A Beginners Guide to Pairings
When it comes to pairings I feel as though a lot of people get overwhelmed and worry that they will pair the wrong things, I know when I first started, I felt that way. Making good pairings does take time and experience but hopefully this little guide will make you feel more confident and inspire you to start experimenting with flavor pairings.
When it comes to food pairing it is very important to keep in mind the six types of tastes we experience, bitter, sweet, salt, fat, umami, and sour. Along with taste we often experience a texture or sensation with these and that is also an important component to an excellent flavor pairing. For example, sour will cause a puckering sensation whereas fat will have a more luxurious and coating effect. The two ways of paring food I am going to discuss here are common flavor profiles and complementing flavor profiles. There are far more scientific ways to form pairings, but I will wholeheartedly admit I am nowhere near skilled enough to use or explain the more scientific side of food pairings. I want this little guide to be accessible and easily utilized because when you start pairing foods and spirits or cocktails you will be able to further appreciate both, and it really does open up a world of possibilities. I found from my own experience many food pairing articles focus on wine and are also very complex, I wanted to simplify it a little bit and offer a bit of a crash course for those who don’t want to spend hours sifting through information.
Before I get into actual pairing suggestions here are a few general guidelines to follow but bare in mind everyone’s palate is different and rules are not always meant to be followed. The best way to find out if something works is to experiment!
When pairing food you always want to consider how sweet or salty your pairing is, if you serve a very sweet spirit or cocktail with something with a high salt content it will make your drink taste very sweet and your food very salty which is not always a good combination. By doing this, you can also lose some of the more subtle or nuanced flavors. If you are working with a salty food such as cured meats or a salty cheese, such as parmesan or feta, you will most likely want to lean towards something that is less sweet. I personally like to pair salty foods with something more botanical or bitter because the salt works to heighten the more subtle flavors, for example vermouth or amaro would be a good choice. Salt also works to reduce the tannins in these types of spirits which causes them to feel richer and smoother.
More acidic foods should be paired with more acidic cocktails because if they are paired with low acidity it can reduce your ability to taste sweeter, fruity notes. However, when paired with something more acidic it can actually heighten fruity flavors. More acidic cocktails also pair well with fatty foods as the acidity helps to cut through the fat and causes flavors to be more prominent, vice versa for a fatty cocktail and acidic foods.
When it comes to more savory or umami cocktails you want to avoid extremely bitter or acidic foods because these flavors will become more prominent. If you wanted to pair say a vermouth with a savory food, I would choose either a light French style vermouth, such as Bianca from DeVine or Dry Vermouth from Esquimalt Wines, or a bittersweet vermouth such as the one from Odd Society. These vermouths contain minimal tannins and enough sweetness to not result in a pairing that is too bitter or acidic.
Well those are the basic guidelines for pairings, now let’s talk common and complimentary flavor profiles. To start let’s discuss common flavor profile pairings, this is pretty straight forward and a good place to start if you are learning. Common flavor profiles are self-explanatory, if you can taste cinnamon or smoke in a cocktail you can almost always pair it with something else that has those flavors.
For example:
I paired a Maple Whisky Gouda made with pasteurized cows’ milk from Holland with two cocktails, sugaring off and Kilt Lifter. This Gouda is a firm cheese with complex flavors of wood, spice, a slight nuttiness, and a rich sweetness from the maple syrup, the texture is very creamy and dense texture, so it coats your mouth and has a long-lasting texture and flavor. I wanted to create a cocktail that really highlighted these elements, so I eventually landed on two different types of cocktails with the same whisky base. I wanted to use the Ancient Grains Alternative Whisky from DeVine because it mimicked all the flavors found in the Gouda. Ancient Grains has a flavor profile of candied fruit, macadamia nuts, warm spices, and a very slight smoke and wood note. The first cocktail, sugaring off, uses Ancient Grains whisky, maple syrup, lemon juice, bitters, and an egg white; each ingredient serves a purpose. The whisky adds the wood, spice, and smoke notes, the maple syrup add a bit of sweetness as well as a rich caramel note, the lemon helps to cut through the richness of the cheese, the bitters add complexity and ensures the cocktail is not too sweet, and the egg white gives the cocktail an airy foam which pairs well with the dense texture of the cheese. Whereas the kilt lifter takes a different approach, this cocktail uses ancient grains whisky, again to bring notes of wood, smoke, and spice, Birch liqueur with notes of molasses, pecans, and spice, both pecan and aromatic bitters to once again add complexity, reduce sweetness, and bring in more nutty notes.
Another cheese pairing example is a beautiful Black Pepper Caciotta made with pasteurized cows’ milk in Salmon Arm. This cheese is semi firm with flecks of fresh cracked black pepper throughout the rind, the semi firm texture lends itself to a softer yet elastic feel, it can be served alone or made into fondue. Due to the element of black pepper there is a nice spice to the cheese as well as a balancing salt content, so to pair with this cheese I wanted a cocktail that would highlight the spiciness of the black pepper but would not be too sweet because that would make the cheese seem saltier. I eventually settled on the sipper which once again uses ancient grains whisky for a warm spices and wood flavors, bittersweet vermouth to add a botanical and herbal note, nocino for nuttiness, spice, and a slight sweetness. With this cocktail I really wanted to highlight the black pepper in this cheese because it is such a unique addition that really makes this cheese.
With complimentary flavor profiles there aren’t necessarily the same flavors found in both the food and cocktail pairing yet the flavors are still complementary. With these pairings you usually want to focus on highlighting certain flavors.
For example:
With this particular pairing I wanted to highlight the tanginess of the sheep’s milk and the flavors found in the rind. I paired Fleur Du Maquis, a semi-soft French cheese made from pasteurized sheep’s milk and rolled in various flowers and herbs. This cheese has a creamy texture with a slightly sour or tangy flavor from the sheep’s milk paired with notes floral and botanical notes as well as a slight citrus and nutty note. For this pairing I wanted to highlight the more floral notes of this cheese as that is what makes it unique, to do this I chose a pear-based cocktail. The cocktail is A-pear-tif and includes Poire William to highlight the floral notes, white dry vermouth to add a slight acidity as well as more herbal notes, and finished off with sparkling pear juice to bring out the tanginess of the sheep’s milk and to help cut through the richness of the cheese to better appreciate the flavors of both.
Another example of both complementary and common flavor profile pairings would be pairing Love or Confusion with a dense chocolate cake. Love or Confusion is made using barrel aged genever which is the love child of gin and whisky with a botanical forward opening that evolves into a more caramel and spice finish, ginger liqueur adds a bit of spice and furthers the complexity, Campari adds bitterness to counter the sweetness of the cake, dark coffee heightens the richness of the chocolate, and both the aromatic and chocolate bitters work to add complexity and herbal notes that highlight the botanicals in the gin. This cocktail and a good chocolate cake are a match made in heaven!
The most important thing to remember when it comes to pairings is to try different things and understand that everybody has a different palate. There really are no right or wrong pairings if it is something you like, just keep experimenting with new flavors and combinations. If you are ever stuck on a cheese pairing I would suggest going to your local cheese monger, for me that Perseval & Young here in Kelowna, they are incredibly knowledgeable and always willing to describe the flavor profiles of the cheeses in stock. If you are in Victoria I recommend checking out Charelli’s for their amazing assortment of meats and cheeses.
