[MUSIC] Welcome back. In our previous lesson, we discussed bridge ingredients. In this lesson, we will discuss food weight. Weight on the food side is a function of the physical weight on your palate. But also the weightiness or fullness of flavor. Its actual body or weight is often a function of the nature of the food. The main component of a food dish, what chefs call our center of the plate food item, is often a protein. And is often thicker than other foods accompanying it. Whether it's an animal protein or not. The mouthfeel of this weight can range due to many variables. Including for example, is the food raw? Or is it cooked? And if so, how was it cooked? Was it cooked in a way that will develop weight? Will develop richness? Will develop caramelized sweetness? How thickly is this food element cut? And how dense is the vegetable or animal protein structure? What is its fat content? Either natural fat content or acquired fat content from the manner of cooking. Is its texture light, soft? Firmer, maybe crunchy, or hard and dense. How was it seasoned or spiced? Is it seasoned in such a way to add to its weight or density? It might be useful to look at some examples here. And bear in mind that any of them can be varied by level of seasoning or spiciness. So we're thinking of some food categories, from lighter weight to heavier weight. First of all, fish as an example. We can prepare and serve fish that is raw such as sashimi. We can steam it. We can poach it very simply. We can saute it and with varying degrees of fat presence. We can grill it, barbecue it. We can roast it. And this progression of cooking techniques would tend to make the final dish heavier and heavier in weight. Consider poultry. We can steam our chicken. We could poach it. We could wok it or saute it. We could grill it or grill barbecue it. We could roast it. We could cook it on a rotisserie. All of these cooking methods would tend to make the final product gain weight. What about beef? We can serve beef as a raw dish, carpaccio for example. We could steam it. We could cook it in a wok or a saute. We could grill or barbecue it. We can roast it, rotisserie it. We can braise it long and slow and with a lot of liquids present. Even non-animal proteins, soy, tempeh, for example. Or other meat substitutes. Such as a mixture of rice and bean and grain and nut and dried fruit. Can be lightly prepared or cooked to a greater degree of doneness. Depending on what type of mixture they are. So once we determine the cooking method, its probable temperature and duration, and what might have been included in it. We can decide if the food weight is on the lighter side or the heavier side. So what about basic taste on the food side, as well as these textures and weights? With food, all five basic tastes can come into play. Sweetness for example. If the food sweetness is so powerful that it overshadows that of the wine, the wine will suffer and drop back in intensity. Wine sweetness should always be greater than food sweetness. And this is something that is especially important with desserts. Though not always as easy to predict or achieve, if no real sweet wines are available to pour with the dessert. Choose the dessert that's lower in sweetness than the wine that you have to drink with it. But sweetness on the food side can actually wipe out a rather simple wine with no sweetness of its own. Sourness, boy, acidity on the food side can be similar to that on the wine side. A slight excess of acidity on the wine side can be acceptable. But if one side is much lower than the other, corrective action would need to be taken. So that the wine or food partner would not seem flat. Of course, if the wine lacks acidity, we don't generally add acid to the wine. But we generally find a different wine. So either find a wine with greater tartness or correct the food side if the food side is less in acidity, with a squeeze of citrus or a light dash of vinegar. Bitterness, well bitter foods or preparations involving bitter ingredients have to be reckoned with. A seasoning, salt for example, can usually lessen the bitter effect. As can the presence of sweetness or fat on the food side. But bold bitterness on the food side can provoke harshness and bitterness on the wine side. Particularly when the wine itself is already bitter. Consider the disaster of pairing dark chocolate with Cabernet. [LAUGH] In this lesson, we discussed food weight. In our next lesson we will turn our attention to the cherry tomato experiment.
