FOODPAIRING

TRENDS 2012: BASIC FOOD FOODPAIRING+

2011-12-30T12:36:00.000-08:00

Comfort food is great, but we still want to experience thrills and new tastes. We see Foodpairing being used more and more frequent to uplift classical dishes, to give them a surprising twist.
Gourmet burgers are a nice example that there is no limit to add surprising great tasting ingredients; bone marrow, porcini, sesame oil aïoli... or rework cheese burgers

or chicken burgers. Find here some of the combinations you can make with e.g. chicken

Components like hummus will come in a dozen of more new flavors, Guacamole will be enhanced with surprising additions
These are some of the combinations you can make with Avocado to make your new version of Guacamole;

TRENDS 2012: NOSE TO TAIL

2011-12-30T12:31:00.000-08:00

Use everything and use different parts on different moments.
For example; from elderberry you can use the green elderberries to pickle (example by the Flemish Foodies)

Or in early springtime you can eat bleached shoots of Jerusalem artichoke (source picture)

A nice example of using bycatch in a positive way, is what Northsealife is doing with e.g. swimming crabs; making fantastic tasting bisque with an ingredients fishermen were throwing away.

Or using different parts of the fish, giving great tasting products for gastronomy and a higher revenue for fishermen continuing what started at The Flemish Primitives (movie included in dutch).

TRENDS 2012: HAY

2011-12-30T11:51:00.000-08:00

In 2011 we added a post on hay following MAD Food camp which was quite appreciated.
Examples of hay by Noma or by Kobe desramaults of In de wulf (pigeon in hay), are known for a while, but we expect to have more different combinations with hay this year.

Not only limited to meat or poultry (or cheese) anymore, but also with fish like Matthieu Beudaert of table d'amis is doing. Have a look at the Foodpairing tree of hay and come up with new variations of combinations with hay.

TRENDS 2012: PICKLED

2011-12-30T11:43:00.000-08:00

Pickled vegetables complementing a dish with (less but better e.g. aged) meat or inserted into sandwiches, are already clearly present. In 2012 you will even see more of them; pickled shallots, beets,...but certainly more creative interpretations of this ancient technique. Home-made fruit and vegetable pickles will appear on more and more on chefs' menus.

Chefs like Gert De Mangeleer of Hertog Jan, Sang-Hoon Degeimbre of L'air du temps, Jonnie Boer of De Librije have their proper garden and are higly creative with their produce. This is an example of red cabbage fermented juice by Jonnie Boer as presented on ChefSache in 2012 (source pictures verygoodfood).

TRENDS 2012: UMAMI

2011-12-30T11:38:00.000-08:00

There are several reasons why we think umami will become even more prominent.
Last year there was already a lot of talking about umami; we got several interviews, talks on television, but it will still increase;
1. umami interacts with salt and reduces the amount of salt needed. Consumers are looking for salt-reduced food without any concession on taste. Glutamate-added food can dramatically increase the acceptance of salt-reduced foods. Comparable results were shown across the cultures (US, Japan) and food categories, by using not only salts of glutamate but also other umami ingredients, such as dried bonito stock (source).

Here you can find a list of umami rich food.

2. Linked to Foodpairing, we see products containing umami like parmesan, tomato, cepes, marmite combined with even sweet ingredients like thi chocolate by Dominique Persoone of the chocolate line.

But also Paul A Young has for some years a chocolate-marmite truffle combination. We see combinations like this only increasing this year.

Next to umami, we see more asian foods enter the market and become more easy accessible even by comsumer (yuzu e.g.).

Since last year we started to analyze more and more asian foods. Not only different types of soy sauces or yuzu, but also more and more specific premium asian products.

So no wonder the website will extend this year in asian products and this year the site will also become available in Japanese.

FOODPAIRING 2011 short review

2011-12-29T14:40:00.000-08:00

Next week we will post some trends for 2012. But before, a short overview of some Foodpairing moments in 2011.

we started the year with Madrid Fusion showing the first interactive Foodpairing trees (source picture) and dressed dishes on prints of Foodpairing trees;

In March we organised The Flemish Primitives

and launched the new foodpairing.com website.

We made presentations (quite a lot) in Belgium, France, UK, Germany, Canada, Spain, Switserland, ...

Added loads of new ingredients and recipes to the database including brands like Belvedere, Havana Club, Cointreau, Grey Goose, loads of chocolate of Belcolade, Organic Italian apple vinegar, water to add to whisky (Ardaich), belgian strawberries,...

We showed at BCB how to make lemon without using lemon (but lime, orange, basil,...we also do)

We launched the embed codes for interactive Foodpairing trees (video how to)

And launched a few weeks ago a lite version, a free registration which is growing quite fast.

That makes us long to what 2012 will bring :)

HOW TO EMBED A FOODPAIRING TREE IN YOUR OWN WEBSITE

2011-12-27T07:15:00.001-08:00

How to integrate the tree in your own website?

The following tutorial will provide more information;

In the pop-up of the Foodpairing tree there is an 'Embed' button, if you click on it, the code will appear.
The static tree is scalable. Select one of the 5 preset dimensions.
Just copy and paste the code into your post (the html part).

CARDAMOM VEGETABLE COMBINATIONS

2011-12-27T05:04:00.000-08:00

Possible vegetable combinations with cardamom?
Yotam Ottolenghi of Nopi pairs leek with cardamom ; leek-and-cardamom fritters

Shawn McClain of Sage combines carrot with orange juice, ginger and cardamom
recipe glazed carrots

Or a carrot cake, pineapple walnut dessert, a green chutney with green tomato, cardamom, ginger or a puree of parsnip, cardamom and celery root...

CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES PART VI SNOWBALLS

2011-12-23T01:58:00.000-08:00

Thanks to people like pastry chef Darren Purchese, we get more and more visitors from Australia on our foodpairing.com website. So, for the dessert we selected a dessert from one of the best restaurants from Australia (nr 26 in the top 50 best restaurants); Quay They have a famous dessert; Guava and custard apple snow egg. A nice Foodpairing combination around guava-custard apple-strawberry. Recipe you can find here at the site of Masterchef.

(source picture)

And Foodpairing tree of Custard apple (but apparently we lack some data as we cannot find a link to dairy products). Anyway be inspired to make new variations;

CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES PART V CLOVES-PIGEON

2011-12-23T01:16:00.000-08:00

Next dish is build around spices from Marocco. We have chermoula (combination of pickled lemon, garlic, coriander, cumin) and ras el hanout (cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, chili) combined with pigeon, date fruit, orange

CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES PART IV TURBOT-SALSIFY

2011-12-23T00:46:00.000-08:00

4 dish is a combination build around salsify. Combination of Turbot, raw mushrooms, caviar, kelp

Click on the Foodpairing tree to see all these combinations popping up. Select + to unfold the category and select embed if you want to add the tree to your website.

CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES PART III LOBSTER-COCONUT

2011-12-22T01:45:00.000-08:00

After the foie gras and the scallop, time for lobster.
Combination of lobster, mandarin, artichoke, coconut, linked around coconut and artichoke (our chef builds recipes quite often starting from vegetables or fruits)

CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES PART II SCALLOP

2011-12-21T15:12:00.000-08:00

Continuing the Christmas menu, a combination of scallop and laurel, orange marmelade, leek and jerusalem artichoke by Peter Coucquyt

NEW FREE APP 2: LITE

2011-12-20T06:18:00.000-08:00

We started a few weeks ago to launch some new free applications;
First ,we launched a free interactive Foodpairing tree with embed codes to be integrated into your own website. To get the embed code, click on the Foodpairing trees - embed. You will get a pop-up like this one. Just copy the code into your site.

Now we added our Foodpairing explorer with 100 ingredients and their links. If you register as a free lite member, you can access the 100 ingredients unlimited and you can even store the combinations.

Find Foodpairing combinations with e.g. apple, anise, apricot, asparagus, bacon, basil, banana, basmati rice, beef, beijing duck, black olive, black tea, blackberry, crab, buckthorn, buckwheat, camembert, capers, cardamom, cashew apple juice, chaumes, chicken,... and many brands like Belvedere, Peterman jenever, Leffe, Cointreau, Passendale, Chavroux, Ardaich, Grey Goose, Mengazzolo aceto di mele biologico...

CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES: PART I FOIE GRAS

2011-12-19T04:56:00.000-08:00

Approaching the end of the year, you can find here Foodpairing inspiration for some typical Christmas ingredients. Today Foie gras.
Combinations like almonds, grapefruit, chocolate, cherry,... you will also find into the Foodpairing tree. Copy the tree into your own site by clicking on 'embed'

Combinations like the sautéed foie gras, lobster, hazelnuts, sunchoke purée, and a coffee-chocolate emulsion of The French Laundry

(source picture)

Or this foie gras combination with grapefruit, campari, soy sauce of the Dining Room at Langham

(source picture)

Or this classic Foodpairing combination with foie; 'benzaldehyde' of The Fat Duck with foie, cherry, almond

AVOCADO PAIRING

2011-12-11T12:56:00.001-08:00

As the end of the year is approaching, sites like Food&Wine start to launch 'lists' like the Top 10 restaurants dishes of 2011
One of the dishes is this salmon-sea beans-buckwheat-avocado by Salt of the Earth, Pittsburgh.

(source: Food&Wine - Laura Petrilla)

With avocado you can indeed do much more than making guacamole. Have a look at the Foodpairing tree of avocado;

So why not trying avocado, chicken and coconut sausage, yoghurt, white chocolate, mint (experiment by Peter Coucquyt)

GIN, TEA, ELDERFLOWER AND THE DRINKFACTORY

2011-12-07T12:52:00.001-08:00

Recently I was invited to visit Tony C. his new location of the Drink factory in London. In Bruges we have a nice lab, but that is certainly true for Tony his lab and his location has an extra add-on; it is in the same room where Pink Floyd recorded their legendary album ‘The Wall’.
With that amount of inspiration, no wonder the next generation of cocktails are born there.
In Tony's team there is another fantastic bartender, Marcis Dzelzainis (a great guy by the way). In the next picture he is featured in the lab of the Drinkfactory.

(source picture)

He was recently one of the 2 bartenders from UK reaching the finals of the Beefeater 24 G&Tea.
The recipe of his Tippy 24 cocktail with grapefruit, gin, tea (gin and tea infused on the Dave Arnold way), elderflower cordial, plum wine and lemon juice, you can find on the blog of the Drinkfactory.

As no gin company asked us yet to analyze their gin :(, I selected elderflower in the next interactive Foodpairing tree. In the tree you will find links to tea, gin, grapefruit as used in the cocktail. You can integrate the interactive Foodpairing tree by the embed code.

SINTERKLAAS FOODPAIRING INSPIRATION

2011-12-05T10:56:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow morning Sinterklaas will hopefully bring sweets, toys and mandarin oranges.

That means eating chocolate, pepernoten, mandarins for a few weeks...But what about giving a Foodpairing twist to these products.

With the mandarin you can make a dessert like this combination by Peter Coucquyt; ginger-mandarin-jasmin-chestnut;

Or this course by chef Shields of Town House; Cured duck, bay scallops, kaffir lime, finger lime, mandarin, wild ginger, chestnut and onion

Find these and other combinations with mandarin oranges in this Foodpairing interactive tree;

MORE POULTRY: PIGEON

2011-11-28T05:34:00.001-08:00

Browsing through Thanksgiving turkey recipes the last few days, I got into a 'poultry' mood. That reminded me of an earlier post from 2007, the year we launched our Foodpairing tool, where Flavor scientist Jane Parker of Nothingham analyzed the flavor profile of pigeon on request of Midsummer house and Audi.

The movie you can see here.

Pyrazines tell a part of the story why pigeon combines with chocolate, but there is more to it.

Based on our analysis, these are some of the pairings we can propose

Based on the Foodpairing tree of pigeon, you can for example make a combination of Pigeon, quince, chocolate, jerusalem artichokes (by Peter Coucquyt);

Our you could translate it into a pigeon-cherry-chocolate combination, as proposed by new 3 Michelin star restaurant Hertog Jan.

HOT CRANBERRY BLUEBERRY GIN

2011-11-25T06:21:00.001-08:00

Warren Bobrow posted one of his favorite drink: hot cranberry, blueberry and gin

The recipe you can find in the blogpost.

If you click on the picture below, you can see more pairings popping up. And the pop-up is interactive!
-> click on the categories to see more combinations
-> paste the interactive tree in your own website by copying the embedded code into your own post.

Cranberry and gin is a nice example of Foodpairing, reinforcing the floral, citrus and pine notes.

COGNAC BALSAMIC VINEGAR: DESMO

2011-11-25T06:08:00.001-08:00

Browsing through the 101 Best New Cocktail by Gaz Regan, I came across this combination of cognac and balsamic vinegar: Desmo by Bradford Scott Knutson, Swing Wine Bar, Olympia, WA.

The Foodpairing tree of Balsamic vinegar shows you the classic ones you know like tomato or strawberry (which is a classic italian combination) or cheese, but also ... Cognac;

If you want combinations with a specific brand, we have already online Rémy Martin at Foodpairing.com

FOODPAIRING INSPIRATION FOR THANKSGIVING

2011-11-22T03:21:00.001-08:00

Up to make a slighty different Thanksgiving diner?

Making variations in flavor is one of the way to do it. And it doesn't have to be complicated at all. Even without changing the original version too much, you can create surprising dishes.
E.g. by making a little twist to this classic dish.
Have a look at the Foodpairing tree of fried turkey. How to make a twist? Have a look at the possible ingredients and select one you didn't expect. Maybe you didn't expect chocolate. In the next step you think where to add this ingredient? To the sauce? To the stuffing?

So why not add chocolate to the sauce or add lobster to the stuffing of the turkey...

Add this interactive tree on your own website by adding the embedded code to your post and inspire your visitors.

If you also want to change the texture of this dish, at Modernist cuisine you can find inspiration how to play with the texture of the different ingredients.

VISUAL GUIDE TO MAKE COMBINATIONS WITH E.G. FUJI APPE

2011-11-21T10:31:00.001-08:00

Epicurious made a visual guide to apples.

Let us add our visual guide to 'what to combine with apple' like the Fuji apple.

Click on the tree below for the interactive pop-up;

NEW FREE APP 1: NEW EMBEDDED FOODPAIRING TREES

2011-11-21T02:58:00.001-08:00

The coming months we will launch a range new (free) applications;
We already have an embedded version of our dynamic trees, but to make life more easier, we added the embedded code itself in the visualization of the Foodpairing tree (like you have with e.g. youtube)

The Foodpairing tree viz. is in 2 parts;
a. a small static version which will be visible in your post (the size of the static image can be adapted)
b. a dynamic Foodpairing tree pop-up showing you the interactive tree, if you click on it.

How to integrate the tree in my own website?

In the pop-up of the Foodpairing tree we added a tap, if you click on it, you will see the code appearing. Just click on the copy and then paste the code into your post (the html part).

The static tree is scalable. You choose the pixel width youself or select one of the 5 preset dimensions.

For the moment we have 3 languages available: English, French and Dutch. If you want to adapt the language to French or Dutch, you have to change in the code the l=en to l=fr or l=nl.

In this site you can find already a number of dynamic trees with codes. Here I added some we posted earlier.
Ideal to illustrate an article on a specific ingredient.
Give inspiration to your visitors to try out new, tasteful, surprising combinations;

GAULT MILLAU 2012 - PASTORALE - VOLTA - DE JONKMAN

2011-11-14T11:25:00.001-08:00

The launch of the "culinary award season" in Belgium is traditionally given by Gault Millau. Bart De Pooter, chef of the Pastorale in Reet, was bombed to "Chef of 2012". His restaurant is also going up to a great 18/20.
Here Bart featured at The Flemish Primitives;

There are two other restaurants that get 18 to 20, namely De Jonkman in Bruges!! and 't Fornuis in Antwerp.

The discovery of the year's' Restaurant: Volta with chef Olly Ceulenaere (also part of Flemish Foodies). As this is a Foodpairing blog, we looked in to some of the dishes by Olly (site Flemish Foodies+recipe),and found an example with salsify, north sea shrimps, pickled cucumber, mimolette cheese.

If you dive into the Foodpairing tree of Salsify, you can find the shrimps and different types of cheeses.

Another chef of the Flemish Foodies was the vegetable chef of the year: Kobe Desramaults and the Third chef of the gang, just started a new restaurant with a wink to Momofuku; J.E.F.

In the highest echelons everything remains unchanged. Hof van Cleve Peter Goossens got another fabulous 19.5

NEW VERSION OF FOODPAIRING.COM

2011-11-08T06:07:00.000-08:00

In the coming months, new functions will be added to the Foodpairing.com website.
As a first step we changed the structure for easier navigation.
We added a 'How to use it' where we explain how to use Foodpairing applied on very simple and known combinations.
We also gathered for several years frequent asked question and added them in 'What is Foodpairing?'
Currently you can experience a small part of the Foodpairing explorer in 'Experience it' and a range of Foodpairing recipes

Find out why topchefs and bartenders use Foodpairing.com testimonials by some known topchefs and bartenders

Stay tuned for the new free features.

