Culinary Creations  |  Spring 2023

Classic Combinations

Get hungry with our chefs’ favorite flavour pairings.

Throughout our 64 years in business, we have grown unique varietals of herbs, spices and vegetables with an innate understanding of agronomic conditions to develop desirable sensorial characteristics. As specialists in the creation of natural extracts, we have also been on a culinary journey to bring Taste and Sensory Solutions to your production team. The result? Authenticity of flavor, favorable economics and ease of use. To accomplish this, we have expanded our expertise through the addition of talented chefs, either directly or through our culinary network, and we have held ourselves to the highest possible standards in creating world-class culinary ingredients that will distinguish your products.

What are the key ingredients in your secret sauce that will define your next success? That’s likely a figurative and literal question given our shared passion for the food industry. In this edition of Crafting Taste, I trust that you will see Kalsec through a new lens, one that puts our culinary expertise and culinary ingredient collections squarely in the essentials of your kitchen or lab.

President and Chief 
Commercial Officer

Julie Heine

Accessorizing a Dish: A Chef’s Perspective

How to Build a Better Burger with Alternative Protein Flavor

Validating an Alternative Protein Flavor

Comfort Food with a Twist

Creative Kitchen Cooking Techniques

Flavour Pairings

Cooking, like fashion, has its own accessories that give a dish personality and distinction. Culinary additions like onions, garlic, shallots, grains, peppers, tubers, beans, root vegetables and animal proteins all find their way into kitchens and dishes around the world. Let’s explore what sets cuisines from different regions apart and discover the “accessories” that give standard ingredients a distinct, unique personality.

Herbs are a fantastic place to begin our exploration of accessorizing cooking and cuisine. Just the other day, I had a conversation with my mother about Caprese salad. She was going to an outdoor gathering and was asked to bring a dish. She wanted to make a simple salad of tomato, fresh basil, mozzarella and olive oil. In a bit of a panic, she discovered fresh basil was nowhere to be found and wondered if she could use cilantro instead.

Cilantro would still be tasty, but it would give the salad an altogether different taste—one with more of a Mexican vibe. One simple ingredient—a little green herb—can have a huge impact on a dish. Cilantro finds its way into many cuisines between the tropics. Chefs in Central and South America, the Indian Subcontinent, North Africa and Southeast Asia all use it in dramatically different ways. It’s incredible how culinary accessories like herbs, spices, acids and condiments vary greatly and give a definitive flare to each region’s cuisine. Let’s take a look at a few:

The flavors of Southeast Asia are vibrant, bright and often fiery. Lemongrass, lime, chili, cilantro, basil and Makrut lime leaves are all ingredients that add fresh zing to dishes. Each is incredibly aromatic and gives instant personality to any food. On the other end of the spectrum, fermented shrimp paste, fish sauce, oyster sauce, soy sauce and fermented chili impart a deep umami quality to dishes. The tastes of Southeast Asian cuisine are a phenomenon of duality, often containing rich umami tones in otherwise light dishes. Pho is a perfect example. Its base broth is deep and full-bodied, infused with star anise, beef and charred onion, among other ingredients. Still, the broth eats light and clean, with vibrant herbaceous flavors like fresh cilantro, holy basil and chilis.

Mexican cuisine is remarkable in its breadth of ingredients. The use and mastery of dried chilis in Mexican food are undeniably the greatest in the world. Like Southeast Asian cooking, Mexican cuisine uses many fresh herbs like cilantro, culantro (not to be confused with cilantro) and oregano. But here we also find deep roasted spices, such as cumin, cinnamon, coriander and allspice. Pork lard’s subtle, neutral flavor also plays an important role in Mexican foods. But this isn’t to say that all Mexican cuisine is this way. Fish and lighter tropical flavors dominate in regions from Central Mexico to the coast.

Like Mexico, the cuisines of India also rely on a wide array of ingredients. The list of spices used in Indian cooking is inexhaustible: anise, bay leaf, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, fennel, cumin, fenugreek, clove, garam masala,ginger, mustard, dried mint, nutmeg, paprika, saffron, star anise, turmeric and yes, even more. Talk about aromatic! And it’s not just the spices that are so impressive, but also the chef’s understanding of how to use and prepare them: roast, toast, fry or char. From my perspective, Indian cuisine is the most sensual of all. The cook must be engrossed in the moment while preparing the food. They must be completely in tune with the aromas and sounds of the kitchen to produce such complex and flavorful food.

