In an earlier post (this article), I introduced a cooking method called “universal taste” to reduce our food costs. And I can talk about it more. So let’s talk about it. We could increase fulfillment by reducing fast tastes.
What is “universal taste?”
First, I summarize my “universal taste” cooking method here. This is a method to reduce our food costs while increasing our satisfaction with the meal.
We have a sense of taste. And if we balance these tastes well, everything will be tasty. I categorized 5 tastes as follows:
- (↑Fast taste, feel excitement)
Bitterness and sourness: pepper, herbs, hot chilis, vinegar, etc. - Fat: Vegetable oils, Butter, meat fat, etc.
- Sweetness: Sugar, starch, etc.
- Saltiness: Salt.
- Umami: broth, stocks, juice of fermented foods, etc.
(↓ Slow taste, feel fulfillment)
For example, try boiling pasta. Then mix it with pepper, citrus juice, olive oil, a pinch of sugar, salt, and chicken broth. It is simple but delicious. That is the universal taste.
This tasting method allows us to reduce our food costs because we don’t need so many ingredients or condiments that we seldom use. We can use affordable ingredients based on our locations and situations. So we can reduce our food costs while increasing satisfaction with our meals.
And today, I’ll talk about how to increase our fulfillment with this method. This knowledge will provide you with better food experiences while reducing food costs.
Reducing fast tastes provides fulfillment
If you want to feel more fulfilled, I recommend you reduce the fast tastes in your meals. The fast tastes are the higher items on the list above, such as bitterness and sourness.
The logic is simple. If we reduce fast tastes from our meals, we can feel more slow tastes. It gives us more fulfillment.
To explain it, let me talk about my experience. This year, I started fermenting foods. And I made soups with these fermenting foods.
In the early stages, I almost didn’t use fast tastes because I didn’t know how to make tastes. That was before the creation of my universal taste method. I combined only umami from fermented foods, salt, and pepper. When I ate my soup, it tasted almost nothing but pepper flavor right after the first bite. But after 20–30 seconds, I started to feel fulfilled with the soup. Then, the more I tasted it, the more I felt deeper fulfillment. And after 20 minutes, the soup tasted far more delicious than the first several minutes.
That was a shocking experience because it was usual for us to get bored if we ate the same thing for a long time. So I used to prepare many condiments for my dishes to change the taste. But when I ate soups cooked with my fermented foods, I didn’t need them. That experience had a big impact on me. And it completely changed my common sense for my meals.
So I discarded my store-bought condiments several months ago, as mentioned in earlier posts. That was the reason for that.
Enjoying fulfillment with the slow tastes
After this experience, my dish style completely changed. I started to enjoy deeper fulfillment with the slow tastes. The longer we ate the dish, the more deeply delicious it became. I didn’t get bored until I was satisfied nutritionally.
And I started to wonder why I had used to add such stimulus flavors. The deeper the taste I began to feel, the less superficial stimulation was necessary. In other words, I realized that fast tastes prevented fulfillment.
So when I cook my soups, I make simple soups now. And I add additional flavors when I scoop from the pot into the dish the first time. Then I enjoy the simple soup after the second scoop.
On the other hand, if we eat fast tastes in a short time, we will get bored quickly and want more exciting stimuli. For example, when we eat french fries, we might eat them just with salt and pepper at the beginning. But we usually want to add other flavors soon, such as ketchup, mustard, and BBQ sauces. And if we have many stimuli, it is difficult to feel fulfillment. So we often eat too much. That is unhealthy.
Not only our meals but also our lives are the same. If we get used to short-term stimuli, we desire more short-term stimulus ingredients and condiments. That prevents fulfillment and costs a lot.
We can choose both ways. And I prefer long-term fulfillment to short-term excitement.
Conclusion
So I think that we can increase fulfillment by reducing fast tastes.
With my universal taste cooking method, we can easily make delicious meals. And we reduce the costly ingredients and condiments for fast tastes. That will save a lot of money.
If we can use this method, we might be able to enjoy our meals while reducing our food costs.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you at the next one.