DIP INTO FOODPAIRING: CHEESE FONDUE + HONEY

2011-11-06T14:12:00.000-08:00

With the cold days coming in, cheese fondue is a back on the menu...

Making cheese fondue, looks simple, but it doesn't always work out... Unless you know why you add particular ingredients and what the science is behind. Knowing why you need to add acidic components like white wine and lemon juice, the importancy of temperature, adding a starch source will help you in making better fondue (If you aren't familiar with the science behind cheese fondue, please consult Harold McGee his Keys to Good Cooking.)

For the flavor part of the cheese fondue, cheese like Gruyère and white wine are an essential part. But to improve the flavor connection between the Gruyère and the wine, you should add...honey. Here some other combinations you could make with the cheese fondue (from classics to maybe more surprising - no Kirsch as we didn't analysed it yet)

If you start adding extra ingredients based on Foodpairing, please don't forget the other scientific rules.

JASMINE FOODPAIRING BY BENU

2011-11-04T05:44:00.000-07:00

Recently Corey Lee of Benu restaurant got 2 Michelin stars (great!). While looking at his tasting menu we found several nice examples which can be easy explained by Foodpairing (he finds it by intuition, I guess. Foodpairing is not cancelling out intuition though. Topchefs are using our Foodpairing website mainly to have a confirmation of what they feel) .

(source picture Corey Lee)

As Foodpairing started almost 20 years ago when François Benzi of Firmenich made the connection between jasmin and meat, let's have a look at the jasmine-chicken-date fruit combination.

The link to sherry and onion is by chicken (bridging).

(source picture and recipe)

BREAST MILK FOODPAIRING

2011-11-04T02:50:00.000-07:00

Jocky of The Fat Duck asked we once if I knew where to find human breast milk. Next to making somebody pregnant, I also proposed to recreate the breast milk by a combination of other ingredients. We are not there yet, but as we have the analysis, we can already suggest what to combine with breast milk.

This Foodpairing tree of human breast milk shows some possible combinations;

One of the shops selling breast milk icecream is Icecreamists, located in Covent garden in London. They created a breastmilk, lemon zest, vanilla ice cream, called the Baby Gaga (what's in a name). more info you can find in this article by the Daily mail. I have no clue if this is a nice icecream (and not only shocking), do you? And what else would you combine with breast milk? Make a mayonnaise with it and serve it with french fries?

The interchangeability of the breast milk could also be nice for a marshmallow Dominique Persoone once made for our The Flemish Primitives (left upper corner). The other ones are a Foodpairing with grass, a praline filled with water and the last making a Foodpairing link to the sea with oyster and salt.

SMASHING PUMPKINS

2011-11-02T12:45:00.000-07:00

When I was 'young' the Smashing Pumpkins was one of my favorite bands, it appears now also to be one of the best cocktails in 2011 by Tasting Table.
Nobody would doubt the cinnamon-pumpkin combination, well the pumpkin-rum-allspice-bay leaf is based on a similar basis.
The Foodpairing tree of this Smashing Pumpkin by Mike Isabella: pumpkin-allspice-lemon-rum

Recipe:
12 ounces pumpkin purée
4 ounces fresh lemon juice
2 ounces water
Ice
1½ ounces dark rum
½ ounce St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram
Bay leaf, for garnish
1. In a soda charger combine the pumpkin puree, lemon juice and water and charge. Serve to order.
2. In a Collins glass add the ice. Add the rum, Dram and 3 ounces of the lemon-pumpkin soda and stir to combine. Garnish with the bay leaf. Serve.
(source: Tasting Table)

THE FLAVOR OF APPLES AND A SIP OF FALL: CALVADOS

2011-11-01T03:01:00.000-07:00

An article in the NY Times on Calvados inspired me to have a look at cocktails with Calvados and how they relate to Foodpairing.

In difford's guide you can find combinations of Calvados with Cointreau, Orange, Peach, Apple juice, Whisky,...

Which you also find back visualised in a Foodpairing tree based on the flavor analysis of the different ingredients (it is dynamic so click on the tree to see more combinations);
Go to our facebook page to get the embedded code for the Foodpairing tree of Calvados so you can paste the dynamic tree into your own website.

CRANBERRY FOODPAIRING: CHILI DOGS AND DRINKS

2011-10-28T03:19:00.000-07:00

Ben Roche of Moto (on the left) is one of the chefs who added a wonderfull testimonial to our Foodpairing website.

He was also one of the chefs we invited for the first Foodpairing event (The Flemish Primitives edition 2009) presenting his 'chicago hotdog', next to Heston Blumenthal, Albert Adria,...
This was his gift to us; his interpretation of the hot dog visualised in a tree;

While I was looking into the Foodpairing tree of cranberry, it remind me of the Chili dog by Ben.

Where the sausage is a cranberry sorbet (+ buttercake, brown sugar relish, pear)

To get more fantastic ideas for chefs and bartenders with cranberry, I added the dynamic Foodpairing tree.
To have this Visualisation on your own website?? =>=> we added the code in our facebook page.

So a Cointreaupolitan makes sense, as a sandwich chicken, cranberry sauce, Wisconsin muenster cheese.
What are your combinations inspired by Foodpairing?

HALLOWEEN FOODPAIRING

2011-10-27T03:10:00.000-07:00

Want to make this year some surprising trick-or-treats? Find inspiration in the Foodpairing tree of Pumpkin (interactive, you can click on them to see more);

MOZZARELLA PAIRINGS FROM OBIKA TO ALINEA

2011-10-26T02:39:00.000-07:00

Based on the Foodpairing tree of Buffalo mozzarella you can dive into several directions and be inspired to make a lot of different dishes;

You can combine with caponata (eggplant, raisin...), which you can find on the menu of Obika.

You can combine it with peaches and hyssop like playing with fire and water did;

Or you can turn it into a gastronomic dish, like Grant Achatz of Alinea did with this combination of burrata, strawberry, basil, almond, jasmin

Or you can combine it with the best shrimps of the world, our north sea grey shrimps and add tomato, fennel like Bart Desmidt of Bartholomeus - here for Masterclass (where I also was invited, see movie - in Dutch though)

THOSE DUTCHMEN: EDIBLE JOINT

2011-10-25T02:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Jonnie and Thérèse Boer of de Librije announced their new book at Food Inspiration in Eindhoven (the Netherlands) and as a surprised they presented for the whole audience an edible joint. We know that at the Librije they were doing tests with extracting the flavor of hennep (without having the hallucinating components). Some of the key flavor components of hennep oil are known. Let's check if their combination with chocolate-mint-lemon makes sense;

The quote added to the package of the edible joints says:"This joint doesn't contain any hallucinating components, but nevertheless you will never forget it"

Maybe we should look how to remake the flavor of the hennep oil, without using any of the plant.

CITRUS PAIRINGS: FINGER LIME AUSTRALIA

2011-10-24T06:42:00.000-07:00

Having a look at different types of citrus like Finger lime, Kabosu, Meyer, Sudachi, Kaffir, Ponkan,...

We analyzed already more than 20 different types of citrus. As a tasting, Finger lime from Australia...
Click in the tree if you want to have more info on the products or want to explore deeper.
Members get acces to more than 1000 ingredients and much more functionality: become member

POMEGRANATE JUICE PAIRINGS

2011-10-24T05:31:00.000-07:00

Based on the Flavor and Foodpairing analysis of pomegranate juice, Peter Coucquyt prepared a dish;
Mackerel escabeche-walnut-brussels sprouts-pomegranate.

Looking to the Foodpairing tree of pomegranate juice, what could a bartender do with it?

A bartender could come up with a Pomegranate juice-Cointreau-Tequila combination.When googling this combination, it appears to be one of the favorite pairing of Oprah (link to site for recipe)

(source picture)

PUMPKIN-COFFEE 2 VERSIONS: HOME & RESTAURANT

2011-10-22T06:40:00.000-07:00

Chef Patterson of Coi posted 2 version of the pumpkin-coffee Foodpairing.

The home version is a pumpkin-carrot-cream-coffee combination;

The restaurant version is a squash-apple-yoghurt-coffee combination;

The cooked Pumpkin Foodpairing tree with some possible pairings;

POTATO DESSERT NOMA

2011-10-21T14:20:00.000-07:00

A Picture of a dessert by René Redzepi of Noma mentioning "Potatoes seems to be our new strawberry; here another dessert of prunes, potato and sweet cream"

Also a potato dessert with blackcurrant, litchi, strawberry :) is possible...

