On today's episode of Food Lab we're
going to look at the anatomy of taste
and one taste in particular, the one that
most people don't know a lot about and
we very rarely get right - and that's
bitterness. Most chefs will try and create
the perfect dish, and they'll do it by
incorporating five taste profiles. So
sweet, sour, umami (or savoriness, we call it),
saltiness and bitterness which
is the last one. Certainly, bitter taste
is massive. It takes probably three or four
times more genomespace than any of the
other tastes. For example, we're talking
about straight taste, we need two genes to
detect sweetnesss, but when it comes to
bitterness you actually need 25 different
active genes to detect it. So that's
quite a bit of a difference. So why do we
need so much more of our genome
devoted to picking up bitter?
Well, what's clear that bitterness, and that's been
known for a long time, it's a
defense mechanism. Really, what we want to
do in the classical concept - now I'm
mentioning classical because we might be
getting into new concepts - the classical
concept of bitterness is to be able to
detect potential toxic compounds in our
food so that we prevent the consumption
of those compounds. So why do we need 25
genes to do that? Well, because the
diversity of potential harmful compounds
in nature is huge and they're not
chemically related, so there's no way
that with one or two sensors we could
detect such a wide array of
different chemical compounds. So nature
had to devote a large number of
resources into keeping those compounds
out. There's people who are very sensitive
to bitterness, so they're super tasters.
There's people who like me are regular tasters
and they have an average response to bitterness
and there are people who really can't taste
bitterness at all.
Whether or not bitterness is liked has got a lot to
do with someone's background, what foods
they've eaten previously, there culture,
etc. What they've been
exposed to, what they've been habituated to
in their diet; and that will definitely
determine whether or not they like
bitterness or not in a particular product.
I didn't like coffee as a child but now I love
coffee.
Yes. Have I grown into that?
Or is it because I've kept drinking
coffee and developed the taste for it. I think,
from what I understand
the changes from when you're a child through to
I guess post 23 is when you sort of, your flavour
preferences are kind of set after
that. Children aren't exposed to all of
these things and until they are and until
they're repeated exposure to those things
they don't become used to those sorts of
flavours and aromas and tastes. But up until
certain points physiologically you're able to
accept a range of different foods, maybe
a range of different bitterness, but as you
get older you're (just like everything
else in our bodies) your sense of
smell and taste starts to decrease
and after about the age of 55 it really
starts to go down. Just like sour
ingredients, bitterness has always been
used to temper the other taste profiles.
So if you think about sweetness in
particular, when we have desserts,
something like a tiramisu or a burnt
toffee, those flavors that we get from
bitterness help balance out that really
intense and sometimes overpowering
sweetness you can get in desserts. But
beyond that, bitter compounds have the
ability to make you feel fuller for
longer and lower your blood pressure.
We have seen in some of our studies that
what bitterness does to your stomach
is delay the emptying of the stomach.
So it's as if you would be feeling fuller
for longer, right?
A similar thing happens with the small
intestine. We obviously know that
the contents of the small intestine, they
travel all along, so what happens with bitter
compounds - they slow down that
movement. So again, it takes longer to
empty the digestive tract and therefore
the feeling of being satiated, it's
there for longer... lasts longer.
Is that a defense mechanism? Is it,
we're not emptying our stomach because we're not
entirely sure whether what's in there is
okay? I guess it's speculation, if you'll
allow me to say what. What would make sense
to me is that that .. look, the
body is sensing something potentially
harmful, even if it's not toxic,
but it's still of a cautionary reaction,
right? So if we have something that's
potentially ... could kill us, do you want to
just release it and get it absorbed fast?
No ... so you try to hold it and
release it slowly so that at any given
time the amount of that compound being
absorbed will be relatively small. So the
levels that could reach, let's say the
brain, would always be contained, will be
really low. The more we keep it in
the stomach and we slow down the release
into the gastro intestinal tract. So that's
again, it's speculation but it makes
sense. Some of these bitter compounds are
highly expressed in the heart, in
the cardiomyocytes and they seem to be
related also to systolic and diastolic
pressure. Again, just what I said in
the aerial ways, in the cardiovascular
system, they would also be related to
relaxation. So it decreases systolic and
diastolic pressure, at least in a right
model which is where we looked
at. Is bitterness in food, is it a good thing
or bad thing? Is it medicine or a
toxin? All right, you're getting to the
point aren't you! I'll ... look, again, I'm going to
refer to the classic concept of bitterness.
Bitterness in any food is bad. We
reject bitterness and what happens
is that as we get a bit more
experience in tasting those bitter
compounds we may end up liking some
of the bitterness that we have in our food
and we have lots of examples. So the
question is why do we end up liking
bitterness when it's potentially
a toxin, right? And the answer, i'm
going to answer that if you allow me, the
answer is not all bitter compounds are
toxic, right? So next step is so if they
are not toxic then what are they?