Interestingly, the kitchens of Japan and Europe, though 9,000 km apart, have many similarities. Flavors are subtle, but deep and comforting. A Japanese chef might reach for miso and soy to accompany a rich broth, while dairy and a touch of nutmeg might be used in Germany. Neither cuisine relies heavily on vibrant herbs or chilis, but rather long cooked alliums, meats and root vegetables. In both regions, cold winters and temperate summers have necessitated food that must be stored throughout the winter.

Fermented foods are prominent in both Japanese and German kitchens. Sauerkraut, pickles and sour rye bread are found all over northern Europe. Similarly, Japan has a tremendous history of fermented foods. Pickles, soy sauce, koji, miso, fish and tamari are only a snapshot of the fermented accessories used in the Japanese kitchen. No matter where we are in the world, accessorizing a dish is how we, as chefs and cooks, have fun and make the food our own. Cuisine is an evolution, always in transition. Here’s to trusting it finds a tasty destination.

Culinary Basics

Understanding how the flavor is developed in the meat with the flavor precursors and cooking conditions is the first step. How do we take a raw beef patty and create a perfect American burger? How do we put this perfect American burger flavor in an alternative protein base? We start by building a flavor base of middle notes that are developed using reaction flavors. Reaction flavors contribute to the “meatiness” of a profile because the reaction mimics the cooking process that creates the meat flavors and aromas. These can include notes like grilled and roasted as well as the identifiers of chicken, beef and pork.

Beef Flavor

Taco, Pho, Barbecue

Teriyaki, Shawarma

Chicken Flavor 

Pork Flavor

Smoked Pork Flavor

Frankfurter/Hot Dog, Breakfast Sausage, Beer Flavor

Now that we have created our base, we can turn to our cabinet of herbs and seasonings. These are used to elevate the meaty flavor base, like adding coriander and ginger with a dash of pepper to create a Middle Eastern-inspired chicken shawarma flavor. Caramelized onion and fried shallot can add a culinary inspired depth of flavor to an otherwise flat meat base. While a complex blend of black pepper, fennel, garlic, anise and paprika can create a classic pepperoni flavor. There are endless combinations of meatiness and flavor that can evoke classic cuisines from across the globe. It’s not just about the Great American Hamburger anymore, there are so many more options available!

The finishing touch is Kalsec’s garden of colors to create a visually appealing product by adding shades of pink and brown that can mimic the cooking process. We select natural ingredients like beet and annatto to achieve those just-barely-their pink colors of a fresh grilled medium-rare hamburger. In the end, with meatiness, flavor and color, Kalsec has been able to build an alternative protein option from the ground up, all while maintaining the best-in-taste and experience, from first sight to first bite.

These days, more and more consumers are turning to alternative proteins for their diets, focusing on ideals of health, ethics and sustainability.

Beyond the basic burger and nuggets, we’re seeing items like seafood and filet mignon. The past few years have focused on beef and chicken flavors, but pork seems to be on the rise with plant-based bacon taking priority. But how can we create tasty and satisfying meat alternatives? Kalsec has developed a wave of innovative solutions centered on crafting an authentic experience. Of course, the appearance and texture are important factors when considering consumer acceptance, but the most important component of any food is the flavor. With our garden and pantry of flavors, Kalsec has been able to build classic combinations that mimic all our favorite foods.

Pepperoni, Barbecue, Italian Sausage

Bench Talk

Humans eat a lot of meat. In 2021 alone, the global consumption of beef and veal was estimated at just over 71,000 tonnes.* Due to a variety of factors (animal welfare, health and wellness, environmental awareness, etc.), many of us are searching for plant-based alternatives to traditional meat. Regardless of our motivation for decreasing animal-based protein consumption, we still expect to have a similar sensory experience with plant-based alternatives.

Food technologists, product developers and sensory scientists partner together to develop plant-based protein foods that perform as well as their animal counterparts. Food scientists use a combination of reaction flavors, herbs, spices and colors to create new products. Information comparing plant- and animal-based protein are generated from descriptive analysis using highly trained sensory panelists.

