This has happened to the best of us: you’re following a recipe to the letter, you put it on a plate, and it looks beautiful, but when you take a bite, it tastes flat. If you’re new to cooking, your immediate reaction might be to assume you didn’t measure something correctly, but most of the time, that’s not the issue. Here’s what’s going on.
Salt. This is a common issue when you’re new to cooking: you’re afraid to use salt. You think the food will taste salty, so you add a little at the end. Here’s the thing: salt doesn’t make your food salty. It enhances flavors, but it only works when you use it correctly. Add salt too late, and it can sit on the surface of the dish and won’t do much to enhance flavors. Add it at different stages in the recipe and taste as you go. You’ll need a bit more salt when you’re browning, say, a chicken thigh, than you will when the chicken is almost done cooking and you’re adding a bunch of liquid to the pan. I go into how to do this in more detail in the video above.
Acidity. Acidity is another trick that can help bring out flavors in your food, but it’s easy to forget. A squeeze of lemon juice, a splash of vinegar, or even a bit of tomato paste can make a huge difference in your dish without actually making it taste sour or acidic. If you’re working on a stew or braise and it tastes a bit flat, try adding a squeeze of lemon or a splash of vinegar. If it’s a bit too heavy-handed, you can always reduce a bit more or add some cream or coconut milk to round it out. Just remember that acidity takes a bit longer to integrate into your dish than salt does, so add it slowly and taste as you go.
Practice. This is the simplest way to improve your palate: practice tasting. Make a simple dish like sautéed vegetables or a bowl of rice, divide it in half, and season one half with a bit of salt or some acidity. Then compare the two side by side. It’s much easier to taste the difference between two versions of the same dish than it is to try to analyze a single one.
Simplify. Finally, when you’re having trouble getting your dish to taste good, don’t keep adding ingredients. This is a common mistake, and it rarely helps. Instead, simplify. If you’re working on a dish with a ton of spices and ingredients and it still tastes bland, try backing up and using fewer ingredients. It’s easier to add and build flavors than it is to correct them after the fact. With a bit of practice, your palate will improve, and you’ll be able to tell when something tastes off. Then it’s just a matter of practice to fix it.