There’s a lot to appreciate in a heaping bowl of your favourite soup. All great soups are concocted from a laborious process of tasting; strengthening or correcting the soup’s flavour throughout the cooking process; and properly utilising fat, acid, salty and sweet (FASS) components to contribute to a fantastic soup.
Image by Muffet.
Remember this FASS acronym to help you build complex flavours in your soup. It goes down like this:
Fat: Fat distributes flavour across the palate and makes you feel satiated.
Acid: Acid, such as lemon, lime, vinegar or salsas, draws out and brightens flavour as well as balances soup that’s too sweet or salty.
Salt: Salt brings out the flavour of food and moves flavour to the front of the tongue where taste is best perceived. If flavour is hanging back, then you know you need a pinch or two of salt to move it to the front.
Sweet: My favourite sweet is Grade A Dark (formerly Grade B) maple syrup, so rich you only need a little to harmonise and round out flavour.
In other words, don’t just wait until the last minute to add salt. Keep tasting as you go and have patience. Good soup is always worth it.
Comments