Below is an initial evaluation of 80 percent ground beef compared to two commercial plant protein products. The results show these commercial plant protein products lack the meatiness of traditional ground beef. They also have cooked vegetable, soy, starchy, cardboard and smoky notes not found in ground beef. This is where Kalsec’s superior products are used to improve the flavor profile of plant protein products, either by enhancing the meatiness or eliminating the cooked vegetable and starchy flavors.

Once successful new products are developed, consumer studies give us an idea of how well the product would perform in the marketplace. Kalsec created meat-type flavors many years ago, but with the recent heightened consumer interest in plant-based proteins, we have been improving and optimizing those legacy products. We conducted an acceptability test using internal Kalsec employees (consumers of or concept acceptors of plant-based protein) for two chicken-type flavors. Consumers were asked to compare 2 flavors: Natural chicken-type flavor (the legacy product) and the optimized version of the legacy product to a commercially available plant-based chicken flavored patty and to rate the acceptability. Version 2 of the Kalsec chicken flavor was perceived as acceptable and gave the product developers a baseline for further improvement.

An optimized flavor is ready for spiraling opportunities with customers. As an ingredient company, Kalsec gains unique and valuable insight from customers when we involve them throughout the product development cycle. Revisions are made and additional internal sensory testing
is conducted based on our customer’s feedback. Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies conduct consumer tests to gather feedback on preference, liking and purchase intent. Consumer testing is essential for understanding how new products will perform and compete against competitor products.

Since 2010, global meat (beef, veal, pork, poultry and sheep) consumption increased by 41,000 tonnes.* This increase puts enormous pressure on the earth’s natural resources. Kalsec’s meat flavors for plant-based protein  products will be crucial in aiding CPG companies’ abilities to feed that growing population, and sensory testing plays a vital role during the product development cycle and in crafting an authentic experience for consumers to enjoy.

*OECD (2022), Meat consumption (indicator). doi: 10.1787/fa290fd0-en (Accessed on 17 June 2022)

Hungry for more information on how Kalsec can give plant-based 
proteins the flavors consumers crave? Our website is bursting with 
flavor-forward culinary inspiration.

Perfecting Taste

Many people picture indulging in decadent food on a cold winter evening or after a bad day at work. Others think of the way a fresh fruit smoothie gives them an invigorating boost. Whatever you imagine, the essence of comfort food is feeling good.

The global uncertainty and change of the last three years has led to a rise in comfort food sales—one food delivery firm saw a 
76% increase in the UK—as well as some exciting innovations. After spending extended periods of time at home during 
lockdowns,consumers have been crafting new takes on their favourite classics.

Chefs and culinary innovators are sharing their home cooking experiments, inspiring consumers to try new flavour combinations. Without losing the essence of the dishes we know andlove, pairing classic favourites with a different ingredient, cooking method or meal occasion gives us a whole new cuisine—“classics with a twist”—to enjoy. In addition, these twists and trends take on a distinctly  regional flair, which our global team have been exploring in their local markets.

Cuisine fusion is popular in the UK, like loaded veggie fries with Mexican-inspired salsa, avocado, coriander and lime. They’re also seeing greater providence in cooking methods like slow-proved pizza dough, tossed by hand in Italy and stone baked.

Premium ingredients and flavour pairings are bringing an indulgent note to everyday dishes. US product innovation is demonstrating this trend, like a premium macaroni cheese flavour fusion with truffle and wild porcini mushrooms.

Back in Europe, the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) identification is another way comfort food is being given a twist. From a four cheese pizza to parmesan cashew nuts, consumers are enjoying new innovations with favourite meals & snacks.

The ultimate Chinese comfort food is Xiao Long Bao, little steamed nuggets of minced pork with a burst of broth enclosed in a dough made from flour. Vendors and restaurants have created a myriad of their own versions, including infusions with crab meat, extra large ones for more of the same goodness, and others with seasonal vegetables added.

Meanwhile, chefs in some Southeast Asian countries are experimenting with kueh (or kuih in Malay). Kueh is a staple snack that can be sweet or savoury, and most are baked or steamed traditionally using a charcoal fire. Some chefs are creating variations of kueh using new filling ingredients, such as crushed roasted peanuts. Others apply new cooking methods to traditional ingredients for a unique texture and mouth feel. When tradition is given a cheeky yet respectful twist, it can charm even purists.