Right? Well, plants have also evolved
and they understand that if they are
bitter they will not easily be eaten, so
they reject predators by
becoming bitter and not necessarily
toxic but they become bitter. Now,
the intriguing part of it
is that some of these
compounds have actually some interesting
properties for us humans. And we talked
about antioxidant effects, we're talking
about human antibiotic effects,
parasitic effect, and so
on. So it all becomes then a bit
mixed, right? So we start with toxins and
we end up saying, look most of the bitter
compounds in edible foods are not toxic
obviously, or they wouldn't be edible, and
they actually have potentially positive
functions with more into the
scent of medicines, that you were sort of inferring.
Just like me, i'm sure you never
knew there was so much to bitter
compounds in food. So, now we're going to
show you how it's used in a restaurant
setting and we make cocktails and we
do a little recipe after that.
The Sofitel, Brisbane Central's Cuvee bar is
one of my favorite in Brisbane.
Not only does it have a fantastic atmosphere and
a great view of the city but its barman Tom
makes one of those great bitter
cocktails that you talk about for years.
Bitterness is a flavor profile that's used
in alkaline cocktail making quite regularly - why is that
so? Well, bitterness is a funny thing, it's got a
lot of negative connotations - if your
coffee's bad, it's because it's bitter.
But a nice bitterness can really and
applied it takes to the cocktail amplify the taste of a cocktail
and really bring a new experience to it. So
coming from Italy where they have a
real culture of bitter drinks, the bitter
aperitifs and digestives,
they've really brought in a lot of
classic cocktails that had a lot of the bitter
elements in it. And through those bitter
cocktails we've moved forward into a new range of
cocktails. There's more challenging bitter
flavours, maybe more bitterness than the old cocktails.
Something to really stimulate. Bitter
is a challenging flavour, I would say.
If something's too bitter you will send it back
it's not good enough it can fade away
and not even be noticed.
But a good bitter cocktail can really bring a hunger to
your mouth, it can make you salivate a little
bitm it brings the tartness. So what's a classic that
we would all know that has a bitterness in it?
The negroni is one of the most classic. So
that's been around since 1990
people say. Created in Italy and
it's a perfect cocktail, so it's got 30 parts, 30 parts, 30
parts, all even ingredients and so this
one is what many considered a perfect
bitter cocktail - the perfect balance of
sweet, of dry and of the bitter
finish that really makes it last in
your mouth and really makes you enjoy a
nice long cocktail.
Alright, let's make a negroni.
The negroni is a laid cocktail or stirred,
it can be stirred in a larger glass and then decantered
into the glass, but classically
it's made in the glass itself. So we
start with the spirit,
gin entirely up to the preference of the
drinker. Next the campfire this is the
main source is the campari, this is the main source of bitterness.
The bitterness they say comes from comes chinotto fruit
which is a small little orange looking like fruit.
And at last we have the vermouth, I use
a sweeter red vermouth. Now vermouth is
made with grapes as well, so you've got the grape
skins in here as well which also adds
another light source of bitterness. Why
one large block of ice? A large block of ice does
dilute lower, so it's designed for the
long drink. I'm a whisky lover and I have
large blocks of ice because I don't
want to melt too quickly and dilute the whisky.
Absolutely. Twist the orange just gently to
release some of those oils and then I
just lay it in there. Some people prefer a twist,
I just like to lay it there, and then
you have your classic negroni. Pretty simple
really. Very simple, the challenge comes
in the balance of the ingredients. So if the
negroni is classic bitter cocktail, what's
the new age version? This one uses a base
of the bitters, so whee most drinks
have a dash, two dashes, three dashes if
you're bold, this one has 45
millilitres of bitters in the drink.
Woah! It's called a Trinidad Sour, created in the
Clover Club in Brooklyn, one of the most
famous cocktail bars in the world.
It's a lot of fun to make, keeping
putting in bitters, people don't know what's happening. But
despite the amount of bitters it's
delicious. It's got a real depth of flavour to
it, real complex and nice and bitter as well.
Alright let's make it. So this one is shaken,
and we start with the bitters. Now the
recipe calls for Angostura so I would
stick with that one.
And this is something most people would know this from lemon
lime bitters. That's where they would normally, and
it is literally a dash. Exactly. So that is a
lot of bitters. Oh yes, so
Australians aren't afraid of bitter drinks.
Yeah. Not many countries have the lemon
lime bitters. We have a huge coffee culture
here as well.
Exactly. Then I go into the Armonds syrup.
So this is Armands, it's got rosewater, and it's
and it's a bit sweet and it helps
balance all this bitterness.
30 mls of that. Lemon juice to bring
out some more tartness. So cocktail
making is similar to designing a dish, you want
those balance of flavors between sweet,
sour, bitter. Absolutely. And then I
add in some rye whisky.
