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A Primer for Chefs to Match Wine with Their Food
In the recent world modern chefs find themselves, a new expectation is being placed on a well educated chef's talents. Customers expect Chefs to have a reasonable expertise in wine and beverage pairings with the foods they prepare.
article by International wine writer Natalie McLean.
This is a highly subjective and inexact process. The old rules — primarily red wine with red meat and white wine with fish and poultry — don't take into consideration the complexity of today’s multi-ethnic and subtly flavored foods and the corresponding wide range of wines from around the world that are now conveniently available to almost everyone.
These days you're more likely to hear food and wine pairing suggestions than hard and fast rules. There's considerable room for experimentation and expression of your own personality in pairing food and wine.
However, remember, a good wine will not make mediocre food taste better, and mediocre wine will not taste better with great food. Begin with the foods and wines you like. Pick a good wine and pair it with a meal you enjoy and you probably won't go wrong.
Next consider some rules-of-thumb — remembering that rules were made to be broken. Going contrary to a rule-of-thumb to achieve a particular effect, or even just because you have found the results pleasing, can sometimes be the mark of a true artist. But, first you have to develop a familiarity with convention and an understanding of why the suggested combination usually works.
When pairing food and wine, the goal is synergy and balance. The wine shouldn't overpower the food, nor should the food overpower the wine.
Think of wine as if it were a condiment — it should compliment the food.
Wine drunk by itself tastes different than wine with food, because wine acts on food similar to the way a spice does. Acids, tannins and sugars in the wine interact with the food to provide different taste sensations.
Wine can enhance the flavor of food. A good match will bring out the nuances and enhance the flavors and unique characteristics of both the food and the wine.
Memorable food and wine pairing is achieved when you find similarities and/or contrasts of flavor, body (texture), intensity, and taste.
Above all don't stress over the perfect food and wine pairing. The best pairing is good food, good wine and good company. Friends and loved ones are the most important ingredients.
Lets begin with some of those suggested rules-of-thumb to use as guidelines, and then follow that with a discussion of why certain flavors are found in, or are more dominant in certain wines. |
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Ten rules-of-thumb for food and wine pairing
- If you are taking wine as a gift to a dinner party, don't worry about matching the wine to the food unless you have been requested to do so and have enough information about what is being served to make an informed choice. Just bring a good wine. Match quality of food and wine. A grand dinner party with multiple courses of elaborately prepared dishes deserves a better wine than hamburgers on the grill with chips in a bag.
- When you're serving more than one wine at a meal, it's customary to serve lighter wines before full-bodied ones. Dry wines should be served before sweet wines unless a sweet flavored dish is served early in the meal. In that case match the sweet dish with a similarly sweet wine. Lower alcohol wines should be served before higher alcohol wines.
- Balance flavor intensity. Pair light-bodied wines with lighter food and fuller-bodied wines with heartier, more flavorful, richer and fattier dishes.
- Consider how the food is prepared. Delicately flavored foods — poached or steamed — pair best with delicate wines. It's easier to pair wines with more flavorfully prepared food — braised, grilled, roasted or sautéed. Pair the wine with the sauce, seasoning or dominant flavor of the dish.
- Match flavors. An earthy Pinot Noir goes well with mushroom soup and the grapefruit/citrus taste of Sauvignon Blancs goes with fish for the same reasons that lemon does.
- Balance sweetness. But, beware of pairing a wine with food that is sweeter than the wine, although I do like chocolate with Cabernet Sauvignon. I also like chocolate with good dark beer. Come to think of it, I like chocolate with just about anything.
- Consider pairing opposites. Very hot or spicy foods — some Thai dishes, or hot curries for example — often work best with sweet desert wines. Opposing flavors can play off each other, creating new flavor sensations and cleansing the palate.
- Match by geographic location. Regional foods and wines, having developed together over time, often have a natural affinity for each other.
- Pair wine and cheese. In some European countries the best wine is reserved for the cheese course. Red wines go well with mild to sharp cheese. Pungent and intensely flavored cheese is better with a sweeter wine. Goat Cheeses pair well with dry white wine, while milder cheeses pair best with fruiter red wine. Soft cheese like Camembert and Brie, if not over ripe, pair well with just about any red wine including Cabernet, Zinfandel and Red Burgundy.
- Adjust food flavor to better pair with the wine. Sweetness in a dish will increase the awareness of bitterness and astringency in wine, making it appear drier, stronger and less fruity. High amounts of acidity in food will decrease awareness of sourness in wine and making it taste richer and mellower — sweet wine will taste sweeter.
Bitter flavors in food increase the perception of bitter, tannic elements in wine. Sourness and salt in food suppress bitter taste in wine. Salt in food can tone down the bitterness and astringency of wine and may make sweet wines taste sweeter.
