• sapient [they/them]@infosec.pub
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    1 year ago

    I like to cook pasta in MSG-water sometimes. I also tend to use wholemeal pasta, which I think is important (the wholemeal aspect) .. MSG works best for me when I use it with things that already have a decent depth of flavour and/or variety of ingredients ;3. It doesnt work so well if your food doesnt have enough flavour.

    Other cool ingredients:

    • liquid smoke (works really well in a lot of things including vegetarian chilis, but especially i’ve found its good in lentil soups when you also have mint e.g lentil and pea soup, lentil, potato, onion soup, etc. .) - look for the industrial stuff, its like £5 per bottle but you only need 1 or 2 drops for litres of sauce and it will last you months, kinda like MSG. Add it near the end so you don’t evaporate away lots of the flavour, too.
    • yeast extract - this shit is delicious in tomato sauces and stews and chili, even if in the uk we typically have it on toast ;p, adds a meaty, mushroomy flavour
    • cinnamon - works amazing in tomato sauces, it sounds weird as fuck but tomato sauce without it tastes like its missing something to me now, its so fundamental to any tomato sauce i make ;3
    • bonus: yeast extract + mustard makes a really really cheesy flavour in various sauces, and its completely dairy free. I
    • psivchaz@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      Have you ever had Cincinnati chili? It’s basically tomato based chili with cinnamon and chocolate.

    • InsurgentRat@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      agree with all of these, although sadly liquid smoke is probably not a healthy thing to have a lot of.

      That said I eat onions all the time and they make me ill. Everyone makes their own judgement on the blandness for longevity trade

      • sapient [they/them]@infosec.pub
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        1 year ago

        Ehh, liquid smoke is def a lot better for you that actually smoking things, because there is a filtration step that removes a lot of the worse Volatile Organic Compounds that make smoke carcinogenic.

        You’re probably right it’s not fantastic though ;p

        And damn, idk what i’d do if onions made me ill… I use them in so much. Though i’ve found some ways of making them do make me feel ill , just i rarely make them that way so.

      • knotthatone@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        If you’d rather avoid liquid smoke try using smoked paprika instead. Store bought does the job but if you can find the good stuff at a local farmer’s market, it’s worth it.

    • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      cinnamon in tomato sauce

      I’ve tried this once, and I can’t say that I liked the result. I guess that my spice profiles simply doesn’t combo well with cinnamon, since when I use baharat instead (that contains cinnamon) it gets great.

      • sapient [they/them]@infosec.pub
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        1 year ago

        Some of it is probably personal preference too. I really like cinnamon, which might influence why i like it particularly much in tomato sauce .

        Typically for tomato sauce I like it quite umami, so I add things like peppers (the fruit/veg and black pepper), soya sauce, salt, MSG, etc., as well as mixed “italian” (i doubt it actually is, but it’s sold as that, and I have limited spice cupboard space) herb and spice mixes (usually with stuff like parsley, basil, etc. in it), as well as sage, thyme, garlic powder, with amounts depending on what I want .

        Probably the only time I wouldn’t add cinnamon is if I was using the tonato sauce as a component of a curry, but a lot of that is because it would get diluted out and I don’t think cinnamon goes so well with some curry flavours.