Seasoning A Culinary Delight Essay Example

Seasoning: A Culinary Delight Essay Seasoning is the act of adding herbs, spices, or condiments to your food for the primary purpose of enhancing its flavor. In any kind of cuisine, whether it’s Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, or Mexican, adding seasoning is vital in improving the taste of the food being cooked. The principle of most seasonings is that they transfer their flavor to the food and complimenting its natural taste. Around the world, there are a lot of types of seasonings used when preparing a dish. Seasonings are usually done after cooking. However, salt and pepper, are done before cooking and during the preparation of food to add the desired initial taste or flavor. Salt is most widely used seasoning to enhance flavor, while pepper enables more heat to come in and cook the food. Another common seasoning used in preparing all dishes is the onion and garlic. Onions are usually chopped and used in salads and fried meat among others and are rarely eaten on their own. Likewise, the garlic is also often employed in most dishes due to the pungent or strong flavor that it adds to the food. It can either be crushed or chopped into smaller pieces depending on the food being cooked. We will write a custom essay sample on Seasoning: A Culinary Delight specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Seasoning: A Culinary Delight specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Seasoning: A Culinary Delight specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer In addition, vegetable extracts and oil are also used as a seasoning to bring out the flavor in food. Seasonings also vary according to the type of the main ingredient being used. For example, certain herbs are best used only for meat and some condiments are used only for fish. For meat, possibly the most popular seasoning employed is barbecue sauce. After the barbecue meat has been cooked, usually by grilling, the barbecue sauce, which is mildly spicy, is usually added to compliment the rough texture and bland taste of the meat. In some cases alcohol is also employed in preparing meat. On the other hand, when eating seafood, the most common seasoning added is soy sauce. This is best shown in Japanese cuisine, where almost every dish, which is usually raw, uses soy sauce as an almost necessary condiment. Moreover, when the dish is fried, usually seasonings that give a sweet taste are used to counteract the often salty flavor of fried food. Fish is also marinated with either soy sauce or vinegar to add deeper flavor. The seasonings employed also vary according to the country the dish originated from. In China, the most common foods served are noodles and dumplings. Seasonings for these dishes can range from ginger to local herbs and spices. Thailand, on the other hand, is well known for their innate love for using spices which is why most of its dishes are spicy. In Mexico, spicy food is also popular. However, the basic ingredients are raw vegetables and a spicy sauce is added. The food is commonly made up of raw lettuces, cabbage and tomatoes plus the addition of a spicy sauce as a seasoning In Vietnam, noodles are the staple food. However, the seasonings employed are usually beans, cucumber, and hot pepper to make it spicy. Vietnamese cuisine and seasoning has gained a huge amount of popularity due to the exquisite combination of the basic ingredients and the seasonings. On the other hand, Italy is well known for using a variety of spices, herbs, and other seasonings in preparing their trademark food- pasta. Cheese, tomatoes, tomato paste are the most commonly used seasonings are also in preparing Italian pizza. Moreover, adding seasonings is not only limited to cooking. In baking, sweeteners, which are also considered seasonings, are also used as they add essential flavors to the food being baked. The most commonly used among these sweeteners in baking are vanilla powder, vanilla paste, as well as fruits. Even when making coffee, seasonings such as whip cream, are employed. Dairy products are not different, as ice creams are often topped with different flavored syrups. Furthermore, seasonings not only enhance flavor but also give characteristic aromas to food depending on the type used. Aromatic seasonings are onion, garlic, leaves of herbs, and butter, often give food a distinct smell. The color of a certain food can also be attributed to the type of seasoning being used. Different kinds of peppers and herbs are often responsible for altering the color of the food. Marinating food also alters its color if seasonings, such as soy sauce, are used. Generally, adding seasonings to your food as almost become a part of everyday life. Whether it’s adding pepper to pasta, pasting wasabe to Japanese maki, putting a few drops of hot sauce to pizza, dipping French fires in ketchup, or smothering grilled meat with barbecue sauce, it is clear that seasonings have become a part of any kind of dish. Seasonings add color, aroma, and most importantly flavor to the food. There a lot of connotations to the use of seasonings but possibly the most notable among them is the Chinese belief that all ingredients of a dish, including the seasonings, should be balanced and proportional in order to maintain similar balance inside the body. Japanese, on the other hand, use wasabe when eating raw seafood as it removes the toxic and fishy materials on the surface of the food. Moreover, herbs and other seasonings, like onions and garlic, are often employed in cooking because they have known health benefits. According to Jennifer Warner’s article posted on Medicine.net, people who consume onions and garlic on a regular and normal basis have a decreased risk to have cancer of the breast, colon, prostate, and ovary, among others.