And I give it a good shake!
So one of the best things as well
about this cocktail is the beautiful colour it has. It's a real dark red.
And that's it. No garnish, served as is,
an interesting challenge for any cocktail
drinker and a lot of fun to make. What with
both of them I think the most interesting thing is how
bitterness is in both drinks, but as you said
when they're balanced well it adds
to the drink
Absolutely, the negroni's on your menu at
anytime. The trinidad sour you might have
to ask for, it's a bit of a special
cocktail that one and if I did have it
on the menu I might go bankrupt from
all that it is we have use to make it.
From one classic Italian in the negroni
to another classic Italian dessert
in the tiramisu.
Next, I'll show you a great little
addition to help balance that bitterness.
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In the home kitchen bitterness is probably
the last flavour profile we think of
and you know it
normally when you burn something, but there
are ways of using bitterness to temper
sweetness and nothing does that more
so than a tiramisu.
So you've got dark chocolate, which is
really bitter, and coffee, which is quite
bitter. But it's there to balance a sweet
mascarpone and an even sweeter sponge.
First thing they get out a little, it's more
of a tiramisu trifle started is to make a
coffee anglaise.
So, I did need my pot and and I need egg yolks in there,
I'm using four. So, I'm going to put my whites
into here and my yolks straight in my
bowl. So four egg yolks and then about half a cup of
sugar, then on top of that we're going to
put a shot of espresso. Whisk that
together, then add our cream and get it on top of
our double boiler. My custard is sitting on top of my
double boiler so it's just going to
slowly cook. We'll keep an eye on it, keep
stirring it and then turn it off and
let it thicken. But while it sits there and
does its thing i'm going to put together
the mascarpone mix. So mascarpone, which
I guess is a cross between a cheese and
a cream. It's a really thick rich cream that
has a cheesy kind of flavour to it, but
I am going to sweeten it up. I did say that
the coffee and the chocolate was there,
the bitterness was there to balance the
sweetness of the mascarpone. So a little
bit of sugar in there and then I'm going to add
some cream in with that.
So a little bit of regular double cream,
about two to one, so two parts mascarpone to
one part double cream. Give that a mix.
So that is nicely mixed in.
When you're whisking or mixing
mascarpone be careful because it will split
really really easily. We're going to pop it into a
piping bag just so it's easier to pipe into my
serving dishes.
The thing, I think the other thing I love
about this, the whole idea of bitterness,
and we've heard that there are receptors for
bitterness in cardiac muscle, so your heart
can taste bitterness. I love the fact that
an old Italian classic like a tiramisu
can be tasted by your heart.
I'm sure that's the reason they love it so
much. You can taste this all the way to
your heart. So these piping bags are
fantastic for this exact reason, they're
great to store creams, plating up is a
lot easier as well, makes plating up so
much easier. And you can see the mascarpone has
a slightly different color
to normal cream. It's slightly yellower.
Than a normal cream. It's somewhere
in between a double cream and a cheese.
That is our mascarpone done, we can tie that off.
That is a little shot of my custard that thickened beautifully, I've taken some out
of there and put it in here just to let it cool
a little bit. Now it's really time to assemble.
So normally you would soak your biscuits
in some espresso. I'm not going to,
I don't like super soggy biscuits in
trifles or in tiramisu's. What I'm going to
do you need is I'm going to use a beaker to serve it in.
I'm going to break some of my sponge and put it in the bottom
and then my custard is going to go on top of that.
And that will help soften the biscuit,
and then a little bit more biscuit on top.
Then our mascarpone and cream mixture.
Pipe that in.
Some more biscuit.
And then you just build layers. Now one other
thing that goes really well with coffee
is blueberries. It's probably something
that you haven't thought of before but
blueberry and espresso is a great combination
I'm going to drop some blueberries in to
our little trifle as well. A bit more cream.
Some more of our blueberries.
And the last little thing is a little bit
more bitterness to counteract the
sweetness that's in that custard,
in that mascarpone and that's in some dark chocolate,
which I'll just grate over the top. Now you could
just dust some cocoa on here if you wanted
to but I reckon if you've got a good
quality dark chocolate you can put on
top, I'm okay with that. There's no reason why
you couldn't grate some dark chocolate
into the mix as you were building those
layers. Last few blueberries.
You'll be surprised by how good that
blueberry, dark chocolate and coffee
mixture really is. So that's it, it's a
good way to see how bitterness can be
introduced into a dish in a good way.
On the next episode of Food Lab we're
going to learn a little more about a
theory that was developed in Greece over
2,000 years ago.
More importantly for us though, in the
kitchen this science means we can cook a
really tender curry in less than an
hour.
Oh, that's interesting! That is interesting.
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