Let's talk tannins!

It only makes sense to start a food blog with one of the ingredients in its title.

Back when many of us were in school, we learned that there are four basic taste receptors on the human tongue: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. And that all food flavours arose from a combination of those four tastes, merged with the aromas picked up by the olfactory receptors in our nose.

Meanwhile Kikunae Ikeda, all the way back in 1908, had been saying "Not so fast!" It turns out he had been intrigued by what makes the kombu seaweed used in dashi broth so tasty, and none of the existing taste receptors were behind it. Ikeda isolated the salt of the amino acid Glutamic Acid as the main chemical involved, and eventually the specific Glutamate receptors called T1R were indeed identified on the human tongue. A fifth taste! Ikeda had the honour of naming it "umami," a Japanese word that means savouriness, the essence of deliciousness.

So, my point in sharing the Kikunae Ikeda story is that we're constantly learning new things about why good foods taste the way they do.

Our mouths are capable of perceiving so many experiences, and there are so many that we take for granted without ever formally adding them to the list. There's a huge unexplored frontier of taste elements we love even if they're not quite fully "canon" yet:

• Spiciness - the fiery feeling caused by either black pepper (piperine) or chili pepper (capsaicin)

• Mintiness - a chilly sensation triggered by the menthol terpene in mint leaves and other minty ingredients actually fooling your mouth into thinking it's cold

• Ma (麻) - the tingly sensation provided by the hydroxy-alpha sanshool in Sichuan peppercorn a.k.a. prickly ash

• Smoke - another unique taste note imbued into food by the carbonyls of wood smoke

• and . . . drumroll . . . the TANNINS! Tannins famously appreciated in dry red wine, black tea, coffee, dark chocolate, nuts, and beans

Tannins are a whole class of compounds including tannic acid (from oak wood as in barrel-aged wine and spirits), gallic acid (from oak galls and rhubarb), chlorogenic acid (from coffee and yerba maté), flavanols (from tea and cocoa), and a number of others. What they have in common is that they tend to latch onto proteins in interesting ways that give your tongue and cheeks that wonderful hugging, puckering feeling that rich fermented foods are known for. Tannins' grip on proteins is SO strong that chemists use them specifically for yanking proteins right out of a solution and precipitating them out as a powder, so that's why a good oaky Bordeaux can feel like it's yanking directly on the insides of your mouth, because that's what it's literally doing.

We love the tannins in foods they naturally occur in, the way they make those dishes feel so big and bold and rich, but we seldom think of adding extra tannins to something we're cooking on purpose. But with a little extra tannic bang, a simple-and-basic beef broth instantly becomes a simple-yet-VIBRANT beef broth. A simple and tangy salsa suddenly becomes a rich and intriguing salsa (this is why I always loved chile de arbol salsa but could never really put a finger on why — that specific pepper is notoriously tannic . . . it's named after TREES for goodness sake . . . and that's why I love it).

How does this work in real cooking, though? Here's a little story. Several years ago, my workplace hosted a chili cookoff. Being the only employee born and raised in Texas it was a point of pride for me not simply to win this thing, but to win it handily. Chile con carne is one of the only 100% Tex-Mex dishes, so my reputation was on the line. Unfortunately in this case, making basic chili con carne is not terribly difficult. It's a very forgiving dish, and I'll post some recipes later on. But that also makes it difficult to make Superhuman Chili without also making it weird. What could I do without sacrificing the soul of the dish?

1. Ingredients — Ingredients always matter, so I sourced good quality ground beef, onions, whole chili peppers from sources I trusted.

2. Methods — There are some simple but effective ways you can maximize the taste of the ingredients you have. Browning meat. Making a roux. Adding spices in the right sequence.

3. But then: The Secret Extra Notes - Spiciness, smoke, and tannins in this case.

Several coworkers tasting the resulting chili commented, "This . . . this isn't just chili. This is in a whole other league! It's complex and balanced and structured, like a wine almost!" And that was exactly the goal.

Of course my inner Texan was thrilled (yes I won the contest), but I was also happy to share my secrets, and I had to divulge all ingredients on a little card for allergy purposes anyway . . . so I pointed to my little ingredient card and commented how black tea and cocoa powder and also some smoky chipotle peppers were how I got that intriguing "structured" effect their mouths were so happy about.

Okay, you're onboard. You're ready to go. What are some easy ways to experiment with tannins in your cooking?

• Black tea is by far the easiest trick you can do that doesn't mess with the overall flavour profile too much. Never add tea leaves to your soup or stew directly because it's too easy to overdo it and then you've got an astringent mess. What I do is oversteep some black tea in a pyrex measuring cup for 10 or 15 minutes, and then add the super-tea a few drops at a time to my dish until I like what I'm tasting.

• A lot of herbs and spices are naturally tannic, and you can ramp up the tannic mouthfeel by gently increasing the proportions of those. Coriander seed is one of the mildest ones, and so is annato. Good pure cocoa powder works. Cumin, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves, rosemary, sage, and THYME are also quite tannic but with the challenge of being fairly strong-flavoured themselves, so only use them if they're going to complement the recipe, not clash with it.

• Some bitters are also quite tannic, including Angostura bitters.

• Lastly, if you really want to go wild with this idea in the purest way available, it's possible to buy oak chips sold for home winemaking (to emulate the oak barrels professional wines are aged in). But what people don't know is that they're also great for instantly adding silky oaky tannins to food. The most foolproof way to try this is similar to the black tea method above: just steep them in a little bit of hot water for a bit until the water turns light brown, and then add until you're satisfied with the flavour.

And what are good places for extra tannins?

• Tannins add lovely structure to any soups or stews. Even dull chicken soup suddenly becomes "rustic and exotic" with just a tiny bit of woodiness. Think of every dish you've ever seen labelled "Tuscan chicken" something-or-other. Often the chicken and vegetables have been roasted over a wood fire or in a wood-fired oven, and the resulting woody tannins are what we associate with that "Tuscan" food theme.

• Extra tannins are also great for slow-cooked meats, and add a nice woody fire-roasted character to beef roasts, taco meat, pulled pork, turkey, and so on.

• Gravies and glazes sometimes pop with a little tannic edge, especially fruit sauces and glazes that feel a little too "one note" sour otherwise. I had some Georgian wild-berry-glazed lamb once that was like drinking wine straight out of a barrel. It was great.

• Salsas and hot sauces! A little woodiness really balances out the vinegar and salt and gives a more rounded mouthfeel. Remember that chile de arbol salsa. You can carry that quality over to others as well.

• Risotto - A bit of extra tannins take risotto to the next level, especially already woody varieties like wild mushroom risotto.

I hope that gives you some fun ideas. Enjoy!

Feel free to mention your own ideas in the comments!

[Safety Disclaimer: Especially if using oak chips or anything similar, ensure that they are food grade. Decorative wood chips may include other woods that are toxic, and/or have been treated with non-edible chemicals for appearance or pest control. Also, when cooking for others be careful with secret ingredients. Nobody expects cocoa in their chili if you don't warn them first, and some people do have serious allergies and sensitivities.]