[Sca-cooks] re:long peppers, etc.

[marilyn traber 011221]

> Personally I detest the current trend in spicing up practically 
> everything!  Not only do I feel it simply disguises the taste of the 
> food you are eating and all you can taste is the hot spice but I 
> happen to be allergic to capsaicin. Makes me wonder how many other 
> folk have the same feelings/problelm that I have? Bertha 
_______________________________________________

Well, it may be that YOU can't taste anything but the capsaicin, but that's 
not necessarily true of the rest of us ;-) And, long pepper isn't a capsaicin 
pepper, nor are cubebs or grains of paradise.

I'm not sure why, but there seems to be quite a difference in how people who 
like hot spices, and those who don't approach spicing. My roommate, like you, 
avoids capsaicin (although she's not allergic), and periodically attempts to 
spice something to my liking. She usually fails, other than to make it hot, 
because she doesn't understand the subtleties, and the (quoting Chef Paul) 
Roundness of flavor I'm looking for.

In ordinary cooking, she will often halve the spices in a particular dish, 
which makes them almighty bland to my taste. I, on the other hand, often 
double or trible them, and as long as I get the balance right, she doesn't 
notice.

Spicing is an odd thing. The trick is to enhance the flavors of the food, or 
sometimes contrast with them, but never to overpower the base food. As an 
example, take basic smashed potatoes. My preferences are for a lot of butter 
and pepper, and sometimes roasted garlic (forget the gravy- I rarely make 
it). I haven't made a good batch of smashies, unless I can not only taste the 
potatoness of the potatoes, the richness of the butter and milk or cream, the 
sharpness of the pepper, and the warmth of the garlic. If ANY of those 
elements is missing, I haven't made a good batch of smashies.

I'm sure you'll find similar feelings among other cooks, and it may be that, 
due to people's variations in upbringing, they find some flavors absolutely 
over powering, and others barely there. I know, for example, that, to me, 
almost any bit of bell pepper, anise, or fennel in a dish gives the dish an 
overpowering taste of those elements, which is why I dislike them. Coriander, 
however, tastes like soap to me, and I can deal with it, and even enjoy it, 
in small doese, but in large amounts you just might as well serve me a bar of 
soap, and save the dishwashing ;-)

Tastes can be a funny thing. My mother swears that the reason I dislike bell 
peppers so much is because of the spaghetti dinner we were invited to when I 
was about 2, where the hostess LOADED the sauce with bell peppers- too much 
even for my Mom, and she likes them. Maybe those of you that dislike other 
flavors had a similar experience, back before you could remember?

Phlip