A Drop of Acid

BY JIM MATHIS

Want

to make your food taste better in one simple step? Add some acid. It’s just that simple. Often the difference between the food you cook at home every day and the food made by the finest chefs comes down to a little bit of acid. If you’re eating fish, a squeeze of lemon or lime will liven up the dish. A couple of slices of pickle can help cut through the fat of a big, juicy burger. A little drop of acid can make a big difference.

Before we get into all the different ways to add acid to your food, let’s talk about why it matters. First, acid helps to stimulate the palate; it wakes up the saliva glands, literally making your body ready to eat. Our taste buds respond to acidity as sour. So when we talk about acid, we’re really saying sour. Second is balance, we want a nice mix of flavors in the food we eat. And since we all get more than enough fat, sweets and salt, a little sour helps to balance it out. Why do we dip French fries in ketchup? Because the acid balances the fat and salt.

How do you add acidity? The obvious answer would be vinegar. A quick tour down the vinegar aisle at the mega-mart shows more options than you can imagine. My cupboard usually has aged balsamic (which adds sweetness with the sour), red wine, white wine, rice, cider, sherry and plain-old white vinegars on hand. Each brings a little different flavor along with a potent sour kick.

Citrus is another obvious suggestion: lemons, limes, oranges, or grapefruit all work well. The juices add depth, but sometimes the zest of the citrus (the outer layer of the skin) is enough to bring an acidic brightness to the party. Other fruits including many berries and tomatoes (yes, they’re a fruit) also help to kick the acid level up a notch or two.

My favorite way to bring acidity is to reach for the wine cabinet. Dry white wines bring a subtle acidity, hearty reds bring deep rich flavor while cranking up the pH. I often find myself reaching for a bottle of dry sherry wine to deglaze pans when making sauces or to add complexity to gravies and soups. Again the sherry brings sweetness along with the acid, so it enhances other flavors without overpowering them.

Many of us reach for condiments to kick up the acidity at the table. Ketchup adds a sweet and sour punch. Most mustards list vinegar at or near the top of the ingredient list. Tabasco or other hot sauces? Peppers and vinegar make a hot and sour kick in the taste buds. Barbecue and steak sauces might be mostly sweet, but there’s vinegar in there too. Even mayonnaise has a little acid.

When I was a kid, special occasion meals always came with a relish tray on the table, filled with an assortment of tiny dill pickles, pickled beets, olives and even the occasional pickled herring. What I didn’t know was those items weren’t there just so grandma could show off the fancy dish; they added balance to the table. The tart cranberry relish on Thanksgiving has as much to do with adding acid to a rich meal as it does tradition.

A few years ago, I was out of town on business and found myself faced with the typical breakfast fare in the hotel restaurant. They had a fried egg sandwich that sounded OK, so I ordered it. It was a mostly run-of-the-mill entrée; two hard fried eggs, some Swiss cheese and ham on grilled bread. But there was one other ingredient that caught my eye – Peppadew peppers, those mildly spicy pickled cherry peppers. When they were added to that basic fried egg sandwich, they brought heat, and yes, a little acid. It was so great that I recreated it at home that next weekend. My beloved, who’s not a big breakfast-eater, loved it. That simple ingredient changed the meal from mundane to memorable.

If you watch any of the cooking competitions on TV, you frequently hear the judges commenting that “it needs a little acid” or “it’s perfectly balanced.” They are recognizing that the difference between good food and great food can be that one ingredient. So next time you’re in the kitchen and you taste your masterpiece, ask yourself “would a little kick of lime wake this thing up?” Maybe it’s time you drop a little acid on your family.

Do yourself a favor, eat something good today.

When he’s not in the kitchen, Jim runs ADwërks, an advertising agency in Sioux Falls.