Complement and distinction: Wine and charcuterie go so effectively collectively due to the mix-and-match taste profiles supplied by every component
4 min read
Is baloney charcuterie?
The technical reply is sure—however don’t attempt to serve it to your mates as “charcuterie” if you would like them to stay your mates.
So what’s charcuterie, anyway? Charcuterie is a French phrase for cooking dedicated to ready meat merchandise—you recognize, like baloney. In the US as we speak, nonetheless, after we say charcuterie, we truly imply a charcuterie board: a number of ready meat merchandise and cheeses, together with different meals merchandise that complement the meats and cheeses, like dried fruits, nuts, olives, pickles, breads, crackers, dips and spreads. Charcuterie is ideal as an appetizer or as finger meals for a cocktail celebration.
Charcuterie boards are sometimes related to wine—as a result of they’re an ideal playground for taste pairings.
Many individuals suppose pairing a wine with meals is a few type of voodoo meals magic they’ll by no means be capable of perceive—whereas different folks suppose it’s simply B.S. Properly, it’s not B.S.—it’s science, and a science that’s not laborious to grasp with just some pointers.
In a simplistic mannequin, there are six primary tastes the human tongue can sense: candy, salty, acidic (bitter), fatty (umami), spicy and bitter. Wine flavors are sometimes described as fruity, acidic (bitter), mineral, tannic, spicy and earthy. Whereas there are millions of taste combos in each meals and wine, you do not need to be Gordon Ramsay to see that the flavors in meals additionally exist in wine. The tip aim of wine pairings is to raise the flavors in each the meals and the wine on the similar time.
When you don’t suppose taste pairings are essential … have you ever ever had a pleasant glass of orange juice proper after brushing your tooth? Yuck. The toothpaste tastes advantageous; the orange juice tastes nice; collectively, they may not be worse. How can we be certain that this doesn’t occur with meals and wine?
The easy rule is to pair wines and meals which might be distinctly related, or distinctly contrasting. Think about related flavors—pairing an acidic wine like an albariño with a citrus salad. Or buttery chardonnay with lobster. Stuffed mushrooms with pinot noir, and a candy wine with a pleasant slice of pie. By doing this, we intensify the flavors which might be in each the meals and the wine. That is what makes the butter taste within the lobster actually come to life.
When you don’t suppose taste pairings are essential … have you ever ever had a pleasant glass of orange juice proper after brushing your tooth?
With contrasting taste parings, we wish the flavors to be completely different in a great way, like peanut butter and jelly: The acidity and sweetness of the jelly balances and cuts the fats within the peanut butter. (Sure, a fruity crimson wine is nice with peanut butter on a spoon. Don’t choose.) Take into consideration spicy meals and a candy German riesling, or macaroni and cheese with an acidic pinot grigio, or pickled vegies and Sancerre, and roast turkey with a Cariñena. These wine and meals flavors work collectively to downplay a few of their profiles that may be overwhelming—making the 2 style higher collectively.
Getting again to that charcuterie board: The meats and cheeses have the fatty, umami flavors. Dried and recent fruits present the sweetness. Nuts and crackers present the saltiness, whereas olives, pickles and capers present the acidic (bitter), spicy and bitter flavors. Based mostly on these meals flavors, you possibly can see how you’d be capable of discover each complementary and contrasting taste matches whatever the wine in your glass.
Charcuterie boards could be created or bought relying in your culinary expertise and creativity. We are able to all take a stroll down the deli isle and toss pre-packaged meats and cheeses into our basket, slap these on a slicing board with some pickle slices and olives, and name it a day. Happily, in Reno, we are able to purchase made-to-order charcuterie boards with simply a few hours’ discover. Graze Craze, at 4092 Kietzke Lane, is a franchise enterprise owned by the husband-and-wife group of Myron and Missy Bursell. They opened the shop final yr and expect massive issues this yr.
“Christmas and New Yr’s have been big for us,” Myron mentioned when requested how the neighborhood was responding to the enterprise opening. “We’ve got not solely supplied charcuterie boards for folks’s private events, but additionally massive gatherings for weddings and occasions, like sorority events, the place 10 or extra boards have been required.”
The most well-liked board, “The Gone Grazey,” contains every part from goat cheese garnished with honey and pistachios to peppered salami. The shop provides keto, vegetarian, candy or particular seasonal boards, and all these boards could be bought in quite a lot of sizes to serve from one to 10 folks.
“We solely want a few hours of lead time for a big board, and we’ve got particular person grab-and-go packing containers that we make to order in simply 10 minutes or so,” Myron mentioned. “We’ve got our personal house-made pickles; we bake a fennel ham in home; and we’ve got an area baker make our cranberry walnut bread.”
I really like wine, and I really like charcuterie, so I look ahead to ordering a charcuterie board from Graze Craze and revel in exploring the entire contrasting and complementary flavors—solely baloney-free.