Flavors found in wine
The basic flavors that occur in food are also found in wine which is, after all, another type of food. They are sweet, tart (sour, acidic), bitter (puckery, astringent sensation) and salty (which isn’t found in wine, but affects its flavor). In addition wine has alcohol which adds aromas and body, making the wine feel richer.
The sugar that is present in grapes is converted during fermentation to differing degrees. A wine with very little sweetness is called "dry." Sweet white wines are Chenin Blanc, many Rieslings and Spumante. Sweet red wines include Lambrusco and Port.
If a dish is acidic — citrus or vinegar — then an acidic wine would be appropriate, although a lightly acidic dish can be balanced with a lightly sweet wine. Acidic white wines are Sauvignon Blanc and most sparkling wines. Acidity in wine cuts saltiness, so sparkling wines generally pair with salty foods better than less tart wines such as most red wines.
Tannins from the skins and sometimes stems of grapes and the oak barrels used for aging cause the bitter or astringent aftertaste in some red wines. Tannins mellow with age and are one of the components that add complexity to a mature wine. Foods with a prominent salty, sour or bitter taste will make a wine seem sweeter and less tannic. Bitter red wines include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Zinfandel and Syrah.
Alcohol gives wine a sense of body and weight, the higher the alcohol, the more full-bodied the wine. Rich meat, fish or chicken dishes that include cream are well suited to full-bodied wines (13–15 percent alcohol) whereas light, simply prepared and flavored dishes pair better with low alcohol wines (7–10 percent).
Written by award winning international wine writer Natalie McLean. Learn more about wine, and food and wine pairing by reading the articles by Natalie McLean.
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Holiday Food Safety and Sanitation
The following information is generally covered in the training of a chef. It is covered in the Serve-Safe program used by the National Restaurant Association, which is often used in educating hospitality employees. The information is inherent in USDA/FDA HACCP Training Programs. Here, it is being presented by Health Canada.
No matter how well known this information is, it is important to repeat at this time of year.
Thousands of people get food poisoning every year from food that has not been stored, prepared or cooked properly. It happens a lot with turkey and chicken. However, by following some simple rules in the kitchen, you can help protect your family from food poisoning.
Background
Food poisoning is caused by eating foods that are contaminated by some type of bacteria, such as Salmonella. It's not unusual for raw turkey and chicken to be contaminated. Other raw foods such as meat, fish, seafood, unpasteurized dairy products, raw shell eggs and products containing raw eggs can be a problem too.
Cooking food at high temperatures usually kills the bacteria contained in the food itself. However, that precaution doesn't help to control bacteria that may have spread to your refrigerator, counters or utensils while the food was being stored or prepared for cooking.
Minimizing Your Risk
It's not possible to tell if food is contaminated simply by looking at it. For that reason, it's best to treat all poultry and other raw meats as though they are contaminated. To protect your family's health, follow these rules:
Storage
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Bacteria grow rapidly at room temperature. When you buy poultry, don't leave it sitting in the car or on a counter when you get home. Refrigerate or freeze it immediately.
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Use refrigerated poultry within two or three days.
Thawing
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The safest ways to thaw frozen poultry are in the refrigerator, in cold water, or in the microwave oven.
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If you must thaw poultry at room temperature, wrap it in a heavy paper bag so the surface of the bird won't become warm before the centre thaws. Remember, bacteria grows rapidly in foods at room temperature.
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Drippings produced during thawing may be contaminated. Since you can't know for sure, play it safe by cleaning and disinfecting any surface touched by drippings.
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You can safely refreeze defrosted poultry if the meat is still cold and ice crystals are still present.
Preparation
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Wash your hands thoroughly before and after handling poultry, or any raw meat.
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If anything in your kitchen, including utensils, cutting boards, counters and dish clothes, has been in direct contact with raw poultry or its juices, clean them thoroughly before using again to prepare other foods.
Stuffing
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Stuffing is moist and is slow to heat up and cool down. For those reasons, stuffing provides an ideal place for bacteria to grow.
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The safest way to deal with stuffing is to cook it separately, either in its own oven dish, or on the stove top.
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If you're going to stuff a bird, stuff it loosely just before roasting, and take all of the stuffing out immediately after cooking so it will cool down faster.
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All stuffing, whether cooked separately or inside a bird, should be heated to a minimum internal temperature of 74ºC (165ºF).
Cooking
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Never eat raw or undercooked turkey or chicken.
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It's best to use a meat thermometer. Cook birds until the temperature of the thickest part of the breast or thigh is 85ºC (185ºF).
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Cook raw poultry meat, especially ground meat and turkey rolls, thoroughly to the centre. Be certain that juices are no longer pink.
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As a general rule of thumb, poultry is done when:
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the leg of a whole bird moves easily
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the meat in cuts of poultry is tender to the fork, with no pink showing anywhere.
Leftovers
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To store leftovers safely, cut and debone the meat from large cooked birds. Refrigerate the meat as soon as possible in small containers for rapid and uniform cooling.
