inspired by our studies as educators. Constructivism is a philosophy of learning based on the premise that we construct our own understanding of the world by reflecting on our experiences. As such, we want this book to be a source of inspiration for you. We urge you to construct and experiment based on your individual preferences and creativity.