HOW TO REPLACE...BROWN STOCK

2011-10-21T05:58:00.000-07:00

Continuing the 'how to replace' we looked for ingredients which take a lot of time to make.... like brown stock and replaced them with ingredients very easy to make.
In the following dish with pigeon, passion fruit, chocolate and belgian endive we replaced the brown stock with...freshly made coffee. If you mix this coffee with the other ingredients for the sauce you obtain a sauce where you can't distinguish the coffee anymore, tasting like you would make it with brown stock.
So next time you don't have time to make brown stock, just make a fresh brewed coffee.

Pigeon of Anjou, Belgian endive, passion fruit, chocolate and...coffee

Ingredientsfor 4

2pigeons

Sauce: 15 g butter

2 g garlic

50 g shallots

0,2 g bay leaf

0,2 g star anise

50 g mushrooms

15 g butter

180 g bones and legs of pigeon

0.4 g baking soda

50 g of red wine

10 g soy sauce

150 g fresh made coffee

80 g water

4Belgian endive heads

100g girolle mushrooms

chocolatepowder: 30 g white chocolate

pinch ofgrated lime peel

50 gtapiocamaltodextrine (malto Texturas)

passioncream: 100 g white chocolate

40 g passion fruitcoulis

40g hazelnuts

groundcoffee beans

herbsto garnish

butterfor frying

saltand pepper

Preparation

Pigeon

Scorchthe pigeons slightly with a blowtorch to remove feather remainders. Remove theentrails. Remove the fillets. Chop the carcass and legs into smaller pieces.

Seasonthe fillets with butter and salt. Bake the fillets in hot butter, according tothe desired cuisson.

Keepthe baked fillets warm in an tin foil wrap.

Sauce without brown stock

Cleanthe shallots, garlic and mushrooms and chop them. Fry in butter with bay leafand star anise. Remove from the pan and add water and butter. Season thechopped pigeon carcass and legs with pepper and baking soda and allow them tobrown in the hot butter. Add the fried shallots, garlic and mushrooms. Bring toheat and add the red wine. Add the soy sauce, coffee and water and allow thesauce to reduce. Season to taste, strain and finish with a knob of butter. Keepwarm

Belgianendives

Cleanthe endives. Season with salt and pepper and fry briefly in butter. Add somewater. Allow to simmer on low heat. Remove from pan and drain. Then brown theendives in hot butter. Season to taste

Girollesmushrooms

Cleanthe girolles mushrooms with cold water. Dry them with a towel. Fry themushrooms in hot butter and season with salt and pepper.

ChocolatePowder

Meltthe chocolate. Stir in the zest of the lime. Add malto and stir with whiskuntil a fine powder is obtained

Creamof passion fruit

Heatthe passion fruit coulis and stir in the chocolate. Allow to set while stirringregularly. Put the cream into a piping bag.

Hazelnuts

Roastthe hazelnuts in the oven at 180 ° C. Let cool and chop coarsely.

BLUEBERRY BLUE

2011-10-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

My eye feld on this blue blue blueberry combination as posted on chefs talk

Blueberry-mascarpone-anise-camomile-sesame seeds. They fit nice into the Foodpairing tree of Blueberry;

COFFEE ARABICA PAIRINGS

2011-10-17T13:33:00.000-07:00

Just noticed on twitter the comment of Jeroen Veldkamp at the Dutch Barista Competition where he confirms that Foodpairing is more and more used by Barista.
He even got 2 espresso where they added celery root. Well, celery root makes a Foodpairing with coffee if you look at the category of the vegetable.
Find here some more inspiration on Foodpairing and coffee.

When you apply the Foodpairing tree of coffee, you can obtain known combinations or surprising ones;
-coffee-raspberry-chocolate

-coffee-peanut-elderflower

QUINCE SYRUP PAIRINGS

2011-10-17T12:47:00.000-07:00

As some of you maybe know, we also help farmers when they develop new products (we even help some farmers with totally new varieties of vegetables).
An example is the product we developed for Engelendael where we combined several ingredients of the farm. As the farmer has fields full of herbs and flowers which he uses for his bees, we combined the coriander, verbena and roses of the fields with the honey of the bees and 3 varieties of quinces.
The result you get is a Quince syrup with locally sourced ingredients;

And this is what you can combine with the syrup;

BLOODY MARY-HAM-CELERY-APPLE-YOGHURT-HONEY

2011-10-17T01:50:00.000-07:00

Belvedere has a new vodka out; Bloody Mary a blend of their premium vodka with macerations of 7 essentials ingredients of the Bloody Mary; black pepper-horseradish-bell pepper-tomato-chili-vinegar-lemon.
For The London Cocktail week, we developed 2 types of barfood to complement the drink. One of the combinations was Bayonne ham-apple-celery-honey-yoghurt-licorice based on the Foodpairing tree of Belvedere Bloody Mary;

Recipe and the other barfood you can find here.

SIROCCO AT COLEBROOKE 69: PEPPERCORN AND GRAPEFRUIT

2011-10-13T16:03:00.000-07:00

Next to the some bottle aged cocktails Tony and his team also presented me one of their best selling cocktails for the moment; the Sirocco. A “Flint and pink peppercorn vodka” with grapefruit oils.

As you all know Tony Conigliaro is quite passionate (about Foodpairing), so no wonder this is a good Foodpairing combination.

Impressed by the cocktail, I forgot to take a picture, so you will have to go looking for yourself at 69 Colebrooke row.

HOW TO REPLACE...CITRUS PARTIII LIME

2011-10-13T15:01:00.000-07:00

Continuing on the experiments with the 'lemon' we could also recreate lime by adding more 'green' notes like in this recipe;

0,5 g ginger
5 g lemongrass
0,5 g limecress (Koppert Cress)
0,5 g lemon balm
0,3 g coriander seeds
1 jasmine flower (leafs) (Koppert Cress)
0,5 g apple blossom (Koppert Cress)

HOW TO REPLACE...CITRUS FRUIT PARTII: LEMON

2011-10-11T02:49:00.000-07:00

Philip Duff challenged us if we could recreate lemon by combining otherfood ingredients. Based on the flavor profile of lemon juice, we were able todo so and present this finding at BCB in Berlin.

When you segment lemon into its flavors you will smell roses, fruitynotes, jasmin, green notes,... We visualised them in a kind of flavor wheel. Soif you take from each flavor one or more ingredients and you combine them inthe right quantity, you can obtain lemon without using lemon.

The ingredients we used, are jasmin, apple blossom, limebasil ( from KoppertCress), lemongrass and lemon thyme.

The recipe for 'lemon without lemon';

1 g apple blossom (Koppert Cress)

0,6 g apple blossom stalks

0,9 g limecress (Koppert Cress)

0,2 g lemon thyme

4,6 g lemon grass

1 jasmine flower (just the leafs) (Koppert Cress)

0,4 g sugar

You just muddleall the ingredients together.

Instead of addinglemon to you cocktail, you add the paste. At BCB we served a whisky sour;

Recipe:

45 ml Jack Daniels or other bourbon

22,5 ml water

9 g paste

11 ml sugar syrup (or less depending on your preference)

1 dash bitter

Add all theingredients to the shaker, add ice cubes and shake had. Sieve. Serve.

You will obtain awhisky sour, which is not as sour as usual, but has the flavor of fresh lemon.

We also tried inon other classical recipes like the White Lady, the Jasmin,... and it allworked out. But if you like those cocktails because of their acidity, youshould add extra citric acid, lactic acid,... to lower the pH from 5 to around3.

Or not into alcoholic drinks?

It also reallyworked well in Coca-cola. Want to serve Coca-cola into a new way? Add the waterto the paste, shake and add the 'lemon juice' to the Coca-cola, it will make a much more complex profile.

HOW TO REPLACE...CITRUS FRUIT: PART I: ORANGE

2011-10-09T16:06:00.000-07:00

With all the flavor insights we have due to Foodpairing, we are also able to replace a product by a combination of other products. Flavors are not typical for only one product. The aroma of an ingredient is due to a combination of flavors which are also present in a lot of other food products.
To demonstrate this, we will show how you can replace citrus fruit. We will start with orange (which we have posted earlier on other websites) and will continu with other citrus fruit as presented at BCB in Berlin.

To replace orange we used the following ingredients: physalis, melon, gooseberry, coriander and juniper berry

Our recipe:

20 g of Physalis

10 g of melon

5 g of gooseberry

3 seeds of coriander

1 juniper berry

Preparation:

Put everything in a blender

And blend

WHAT TO PAIR WITH A BLUE DYNAMO?

