When it comes to pairing food with the perfect wine, it doesn’t have to be an intricate process to chose what wine to pair with what dish. If anything, it should be a fun and enjoyable process of trying new things to get different results. It’s all about enhancing the food and bringing the best out of the wine. Of course, it is exciting to experiment and fine-tune that favorite wine from your wine subscription box to your favorite dish, and you may come up with spectacular recipes that wow everyone.
One of the fundamental rules of food and wine pairing is understanding the dish you are preparing and the wine. That is, by examining the elements of the wine and the food’s basic components to enhance both. The trick is to strike a balance between the two to improve your dining experience. Here are some guidelines that will help you create a spectacular match for your favorite food and wine.
Balance the intensity of flavors
When you read about the best food and wine pairings, you will realize that the cooks always try to balance the flavors’ intensity. As such, match mild foods with mild wine flavors, rich dishes with rich wine, and acidic dishes with an acidic wine. You need to consider the richness or weight of the wine and food. None should overwhelm the other. When you strike a balance between the two in terms of weight, high chances are, you will come up with a perfect match. That is the secret behind the best wine and food pairings.
For the wine, you determine its weight from the color, alcohol content, grape variety, the region’s climate, and wine-making techniques; for instance, a light-bodied wine will have less than 12% alcohol content, while above that is heavier. For the food, you determine its weight from the fat, how its sauce comes out from the cooking method.
Consider the dominant flavors of both.
In most cases, we always think that we should pair wine with meat or fish, which will come out well. We forget that the cooking method or the sauce plays a crucial role in determining the dish’s flavor. However, this is where pairing is supposed to be fun. Wine aroma always reminds us of different flavors, such as herbs, fruits, spices, or butter. Balancing this includes using food ingredients that emphasize the wine flavor to bring out the best of the wine. For instance, when using a cabernet, add food currants that bring out dark fruit flavors to enhance the wine’s taste.
In comparison, the same flavors can have a different effect. They balance each other so strongly that it brings out the other aspects of the wine. For instance, when you serve earthy mushrooms with an earthy flavored wine, it brings out more of the wine grape’s characteristics.
Consider your taste
When it comes to food and wine pairing, consider your taste. Instead of hoping that pairing wine with food will improve its taste that you don’t like, choose a wine you would be happy to drink by itself. Choose your favorite wine from your monthly wine subscription and pair it with a dish you like while considering the elements mentioned above. After all, if you detest the liver, no wine pairing will make it taste better for you.
The final words
When you consider your taste, you will still enjoy the food even if the pairing doesn’t match. It’s all about experimenting, and you can have more fun experimenting with different combinations.