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Food pairing (orflavor pairing orfood combination) is a method of identifying whichfoods go well together from aflavor standpoint, often based on individual tastes, popularity, availability of ingredients, and traditional cultural practices.
From afood science perspective, foods may be said to combine well with one another when they share keychemical compounds[1] or flavor components. One such process was trademarked as "Foodpairing" by the company of the same name.
One general pairing that is and has been very commonly used,[citation needed] cited as a response in "your favorite food" or "food that you can eat every day" surveys and seen in recipe videos, websites or books globally is:
Pairings where the flavors of two foods specifically complement one another include:
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Experimenting withsalty ingredients andchocolate around the year 2000,Heston Blumenthal, the chef ofThe Fat Duck, concluded thatcaviar andwhite chocolate were a perfect match.[2] To find out why, he contacted a flavor scientist atFirmenich, the flavor manufacturer. By comparing the flavor analysis of both foods, they found that caviar and white chocolate had major flavor components in common. At that time, they formed the hypothesis that different foods would combine well together when they shared major flavor components, and the trademarked concept of "Foodpairing" was created.[3][clarification needed]
This Foodpairing method is asserted to aidrecipe design, and it has provided new ideas for food combinations which are asserted to be theoretically sound on the basis of their flavor. It provides possible food combinations, which are solely based on the intrinsic properties of the different food products; these combinations are based on the flavor compounds that are present in the products. It also can result in unusual combinations (e.g.endives in a dessert, white chocolate and caviar, or chocolate and cauliflower).[citation needed] While unusual, many people find these combinations enjoyable because the combined food products have flavor components in common. Additionally, it is able to provide a scientific, modern basis for the success of traditionally settled food combinations. It is suggested that these traditions can then be overtaken by newer, better pairings.[4]
In 2009, the Flanders Taste foundation organized agastronomicsymposium and "The Flemish Primitives" that was dedicated to Foodpairing.[5]
The "Foodpairing" method starts with achemical analysis of a food. Foodpairing focuses onodor compounds because up to 80% of flavor perception comes from smell, and thesevolatilemolecules provide a detailed chemical fingerprint that can be precisely measured. In contrast,taste compounds are nonvolatile and limited to a few basic sensations, offering much less nuance for predicting complementary pairings.
Thearoma compounds are determined with the aid ofgas chromatography, which in most cases is coupled with amass spectrometer (GC-MS). The odorants are also quantified with other techniques.Key odorants can be identified by comparing theconcentrations of theodorants with their respectiveflavor threshold. Key odorants are the compounds that a human will effectively smell. They are defined as every compound that is present in concentrations higher than their specific flavor threshold.
For example,coffee contains 700 differentaroma compounds, but there are only a few compounds important for the smell of coffee as most of them are present in concentrations that may not be perceptible with thehuman nose, i.e. they are present in concentrations lower than their flavor threshold.[6]
The key odorants are essential towards composing theflavor profile of the given product. The resultant flavor profile is screened against a database of other foods. Products which have flavor components in common with the originalingredient are selected and retained. These matching products could be combined with the original ingredient. With this information on possible matches, a Foodpairingtree graph is built.
The essence of Foodpairing is to combine different foods that share the same major flavor components. Comparing the flavors of individual ingredients can result in new and unexpected combinations, such asstrawberries paired withpeas. This combination was adopted by Sang Hoon Decembre, the chef of L'Air du temps inBelgium.