2011-10-07T02:42:00.000-07:00

not a blue dynamo like this, but these little blue guys; blueberries. Some of the pairings you can find here;

As an example (I didn't try this recipe); Blueberry-basil pie

STATE OF EUPHORIA

2011-10-05T14:31:00.000-07:00

Foodpairing is very frequent used by chefs using local ingredients/ vegetables, as Foodpairing is an ideal tool to make even something simple as a potato exciting.
Here you have an example by Hertog Jan (**) potato-cheese-coffee which is better than any caviar (link to recipe)

But you can also use it in experimenting in cocktails; like in the not everyday cocktails and presentations of Tom Zyankali from Zyankali bar in Berlin.

STATE OF EUPHORIA:
3-5 leafs fresh basil, carefully muddled
4cl zynkali Absinth
2cl Mandarine Napoleon
2cl fresh lime juice
1cl Vanilla sirup
shake on ice, strain and fill with soda

This cocktail is based on the Foodpairing analysis of the bar his own Zyankali absinth

RHUBARB AND AVOCADO

2011-09-30T03:17:00.000-07:00

Going through the flavor profile of rhubarb, I came across avocado as being one of the best combinations. As always we then start to look who already made this combination before. If you Google it, this website is one of the hits: Italian notes (+recipe)
This is what the website tells about this pairing: "Any talk of a marriage between rhubarb and avocado will arouse nose-wrinkling suspicion, but come to think of it, the combination is not that far-fetched. Avocado goes well with lemon, grapefruits and oranges, rhubarbs can be very sweet and very sour, and anything that strikes a good bittersweet fat-and-salty balance seems attractive in theory. In this case reality goes to match. The actual salad is surprisingly refreshing and a great accompaniment to red meat, strong cheese and hot and spicy salumi."

Rhubarb as combines with chocolate in desserts or in classical combinations with fish like Mackerel by Nigel Slater

or by Gordon Ramsay or in this combination of Hubert Keller: Sea Bass with Rhubarb coulis

TOP CHEF JUST DESSERTS: A FOODPAIRING VIEW

2011-09-29T04:30:00.000-07:00

In Top Chef just desserts we saw some challenges passing by where Foodpairing would be an incredible help to support the participants. Last year I met Johnny Iuzzini (one of the judges) during my presentation at Starchefs (his Desserts Fourplay is a must have) and I was pleased he got interested by our Foodpairing.
As an example we took a parsnip-banana-hazelnut dessert from episode 6 of Top Chef.

Here are some of the possible pairings with hazelnut (clustered in categories, the closer to the center the better the match);

Or this coffee, strawberry, rum, pea combination. It should work, but this combination is quite challenging to find the right balance in taste. If you use young, fresh sweet peas it should work.

Here the visualisation of this pairing;

There was even a chocolate pairing with French fries, reminds me of the first edition of our The Flemish Primitives in 1999 where we gave people French Fries with mayonnaise (based on chocolate), next to all sorts of challenging items like glowing lollypops (picture by Khymos) or at the last edition ants by Alex Atala tasting like ginger, lemongrass (which was later also presented at Madfoodcamp)

MANGO PAIRING

2011-09-28T03:11:00.000-07:00

Last December, I had to do an talk with Harold McGee on his new book keys to good cooking, and going through the results on different types of mango, it came up my mind again that Harold McGee described an Alphonso mango as one of his most preferred foods.
Well, what to combine with Mango?

You can translate this tree into a Mango, mackerel, juniper, celery combination like Alinea restaurant (source picture)

Or give a little twist to a classic combination; Mango, lobster, salad + dark chocolate (by the Mangerie, Bruges) Which was the winning dish in a Chocolate Foodpairing competition here in Bruges.

INSPIRATION TO OPEN THE OYSTER SEASON

2011-09-27T06:10:00.000-07:00

One of the first Foodpairing dishes by Sang-Hoon Degeimbre of L'air du temps was this pairing of kiwi and oyster or "Kiwître (recipe)" (meet him at Starchefs)

What other combinations are possible with oyster, to open the oyster season. Find here inspiration;

A LOOK AT DOVETAIL: AVOCADO PAIRING

2011-09-26T05:14:00.000-07:00

While surfing on the site of Starchefs (Sadly I won't make it for Starchefs ICC this year. If you are there certainly visit Sang Hoon Degeimbre. He will also do a workshop using Foodpairing.com) I got across some of the recipes of the Michelin star awarded Dovetail NYC restaurant.In the chef's tasting there is a fluke, melon, avocado, celery root, shisito pepper combination. Here is a visualisation;

we haven't analyzed Fluke or Shisito peppers yet, but you can see from the Foodpairing tree; fish combines well with avocado and also several chiles.

SAFFRON INFUSED COCKTAILS

2011-09-26T03:43:00.000-07:00

At Barchef in Toronto, Ai Fiori in New York,... you have cocktails with infusions of saffron. Saffron is not always added for its flavor only, but here you have an overview of possible combinations with saffron based on its flavor profile;

Here an example by Eben Freeman (Ai Fiori): Aperitivo

A movie how to make it;
Foodspotting the Bar at Ai Fiori: "Aperitivo" Cocktail from Ai Fiori on Vimeo.
And the saffron sour of Barchef in Toronto;

Gin should also fit, but I'm missing still a lot of analysis on different types of gin. Any brand interested?

CELERIAC-WALNUT-HAM

2011-09-22T03:48:00.000-07:00

During a diner beginning of this month at In de wulf (Belgium) two of Europe’s brightest talents, Swedish chef Magnus Nilsson from Fäviken Magasinet and Kobe Desmaraults of In De Wulf, made some great combinations like this celeriac-walnut-aged ham combination (source picture)

This is what you obtain if you look to it with a Foodpairing view, visualised into a Foodpairing tree of celery root (or celeriac).

INTO BRAZILIAN FRUITS

2011-09-22T01:02:00.000-07:00

We started to analyze more and more exotic ingredients from Finger limes out of Australia over typical fermentation products from Korea over fruits from Brazil.
It is amazing how many unknown fruits (at least for us) there are in Brazil. We added the Foodpairing tree of Mangaba; a fruit which is a round yellow-to-red colored ball about the size of a baseball. The interior of the fruit is white with a number of small seeds. When the fruit is ripe, the pulp is so soft it practically melts in the mouth. The flavor is sweet and the fruit is highly perfumed (source)

FOODPAIRING WITH BOURBON: APPLES TO ORANGES

2011-09-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

I was quite intriged by this cocktail by John Coltharp as posted on Food&Wine as the ingredients are bourbon, cucumber, grapefruit and the flavor reminds people of apples, oranges. I didn't taste it yet, but this is no surprise for us.

People who follow our other blog carbonfoodprint will not be surprised as we are able to replace a product by a combination of others as we did this with orange, basil, chicken and soon at BCB in Berlin for other ingredients (I will give a talk together with Philip Duff on chemistry of citrus 10/10 6:45 pm main stage)

Anyway, I added the Foodpairing tree of Bourbon to inspire in making new pairings with Bourbon. You will see a link to the cocktails as posted in Food&Wine.

PASSION FRUIT - CARROT AT COI

2011-09-19T07:21:00.000-07:00

Chef Patterson of Coi mentioned yesterday in a tweet having a new dessert; Passion fruit and carrot. Which makes a lot of sense from Foodpairing perspective as both share several floral notes. This is how the Foodpairing tree of passion fruit and the dish looks like (source picture) Use the Foodpairing tree to make a variation on this combination. Except from Tomato, carrot is one of the best vegetable combinations with passion fruit.

FOODPAIRING POPUP RESTAURANT

2011-09-19T00:57:00.000-07:00

At Chef11 in Belgium we are having a Foodpairing pop-up restaurant where you can experience recipes based on Foodpairing, created by Peter Coucquyt, former Michelin star chef but now part of Foodpairing.com.

The menu includes recipes as braised Cod with panade of mustard and parmesan, crème of cauliflower.

The dish is based on the Foodpairing tree of Cod. Products in bold are added to the dish.

WHAT TO COMBINE WITH SCHWEDDY BALLS?

2011-09-11T14:55:00.000-07:00

Ben&Jerry launched last week a new variety (via Time), called Schweddy balls, which is vanilla ice-cream with fudge-covered rum and malt balls. I didn't tried it yet, but from the ingredients, these should be some nice fruit and nut pairings with these balls; almond roasted, grapefruit, peanut, strawberry...

