Molecular Map of Seasoning

Culinary adventurers must have realized that different Asian cuisine with dishes from Western Europe and North America. How could this happen difference in taste?

The answer to that question is given by a group of experts from the University of Cambridge, England. Together with other research fellow, Sebastian E. Ahnert create a network that maps spice flavor components based on molecular analysis on 10 thousand seasoning food from various regions in the world.

Each node in this network denotes an ingredient, the color indicates food category, and node size reflects the ingredient prevalence in recipes. Two ingredients are connected if they share a significant number of flavor compounds, and link thickness representing the number of shared compounds between the two ingredients. (Picture from: http://www.wgbh.org/)

Ahnert, who proclaimed himself as molecular gastronomy amateurs, interested in the anecdote in the Western world, that good food can be obtained by mixing flavored seasonings together. From this anecdote, they spice up the network, which are then grouped into recipes of North America, Western Europe, Latin America, Europe, South and East Asia.

Map of spice lead researcher on the new horizon in the culinary world. Recipes of North America and Western Europe was in line with the anecdote mentioned earlier.

A lists the ingredients in two recipes, together with their flavor compounds. Each flavor compound is linked to the ingredients that contain it, forming a network. B shows the flavor network, whose nodes are ingredients, linked if they share at least one flavor compound. (Picture from: http://www.wgbh.org/)

For comparison, shrimp scampi dishes grilled tomato sauce share molecules l-penten-3-ol on the two main ingredients, namely shrimp and tomatoes. While spices such as mozzarella, parmesan, and tomatoes contain acid 4-metilpentanoik.

In North American cuisine, spices tend to monotony. Mixed spices generally just spin on milk, butter, chocolate, vanilla, cream, and eggs. Once these materials are removed from the map seasoning, common sense disappears.

But the cuisine of South East Asia and Europe against the previous anecdote. Materials and seasoning these two regions tend to have a diverse taste. In culinary research, mixing various flavors are called food pairing, ie the whole spices with different molecules are mixed into a single herb flavors.

When the researchers kicked main ingredients and spices from the East Asian cuisines, such as beef, ginger, pork, red chili, chicken, and onions, instead of molecular similarity increases.

Ahnert citing the opinion of culinary experts and chefs around the world who say that common sense in a dish taste better. This opinion means more savory dish that originated from Western Europe and North America. "Asian cuisine, which adheres pairing sense, be unique and should be studied further," he said.

Food experts from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, which many years researching the secrets behind the delicious dishes, praised the new findings. "This map offers a new, more practical way of preparing food, which is based on molecular similarity," he said.

Spice network map created Ahnert will help chef discover new recipes based on food pairing. For example, some chefs experiment juxtaposing white chocolate with caviar because they contain the same chemical molecules, such as trimethylamine and several other molecules.

Similarly, chocolate and blue cheese 73 who share the same sense so that it can produce delicious food recipes. In addition, these findings show how network analysis with data mining as occurred in the biological sciences and social sciences can also be done in food science.

The team of researchers from the University of Cambridge will deepen and expand the network map of this ingredient while looking for new recipes. They will return to the lab now is like the kitchen and mixing various spices that never thought of before. "We started thinking cappuccino mix with garlic," says Ahnert. *** [NATURE | ANTON WILLIAM | KORAN TEMPO 3739]