From feeling the warmth of aromatic Thai- seasoned winter soup to savouring a serving of raclette with family, comfort food means many things to many people. Most importantly, whether it is home-cooked or store-bought, comfort food conjures nostalgic memories of the places and people we treasure. It reminds us of simpler times, when there was no problem so big it couldn’t be solved by food made with love.

Sources: What does comfort food mean to you? | Winter food and drink | The Guardian, Just Eat Takeaway orders soar 76% during six months of Covid restrictions | Couriers/delivery industry | The Guardian

Market Insights

Why would a Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) company care about reaction flavors? Simple answer—they want their product to be the best-tasting product on the shelf so consumers buy and then repurchase their product. Customers desire the authentic flavors of cooked meats and vegetables in their packaged food purchases, and these notes can be imparted or enhanced by reaction flavors.

Think of the taste, aroma and color of a piece of raw beef. Now, put that beef in a hot oven and roast it for a few hours so it develops a dark brown color with a delicious flavor and aroma. Nothing was added to the beef—just heat.

Most of raw meat is fat and protein, which do not have much flavor by themselves. But there are small amounts of amino acids and certain sugars that react with heat to form the desired flavor and color of roast beef. This is called the Maillard reaction. From a flavor chemist view, if you know the precursors (the amino acids and certain sugars) and the cooking conditions, you can just react the precursors and make a concentrated roast beef flavor without the beef!

Because the reaction conditions mimic how real roast beef flavor is created, the resulting flavor is very authentic. The flavor is more concentrated, stable and economical than cooking meat. It can be used to enhance meat flavor or replace it all together. This is perfect for adding meat flavor to plant-based meat analogs while keeping the product vegetarian. A variety of meat flavors are possible, allowing you to be creative with your product development process—you could even create a Kosher bacon flavor! Also worth noting, under U.S. FDA labeling, reaction flavors are considered “natural flavors.” However, check with your regulatory department as other governmental agencies may have different labeling conventions. Reaction flavors can be used whenever the food traditionally goes through a cooking process. Roasting, frying, boiling and sautéing are all cooking processes that can be mimicked by reaction flavors. In the savory space, besides meat flavors, another popular use is vegetables—especially alliums. Think of roasted garlic or sautéed onions the added step of applying a heated cooking technique to these simple ingredients significantly elevates their flavor.

By using a reaction flavour to achieve those notes, you are opening up a lot more opportunity to achieve memorable authentic flavour profiles in you products.

Reaction flavors play outside the savory space, too, with flavors such as caramel or chocolate. 

Whenever you are trying to mimic a cooking process, reaction flavors may be the answer to creating better tasting products that consumers come back to—time and again!

The Art of Flavor

By Chef Andrew Bingham

This delicious combination works particularly well in savoury sauces and cured meats. One amazing must-try is the Tuscan artisanal ingredient finocchiona (fennel), which dates back to the Middle Ages. Fennel was originally used instead of the expensive black pepper (Piper nigrum); however, nowadays they are used in combination.

Adding chilli takes this flavour combination to another level, as the capsaicin in chilli is amplified by the volatile alkaloid piperine, which gives black pepper its pungency.

When tasting this flavour pairing, the chilli stimulates the pain receptors on the tongue, triggering the senses, while the stout brings deep and lingering chocolate and coffee notes for a multidimensional experience.

These three ingredients work in synergy to deliver an all-encompassing oral flavour sensation. Orange and  cinnamon flavours are used across Europe; in Spain, rice pudding uses short grain rice and milk, enhanced with creamy citrus oils from oranges and sweet woody notes from cinnamon. The addition of chilli works to heighten both the orange and cinnamon, adding a third dimension to this classic pairing.

By Chef Ken Burns

Flavours from around the globe are now being enjoyed everywhere—not just the region in which they originated. For me, some of the most exciting flavour combinations are uniquely regional, developed to perfectly match a country’s culture, geography and climate. Here are some of my favourites.