COINTREAU AND REMY MARTIN ADDED TO FOODPAIRING.COM

2011-09-09T04:46:00.000-07:00

Bartenders request us more and more to add specific brands of drinks on Foodpairing.com. As flavor profiles between e.g. different gins change a lot, it is quite important to make a Foodpairing cocktail with the correct drink.
We are happy to see that distillers who care about the flavor of their drinks and really want to support bartenders request more and more Foodpairing analysis.
The newest addition to the database are Cointreau and Rémy Martin cognac.

As the Foodpairing website is also available in French, for the variation I added here a French version of the Cointreau Foodpairing tree explaining one of the pairings they made on their website; the Dita van Teesen cocktail: Cointreau + orange-ginger-violet-chocolate-cake (cocktail and barfood in 1).

SOME GREAT EXAMPLES OF FOODPAIRING COCKTAILS BY BARCHEF TORONTO

2011-09-08T05:35:00.000-07:00

I gave yesterday evening a talk at Barchef in Toronto. During the talk Frankie made some cocktails based on his intuition, but great examples of Foodpairing. As a Foodpairing 'addict' I really love his cocktails...how Foodpairing can turn cocktail into fantastic flavour experiences.

We also implemented an update of our Foodpairing.com tool for the members. I will use this tool to explain one of the combinations he made. The main new feature in the tool are the lists where ingredients are ranked according to your combo.
So if you want to know which vegetable would fit best your combo, you get a ranking of possible pairings.Frankie made a cocktail based on Rum, Gin and elderflower. In the new tool, this looks like this;

And now you can get suggestions to fit these combination of 3 ingredients. You can get a general suggestion over all categories or like in this case find the best combination with the category of vegetables (carrot logo) and get 'white truffle' suggested (see on top in the list).

The final cocktail had 2 parts; one with the cocktail of coconut rum-gin-elderflower and a solid part with of course truffle and coconut foam, smoked salt, lime, dill.

Great experience. If you're in Toronto don't miss this bar!

PAIRING WITH HAY - INSPIRATION FOR MADFOODCAMP

2011-08-25T12:57:00.000-07:00

Looking to the map of MADFOODCAMP you will notice probably 'hay' being present. We can't be there (if you can you should, look at the program), but to give also a bit of our inspiration, Foodpairings you can make with hay;

Want to have an interactive Foodpairing tree on your website, click here

PEPPER PAIRING- MORE TO CHILIES THAN THE HEAT

2011-08-25T08:54:00.000-07:00

In the Austin Chronicle, an article was posted about pairings with peppers. Let's have a look at the combinations with one of the popular peppers; the Chipotle.
Have a look at the dynamic Foodpairing tree to meet some a the pairing you can make with Chipotle.
And there is indeed much more to peppers than the heat, as all these combinations are build around aromas they have in common.

TARRAGON - GRAPES SALAD BY JAMIE OLIVER

2011-08-23T03:48:00.000-07:00

Ivan Welker pointed us at the fact that the combination of Tarragon and Grapes was one of the combinations which surprised Jamie Oliver.
This is what Jamie Oliver told about this combination in an interview;"This salad is one of the best things that's happened to me... Really tasty, really clean and fresh... The recipe uses tarragon instead of any other salad leaf. This is quite shocking for me, as I've always been scared of tarragon! It's a potent herb, but used aggressively and strongly like it is here it really works well. With
the sweetness of the grapes and the saltiness of the goat's cheese, it's fantastic." (source)

Let's check the combinations with Tarragon (click on the tree, it is interactive! The closer to the center the better. Ingredients clustered in categories);

(source picture)
Recipe of Jamie Oliver:
Ingredients:
2 banana shallots, or 6 normal-sized ones, peeled and very finely
sliced
a good vinegar (champagne, white wine or sherry vinegar)
4 large handfuls of fresh tarragon, leaves picked
1 small bunch of seedless red grapes, halved
1 small bunch of seedless green grapes, halved
6 tablespoons extra virgin
olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
200g/7oz good goat's cheese or hard salted ricotta

So why not make an alternative version with raspberry or peach? Or go for sweet with plums, cherries... Or for cocktails with ume liquor. Be inspired.

LET'S CHECK THE BASIL PAIRINGS WALLSTREET JOURNAL SUGGESTS

2011-08-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

In the Food&wine part of the Wallstreet Journal, an article was posted, named 'Basil&Friends'. This was their underscore;
'Pair it with everything from salmon to strawberries—this pretty herb brings out the best in every dish it meets'

Well let's check it out;

Salmon, mozzarella, plum, mango, strawberry,... yep. If you don't seen them directly, you can click on the (+) and the category will unfold.

For a complete overview, register on www.foodpairing.com

WHAT TO COMBINE WITH SALSIFY?

2011-08-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

The season of salsify is starting. What pairings can we make with cooked salsify?

Peter Coucquyt made a combination of cod, licorice, salsify,avocado and blood orange.

Food and wine made one with oyster, thyme, bacon,...

PEACH + TARRAGON?

2011-08-18T12:22:00.000-07:00

Saw this tweet passing by "Potential douche moment: "I'm not sure I know the flavor profile on tarragon well enough to assess its pairing with peach." by FletcherPrice.

Well of course they combine. They have in common floral, green,...notes. See here; Peach you can find in the fruit category.

FOODPAIRING WITH GOAT CHEESE

2011-08-14T03:40:00.000-07:00

Starchefs posted a range of dessert by Pastry Chef Emily Wallendjack of Veritas - New York, NY. Like this Charred Strawberries, Chevre Cheesecake, Raspberry Saffron Sauce, and Chocolate Cookie Crumble. Find the Foodpairing tree below. And Find a lot of other FoodPairing recipes with goat cheese here.

WHAT TO COMBINE WITH MACKEREL?

2011-08-13T14:12:00.000-07:00

Docsconz asked the question "what to combine with Spanish Mackerel". Well, here is some inspiration;

This was one of our first post years ago with mackerel

PAIRING THE APPLE SIDECAR OF RYAN MAGARIAN

2011-08-13T12:19:00.000-07:00

Epicurious added a post on pairing cocktails with food, which is an idea we support of course. Ryan Magarian proposed the combination of his Apple sidecar and a grilled romaine lettuce with bacon, apple, and blue cheese (Roquefort) vinaigrette and a sidecar made with apple brandy

Well let's check how this Foodpairing is constructed;

The recipe of the Apple sidecar;
1 1/2 oz Vodka
1/2 oz Apple brandy
1 oz Lemon juice
1 oz Simple syrup
1/2 oz Tangerine juice
1 pn Tangerine peel (shredded, as garnish)

Shake, strain, straight up, chilled sugar-rimmed cocktail glass

FOODPAIRING VIEW ON A CAKE BY BURCH&PURCHASE

2011-08-05T04:41:00.000-07:00

We always enjoy the posts by Burch & Purchese sweet studio, so we thought let's have a FoodPairing view on a cake they just posted.

We started from orange to have the FoodPairing with the other ingredients;

This is how the cake is constructed;

A FOODPAIRING LOOK AT THE PINA PEPINO

2011-08-04T15:41:00.000-07:00

Next to the Flemish Foodies there is now also the Belgian Barflies featuring Olivier Jacobs, Erik Veldhuis and Ben Wouters. Happy to see there is more and more activity in the cocktail scene in Belgium.

Here the Foodpairing tree of Apple linked to a general profile of Tequila (any tequila company interested to make a Foodpairing analysis on their product?) to make the link with the other ingredients;

Here the movie of the cocktail by Ben Wouters;

Piña pepiño - Ben Wouters (Belgian Barflies) from piet de kersgieter on Vimeo.

WHITE TRUFFLE FOODPAIRING FOR TRUFFEL.BE

2011-08-04T04:16:00.000-07:00

We analysed for truffel.be their black and white truffles.
You can find the dynamic Foodpairing tree on their page White truffle

But also here;

CHERRY - GOAT CHEESE - LOVAGE AT NOMA

2011-08-03T17:24:00.000-07:00

Had a look at some experiments at Noma a few weeks ago and one of the recipes was cherry - goat cheese - lovage.

Here the FoodPairing tree. I selected also some typical Noma products like Sea buckthorn which could be added;

And this was how the dish looked like (by Carol from NY);

Source picture: EATER

BASIL - CHERRY

2011-08-03T16:14:00.000-07:00

This hot weather (at least a few days) and some experiments with basil made me remain of one of my favorite dessert with cherry; a sorbet of kriek gueuze with loads of basil. This is the FoodPairing tree of cherry (in this case sour cherry) with some possible pairings.

Comparing the outcome of this FoodPairing tree I came across a recipe on the cooking channel.
Sangria is not really my cup of tea. Probably because there is too much bad Sangria out there. But it makes sense to add peach, red wine, brandy,...to this Very cherry Sangria.

