Trends: What exactly is a food pairing?

When talking about food, we look for the best sensory perception when eating them together. The goal is for the experience in your brain to be enhanced when eating a particular combination of ingredients.

How do senses influence food pairings?

It is important to point out that in any tasting, not all senses affect you the same way. Although all are important and relevant, some have a greater influence than others. Scientist Laura López-Mascaraque from CSIC and José Ramón Alonso, professor of molecular biology at the Universidad de Salamanca observe in their book “El olfato” (the sense of smell) that:

“80% of what we consider to be the sense of taste, is not perceived through tastebuds, but rather what we perceive through smell.”

This is what makes the sense of smell, the most important sense when tasting food or wine. This is why it is so difficult to “taste” food when we have a cold.

Taste

Through taste we distinguish 5 categories: sweet, salty, acid, bitter & umami. All other “tastes” are just a combination of smell & taste.

For example, when we talk about a banana smoothie , and say it tastes like banana, we should actually say, “tastes sweet and smells like banana“.

How did Food Pairing start?

Scientist Bernard Lahousse, and Michelin star chef  Peter Coucquyt, got together to create a platfomr that would blend together the importance of smell during tasting and taste during eating, based on scientfic studies. With this idea they started Belgian business Food Pairing.

What they did was combine food on a molecular & chemical level to create amazing food pairings. As Peter Coucquyt says:

“Ingredients harmonize when they share important aromatic molecules.“

It is through aromatic profiles that each ingredient gives endless combinations that would seem impossible, such as chorizo with white chocolate or coffee with boletus mushroom. Great Spanish chefs, such as Paco Pérez, Joan Roca o Andoni Luis Aduriz have used this app for their creations.

Following this trend, we urge you to try some combinations of your own at home, based on our wines’ aromatic profiles:

VINO PROTOS ROBLE: aromas of red and black fruit stand out, accompanied by spicy notes and light toasted notes.

VINO PROTOS CRIANZA: Aroma of ripe fruits well assembled with wood that brings aromas of sweet spices and pleasant toasted notes.

VINO PROTOS RESERVA: : Intense nose of black fruit, licorice, light toasted, vanilla, spices, mineral and balsamic notes.

Examples of food pairing matches

As an example, here you can find a recipe created by Peter Coucquyt Braised Fennel with Goat Milk Yogurt and Celery – Green Apple – Peppermint Jus that was created based on the aromatic profile of Sauvignon blanc (Sancerre), but could perfectly pair also with our  Protos Verdejo.

We hope to have given you a new vision on the harmony of food pairing. Again, we hope that you have fun creating wonderful new combinations based on Food Pairing.

Although taste and aromas are the basic pillars, our personal perceptions, memories and taste will always be the most important thing.

From: Roberto González Santalla

www.corteacuchillo.com (in Spanish)