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If you're not going to remove the meat from the carcass, be sure to refrigerate the cooked bird quickly.
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Make sure that cooked foods don't come into contact with food that hasn't been cooked.
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Use refrigerated leftovers as soon as possible, ideally within two or three days.
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When reheating food, make sure it's piping hot. In general, you shouldn't reheat the same leftovers more than once.
Cleanliness in the Kitchen
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Plastic cutting boards are best because they're easier to sanitize.
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To sanitize kitchen materials (dishes, cutting boards and utensils) put them in the dishwasher, or:
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wash them with hot water and detergent
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use a solution of 1 tsp of bleach in 3 cups of water to disinfect them
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rinse again with fresh water, and dry them.
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Bacteria can thrive in dish cloths, so change them every day if you can. Keep them clean by washing with detergent as part of your regular laundry load, or by hand-washing then soaking them in diluted bleach.
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Don't hang dish cloths near the kitchen garbage pail. For greater protection against the spread of germs, choose a kitchen garbage pail with a self-closing lid.
By following these suggestions, you can help protect your family from food poisoning. It's your health, and it's up to you.
This article was reprinted from the Health Canada website. Health Canada is the Canadian Federal department responsible for helping Canadians maintain and improve their health, while respecting individual choices and circumstances.
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Book Review
this book review comes from ChefTalk.com
North Atlantic Seafood: A Comprehensive Guide With Recipes
By: Alan Davidson
Reviewed By: Peter Martin (Bio)
Paperback - 512 pages
Publisher: Ten Speed Press; 3rd edition From the Publisher
•The original edition of NORTH ATLANTIC SEAFOOD received the prestigious Glenfiddich Gold Medal award and the André Simon Award.
•With over 100 line drawings and 200 regional recipes, this landmark volume is an essential part of any serious cook’s library.--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
With hundreds of cookbooks sitting on my shelves, at home, it is rare that I come across a book that I find to be an education from front to back covers. Not so with the Third Edition of Alan Davidson's "North Atlantic Seafood - A Comprehensive Guide with Recipes". This is exactly the kind of book I have been searching for, trying to fill in a few gaps in my reference library. It's a cookbook, a guide to fish and shellfish, a guide to the maritime foods of Western Europe and Eastern North American, and a travel guide all rolled into one. In other words, it's a great addition to my reference collection. It is no wonder that The James Beard Foundation has listed "North Atlantic Seafood" to its "Cookbook Hall of Fame". |
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The book itself, originally published in 1979, has changed very little since the first edition. It is basically divided into two sections. The first half of the book is a catalogue of the most important seafood species in the North Atlantic, and its surrounding seas; the Irish, Celtic, Norwegian, North, and Baltic Seas. Davidson does admit that this catalogue is somewhat arbitrary as fish from the Southern Atlantic do travel northwards sometimes and fish from the North Atlantic can be found in southern waters. Here you will find all the different types of Cod, Herring, Mackerel, Lobsters and Clams that are important to the countries of the North Atlantic, but you will also find lesser know fish such as the Sea Lamprey, the Gurnard, the Lumpfish, and numerous rays. Each fish in the catalogue is given a full description, a black and white rendering, its common name and scientific name along with the names from all the countries that it is an important fish for. He also gives a brief culinary description on how the fish is commonly used, what countries use it most, and its historical significance.
The second part of the book is the Recipes, and this is really where Davidson shines. First off, instead of grouping recipes by fish, he groups them by country starting down in Portugal, then Spain, then moving northwards through Europe, and on to North America via Iceland and Greenland. In North America he moves from Canada down to New England, the Mid-Atlantic States and finally the Carolinas and Georgia before hopping back across the Ocean to finish up in the British Isles. At each stop he makes, he really gives you a sense of the cuisine, from the Mediterranean influences of Olive Oil, chile peppers, and tomatoes in Spain and Portugal to the cream and butter laden fish dishes of Normandy and Brittany. What I really enjoy though is the fact that he looks beyond the cliché dishes of each region. Davidson has spent a lot of time searching out regional or historical dishes that may not be known beyond that area. Of course, there are discussions of Salt Cod and Pickled Herrings, how can you not when writing a "comprehensive" guide to the seafood of the North Atlantic but there are also recipes like Congro Ensopado a Moda de Braganca (Conger Eel Stew from Portugal), Blanc de Seiche Grille (Grilled Cuttlefish from France) and Treska s Sousom iz Vishen' i Krasnovo Vina (Cod with a Cherry and Red Wine Sauce from the Soviet Union). Most of the recipes in the book are pretty straight forward and easy to recreate at home. Some take a little more knowledge and are a little more complicated, while others are given more for their historical significance, and others will be beyond the reach of most North Americans as some of these fish rarely are seen on this side of the Atlantic.
One thing is for certain though, this book is a must have for anyone serious about cooking. The wealth of knowledge that Davidson has collected is impressive and the recipes he as put together will keep you experimenting for years to come.
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