PEACH MELBA - the last dish at El Bulli

2011-08-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

The last dish at El Bulli was a tribute to the peach Melba of Escoffier.

What are FoodPairing combinations with peach?

CHOCOLATE - EGGPLANT

2011-08-02T08:23:00.000-07:00

If you take a holiday in Italy, maybe you should try this 'classic' italian combination: eggplant and chocolate

I do love this pairing as it is an nice example that surprising combinations have been there throughout the ages (what is surprising in one culture can be very obvious in another) and of course they also result from a Foodpairing(R) analysis. Italian monks found by accident this combination. Luckily we have the equipment and method to find new pairings much more efficient.

Find here more combinations with cooked eggplant in a dynamic visualization which we call 'a Foodpairing tree'.
Each branch is a category, like meat, dairy,... Scroll over the categories to find which category it is.
Click on the categories to find more examples.
Click on the ingredients to have some explanation about the product.
The closer to the middle the better the match. So litchi, oyster, potato, chicken,... all good ideas. We didn't taste anything. It all results from scientific analysis.
This is a more advanced visualization of what we launched almost 5 years and almost 1000 flavor analysis ago. Enjoy!

A recipe of the eggplant - chocolate pairing you can find e.g. here

By looking into the tree you can also find apirings like one of my favorite with eggplant by Josean Martinez Alija of the Guggenheim restaurant in Bilbao: eggplant - licorice - olive oil. Recipe you can find here.

Be inspired! For more www.foodpairing.com

WHAT COMBINES WITH HONEYSUCKLE?

2011-06-10T04:13:00.000-07:00

I got a request from Mark Gaffney (@Umami5) what he could combine with Honeysuckle syrup.
I knew honeysuckle but didn't knew it was also used as an ingredient.

After analyzing, this is what you e.g. get as a Foodpairing tree

Next time you're making a Martini dry, you could add Honeysuckle syrup. Or add floral notes to a glass of champagne. Or add it to a salad with tomato and basil.
We also added the dynamic tree of Honeysuckle in dynamic Foodpairing trees Look in the section of herbs and spices.

HOW TO REPLACE MY CUCUMBER IN MY PIMM'S?

2011-06-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

German health officials said that cucumbers imported from Spain was one source of a recent deadly E. coli outbreak in northern states that killed several people and made hundreds sick.
They came back on that, but maybe you are still afraid (you shouldn't, but in case you are). What could replace cucumber in your dishes or cocktails?

Well, one of the typical flavors of cucumber is (E,Z)-2,6-nonadienal. A molecule which you make when you are cutting cucumber (as by cutting you mix enzymes and fatty acids of the cucumber. The enzymes will cut the fatty acid into 2 parts, one of them being the cucumber flavor).
Where else can you find this molecules if you want to make a Pimm's cocktail?

You can find the cucumber flavor also in:
- borage flowers
- mango
- watermelon
- Hendrick's gin...
So mango in your Pimm's cocktail? Or go directly for the Hendrick's :)

STRAWBERRY-BLACK PEPPER-OLIVE OIL-OLIVES...

2011-05-26T12:26:00.000-07:00

Heston Blumenthal about strawberry combinations (edition of "In search of perfection: Trifle" of a few years ago) Thaught about this one seeing a trailer on Belgian television.

Of course all easy to explain by using Foodpairing (what did you expect :)): strawberry-black pepper; strawberry-olive oil; strawberry-black olive; strawberry-sherry;.... In the same Foodpairing tree, you see the combination of lobster, pea, strawberry (a combination made by Sang-Hoon Degeimbre of L'air du temps)

More combinations and recipes with strawberries: www.foodpairing.com/en/free-trial/ (if you want to have it in Dutch or French you can select, the language in the right upper corner)

FOODPAIRING WITH BRASILIAN CASHEW APPLE JUICE?

2011-05-25T15:37:00.000-07:00

Got a cashew apple juice cocktail movie posted om my facebook;

(source picture)

http://www.vimeo.com/24021851

And as we have the flavor analysis of cashew apple juice, which other combinations could you make? What would it give to make a sherry- banana - cashew apple juice cocktail? Any other suggestions based on the Foodpairing tree?

The dynamic tree you can find at www.foodpairing.com/en/free-trial/ Select in the right column of the tool cashew apple juice by scrolling into the category of the drinks.

RUM - APPLE - CLOVE - LEMON or BELL PEPPER

2011-05-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

While reading the website of Starchefs, I came across some Rum cocktails easy to explain by Foodpairing;
- Rum, apple, clove and lemon (Mixologist and Co-owner Johnny Santiago of Jo's - New York, NY)

- Rum, bell pepper, limonade (Mixologist Eben Freeman of Tailor - New York, NY)

Looking to the Foodpairing tree of Havana Rum you see all these combinations popping up.

Also classical combinations with Havana Club 7 like the Golden Apple.

SCALLOP - BACON - CHARD

2011-05-06T07:54:00.000-07:00

Seared Scallops with Bacon-Braised Chard, recipe by Stephanie Izard via Food & Wine.

If we check this combination and we start with Bacon, this is the Foodpairing tree we obtain:

Bacon and scallop and beetroot (similar to chard, which we don't have for the moment) do combine. What about Rum, fig and bacon. Or bacon and chocolate like Vosges,...

WHAT COMBINES WITH A SALTY PIMP?

2011-05-04T05:57:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon this icecream truck: Big gay ice cream truck by scrolling through the new Food inspiration. I don't know what their quality of icecream is, but the combinations they make are quite fun. And they have all sorts of goodies that you can add. So what can be combined with their salty pimp, a vanilla icecream with dulce de leche, chocolate and salt?

Well, let's have a look at the Foodpairing of dulce de leche : combines with Rambutan (exotic fruit), but also cayenne pepper (one of their goodies). Coffee, tea, soy paste?

HAYDEN LAMBERT ON FOODPAIRING AND WINNING COMPETITIONS

2011-05-04T02:10:00.000-07:00

This was a quote we got from Hayden Lambert on Foodpairing :

" Bernard, I love the site and I know the boys here at the merchant hotel use it often in conjunction with the flavour bible. It allows me to combine flavours that as a bartender I had no idea would work well together!
Here is a drink I created and helped me win the 42below cocktail world cup london final!"

Catch 42 #2

50mls 42Below pure vodka

30mls Clear Tomato juice (plum tomato’s)

17.5mls Clear Passion fruit puree

15mls clear lime juice

10mls Monin sugar syrup

1small pinch of salt

Cherry tomato garnish

Vodka links to passion fruit and tomato to passion fruit. For Bloody Mary the spices make the link. Go to Foodpairing trees to see the dynamic Foodpairing tree of Grey Goose Vodka.

WHY NEGRONI FITS FOIE GRAS ROASTED

2011-05-04T01:30:00.000-07:00

Starchefs made a post on Cocktails pairings at Clyde Common in Portland.

The reflection we always have is to check if this combination can also be detected by Foodpairing.com. To check which cocktails would fit baked foie gras, we unfolded the category of the drinks (by clicking on the (+) of the branch). These are some of the suggestions you get (only drinks selected)

And indeed gin, vermouth are mentioned as pairings, but it appears Black tea together with Shochu or Bourbon whiskey could also be an interesting combination.

ROYAL WEDDING CAKE EXPLAINED BY FOODPAIRING

2011-04-29T04:52:00.000-07:00

Possibly this could be the recipe of one of the Royal wedding cake. And all the ingredients can be explained by Foodpairing.

Each branch is a category. The closer to the middle the better the match. So chocolate and tamarind mmmmh. Not sure if the brandy is whisky and if the brand is the right one :) Cherries and currants also fit in the tree.

Ingredients for the Fruit Cake:

1 1/2 cups candied cherries
2 cups golden raisins
2 cups dark raisins, preferably Thompson
1 1/4 cups mixed candied citrus peel
2/3 cup chopped crystallized ginger
1/2 cup dried currants
3 tablespoons molasses
3 tablespoons bitter orange marmalade
1 teaspoon tamarind concentrate
finely grated zest of 1 organic orange
finely grated zest of 1 organic lemon
1 heaped tablespoon apple pie spice
6 tablespoons brandy, plus 3 tablespoons to feed the cake
1 cup walnuts
1/3 cup blanched almonds
1 1/4 cups self-rising flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for the pan
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups almond flour
5 large eggs, lightly beaten

More and dynamic trees at foodpairing.com

NEW FOODPAIRING WEBSITE UPGRADED WITH DYNAMIC TREES

2011-04-14T12:48:00.000-07:00

To have a better overview of the combinations you can make based on Foodpairing, we now have a new website. Well, our new website Foodpairing.com contains more than 1000 products, of which 100 of them you can see for free + brands are always for free: Heinz ketchup, Grey Goose, Leffe,... and many more Foodpairing recipes from easy to pro.