If you have visited Mexico, it is highly probable that you drizzled a chamoy sauce over your fresh fruits (pineapple, mango, jicama and avocado), used it to cook vegetables (corn, zucchini or squash) or used it as a marinade for steak or pork. It is comprised of dried apricots, prunes and hibiscus flowers, lending both sweet and sour qualities. These flavours are balanced out with the spicy heat of chilli pepper powder. The sauce is brightened up and rounded out by adding more acidity (the sour component) from lime juice. Chamoy is an excellent option to elevate your fresh foods.

Thai chefs are experts on the dynamic flavours of a Thai curry sauce served with a protein of choice over rice. It receives its sweetness from coconut milk, umami notes from fish sauce, heat from the curry paste (dried chillis, spices and herbs) and is garnished with fresh lime juice to brighten the sauce with acidity or sour flavours. A great Thai curry pulls all our taste buds together, creating a lively eating experience

In the UK, adding Worcestershire sauce to marinades, sauces, braises, stews, burgers and Bloody Marys is common practice. It is made up of sour flavours from vinegar and tamarind, balanced with sweetness from molasses. It also has anchovies, which round out the sauce with umami, savoury and salty flavour notes. Adding a splash of Worcestershire to your meal can be the secret ingredient that takes it from good to great!

Families from Northern Africa share a breakfast staple known as Shakshuka. The meal has dynamic flavours that are all mixed together. A major flavour component in the dish is harissa sauce. It adds heat from the dried, roasted red peppers paired with spicy and earthy components from the blend of coriander, caraway, cumin and garlic. Harissa is tied together with bright lemon juice or vinegar components. These flavours accentuate the Shakshuka’s umami notes from puréed tomatoes and level out the sweetness from the red pepper.

Explaining why flavour pairings are successful (taste good) is no simple task. The answers are infinite and have both complex and simple routes. At Kalsec, we approach this from both culinary and scientific perspectives. 

Chefs rely on their training and culinary acumen to optimally pair ingredients, creating balanced flavours that maximize the consumer’s eating experience.

Meanwhile, food scientists and chemists rely on gas chromatography to map flavour molecules—identifying which compounds give ingredients their unique taste and how they impact the sensory systems. 

It’s the combination of these two methods that helps us craft surprising pairings that delight the senses and excite the taste buds.

Different foods and flavours often contain some of the same compounds, which explains why they pair together so well. Here are a few of my favourites:

We’ve all experienced the joy of tasting a carefully thought-out dish with perfect flavour pairings. From juicy strawberries dipped in chocolate to tender steak with creamy mashed potatoes—our favourite foods are often not just one individual taste, but two or more flavours together. But what is the science behind the magic? I spoke to Chef Andrew Bingham and Chef Ken Burns, both from Kalsec’s culinary team, to explore why flavour pairings work.

Balancing flavour is a science and an art. According to Chef Burns, working with ingredients that have contrasting flavour profiles balances out salty, umami, sweet, sour and bitter tastes to create a successful pairing. “This is a delicate balance,” said Chef Burns. “When we tip the flavour scale too far towards any one flavour profile, it can create an unpleasant eating experience.

But great chefs know how to hone flavours by adding ingredients with contrasting qualities to balance their dish.” When each element is perfectly balanced, they complement each other to elevate the eating experience.

We learn of the contrasting balance of flavour at an early age. Chef Burns likes to use the example of the American lunch staple, peanut butter and jam sandwiches. He explains that jam on its own has an overly sweet taste profile. “To fix this, we need to level out the unbalanced sweetness by contrasting it with a salty, thick and fatty profile,” said Chef Burns. “What is better than peanut butter?” The net result is a delicious peanut butter and jam sandwich with a balanced salty, savoury and sweet flavour pairing.

Of course, Kalsec chefs and food scientists use both the senses and science when developing flavours.

—J. A. Brillat-Savarin, 1885

Chef Bingham believes pairings involve two or more complementary ingredients that can share key aroma components: the flavour and aroma signature. “The chemical composition of an aromatic profile can actually be mapped via gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS),” said Chef Bingham. “A flavour often contains dozens of single compound molecules that give a product its distinct taste. Some will enhance, and others will dampen specific flavour and aroma compounds when detected orthonasally and retronasally.”

Chef’s Table