Flavor Profiles...

As I like to think of it, flavor profiles are a blend of basic spices in a basic ratio that impart a specific signature flavor. I have heard some people speak of flavor profiles in terms of a balance of the 5 basic flavors, sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami, but honestly I do not think of that as a "flavor profile", because in general everyone is looking for a balance of those flavors when concentrating on that aspect of flavor.

Examples of basic flavor profiles are "French Onion Soup", which could in essence be boiled down to beef bouillon and onion flavor. That is a very primitive example. If you taste many different rubs, you will find there are a few various "flavor profiles" that you cna use in a sense to group them together into similarly flavored categories to a certain degree. That is not to say all rubs follow a finite set of flavor profiles, but you will find groups of them that are very similar because they tend to use the same ingredients between them in similar ratios.

Hope this helps.

"Flavor profile" is an overused buzz word/term these days

Too much focus on every little detail can sometimes ruin a good thing...

I view flavor profiles in terms of the 5 basic flavors, but, add the characteristics of known flavors, similar to the worlds of wine and beer. You seek out the familiar when tasting, those 5 basic flavors are a start, but, sweet means a very different thing from milk chocolate, salty is not the same as sea water, so I find that providing both terms to be useful when trying to communicate flavor. I rarely try to communicate the flavor of BBQ in these terms, although, I can see where these terms could be useful in a situation such as this forum.

I think if I received a review of my BBQ and it said the flavor profile was sweet, I would be disappointed, that is not a flavor profile, that is one useless description and not a flavor profile. A flavor profile would be more like, the ribs were sweet with hints of honey and caramel and a backbone of savory spice of black pepper and roasted garlic. That would tell me that they cared about their taste and my feedback.

Actually, I think I like landarc's description better.

To me it means the proper marriage of smoke, rub, and sauce that will please the judges... It also means cooking regionally...what "flavor profiles" do the folks in KC like as opposed to the folks in Texas...:biggrin:

MilitantSquatter said:

"Flavor profile" is an overused buzz word/term these days

Too much focus on every little detail can sometimes ruin a good thing...

Click to expand...

Word. It is a bunch of double talk:

1. Meaningless speech that consists of nonsense syllables mixed with intelligible words; gibberish.

2. Deliberately ambiguous or evasive language. Also called doublespeak.

You know, sales talk.

JD McGee said:

To me it means the proper marriage of smoke, rub, and sauce that will please the judges... It also means cooking regionally...what "flavor profiles" do the folks in KC like as opposed to the folks in Texas...:biggrin:

Click to expand...

I thought that's what's called BBQ. :lol:

I had to laugh when watching Worst Cook in America the other night when one of the guys said something about the "flavor profile" of his dish. This dude can't cut an onion but he can tell me about flavor profiles

Flavor profile = what the food tastes like.