NEW FOODPAIRING WEBSITE

2011-03-17T15:32:00.000-07:00

It is incredible how many of you are using our Foodpairing website. Thank you for the support!! Over the last few years we got more and more questions about adding more (local) ingredients, improving the functionality (search function, dynamic tool), better explanation...
To give an answer to all this questions, we invested in a new website: Foodpairing

Also the visualisations became easier; the closer to the center, the better the match. So matches duck better with cucumber than e.g. pork.

In the free version you can see several brands and Foodpairing recipes: Try it.
In the pro horeca version, the trees become dynamic, you can explore more than 500 ingredients, jump from 1 tree to another tree, explore categories (they fold open and give you an overview per category), you can add ingredients to your recipe box (taking into account your selection), you can add recipes, pictures,...Signup pro horeca
Feel free to give suggestions or remarks.

THE FLEMISH PRIMITIVES: 3° EDITION

2011-01-11T17:18:00.000-08:00

Watch out for the third edition feat.
Chefs pairing: René Redzepi, Michel Bras, Alex Atala, Pascal Barbot, Magnus Nilsson , Alexandre Gaultier, Jonnie Boer, Dominique Persoone, Gorgio Nava, David Martin, Kobe Desramaults, Gert De Mangeleer,... Creativity from Belgium: Filip Claeys, Arabelle Meirlaen, Kamo,etc...
Inside Food: Scientists from KULeuven, Ugent, TNO, Institut Meurice

10 hours of high intensityon Monday the 14th of March 2011.

Get the insights you need to be inspired for the whole year. Register at www.theflemishprimitives.com.

New!! on Sunday Masterclasses. Listen to the chefs and the experts. Always wanted to know the right temperature or how to age meat. Or what about fermentation?

COCKTAIL: RASBERRY-WATERMELON-TEA-VODKA

2010-09-06T12:46:00.000-07:00

Refreshing Foodpairing cocktail with green tea infused vodka by Peter Coucquyt.

Recipe:
100 g fruit juice (based on 350 g watermelon + 35 g raspberry, mixing and straining)
15 g vodka (based on infusing 35 g green tea in 450 g vodka)
10 g sirop de sucre de canne

KASIA VERMAIRE, TEA SOMMELIER WINS DUTCH COMPETITION BY USING FOODPAIRING.COM

2010-07-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

Kasia Vermaire, dilmah theesommelier contacted us as she won the title of 'dutch female tea sommelier 2010' We heard the same from Tony Conigliaro, where a UK bartender won the competition because by using foodpairing.be he came up with fantastic, tasty, new combinations.

Kasia was so kind to send us here recipe;
Dim Sum Sushi steamed on Lapsang Souchong tea
served with Lapsang Wasabi dressing
By Kasia Vermaire, dilmah tea sommelier 2010

Ingredients:
- Rice paper small
- Roasted bio Nori
- Wild light smoked salmon
- Capers
- Ginger pickles
- Black pepper
- Green Stevia powder
- Bio coconut butter
Steamed on top of:
- Dilmah Lapsang Souchong tea
Dressing:
- Dilmah Lapsang Souchong extract
- Pure Organic Wasabi powder
- Stevia tincture
- Bio cold pressed Hennep oil
- Organic Tamari

- Zeekraal cress
- Bio Hennep seeds
- Fresh lime parts

Preparation:
Pour water into a pan and add a bag of Lapsang Souchong tea. Boil and then reduce fire. Place the bamboo steam basket now on the pan and put also a bag of Lapsang Souchong tea in the steamer.
Note: It is important that the pan fits the steamer basket, leaving no gaps.

Soak the rice paper one by one in hot water until soft and malleable. Put it on a moist kitchen towel.
Then cut toasted Nori sheets in quarters, so ¼ exactly fit the rice leaf. Dab the Nori soft on the rice paper so it sticks and put in the middle of the Nori a piece of wild smoked salmon, 3 to 4 capers, a small piece of ginger pickles, and add a little black pepper and green Stevia powder.
Now roll the bottom of the rice leaf over the filling. Press all edges. Make a square packet by folding the edges inward. Brush with a little extra virgine coconut oil so that the dim sum is not sticking to the bamboo steam basket.

Make the 6 dim sum packets in this way. When the six are ready, they can be steamed. Place the lid of the bamboo steam basket and steam for 3-4 minutes. Remove them gently with a clamp or sushi chopsticks (the steam can be very hot) out of the basket and place them on a plate, not too close together to prevent sticking. Carefully puncture in a long bamboo stick or small skewer through the dim sum to make them easier to eat.

The dressing:
Make the essence of Lapsang Souchong tea by adding a little bit of boiled water into a small glass together with the tea bag. The color should be very dark and the aroma intense. Add and mix Wasabi powder and stir well so that the whole is mixed well or shake in a special mixing bottle. Add a splash of Tamari and a few drops (2-3) Stevia tincture (Note: very sweet, 300-400x sweeter than sugar!). Then you mix a little bit of cold-pressed hemp oil and mix until a nice emulsion.
Garnish it with the Dim Sum Sushi with fresh cress, Hemp seed and a quarter of fresh lime.

BAR 10: WHISKEY ANALYZED TOGETHER WITH DAVE BROOM

2010-06-15T10:36:00.000-07:00

For Bar 10-The drink factory we made together with Dave Broom a start of a flavour wheel for whiskey where origin was linked to molecules to foodpairing combinations.
During the lecture at Bar 10, each molecule was explained during a talk integrating Longmorn just after distillation, to 12 years old, to 16 years old. Cocktails made Longmorn 16 years, peach, almond and Chivas 12 years licorice lemon.

[+ Bar 10]

FOODPAIRING AT TEDx

2010-04-01T15:58:00.001-07:00

Bernard Lahousse explains in this video for TEDx Flanders the importancy of flavors, and showed us how food or beverages can be combined with each other.

Food and/or beverage can be combined when they have the major flavour components in common. Some of the applications of foodpairing are:
1. Make new combinations
2. Make bridges if they don't combine
3. Food is interchangeable

More information on:
Foodpairing

WINE AND FOODPAIRING: VOUVRAY

2010-02-27T05:48:00.000-08:00

This is an event where we linked Vouvray to different dishes. Each time we analyzed the wine and based on the flavour profile we could propose a foodpairing.

IMPRESSION OF FOODPAIRING EVENT THE FLEMISH PRIMITIVES

2009-01-07T14:49:00.000-08:00

Already a short impression of a very succesful day where we combined chefs form Belgium, France, The Netherlands, with guests like Peter Barham, Andrew Dornburg and Karen Page, Bart De Pooter, Heston Blumenthal, Albert Adria, Universities: KULeuven, Ugent, Food companies: Jules Destrooper, AB Inbev, Belgomilk, Unilever, Gourmandine, Alpro, Verstegen, Rougié, SDVO, Kraft, Belcolade to inspire and demonstrate how foodpairing can be used to obtain tasty, unexpected combinations

LAUNCH EVENT: THE FLEMISH PRIMITIVES:: FOODPAIRING

2008-09-04T08:56:00.000-07:00

We are proud to announce you the first edition of the event: The Flemish Primitives, focused on foodpairing. The event will take place the 5th of January 2009 in Bruges, Belgium.
As we get that many positive reactions on our foodpairing website and request to obtain more information, recipes, we had the idea to organise an event where we invite some of the best chefs in the world, together with some of the top food companies worldwide and local.
The idea of the whole day is to show all possibilities of foodpairing, in the morning we have a masterclass. In the afternoon 11 chefs will prepare 11 dishes each time based on a foodpairing performed on one of the products of the companies participating.
So you will see Sergio Herman of Oud Sluis (3*) making a foodpairing around fish, Peter Goossens of 't hof van cleve (3*) with bell pepper coulis, Geert Vanhecke of De Karmeliet (3*) with almond thins,... Click on the poster to detect more participating chefs
You will have the opportunity to taste all this dishes, to meet the companies, to experience flavours and new insights on onion and vanilla presented by Symrise.

We are also honoured mr Heston Blumenthal of The Fat Duck accepted to be our guest of honour.

And more follows...

I invite you to have a look at the website of the event (you can also order tickets online, there are already 600 tickets sold from the 1300 seats, so be quick...)

[+ The Flemish Primitives:: Foodpairing]