From Coffee To Chicory To Beer, 'Bitter' Flavor Can Be Addictive
Food writer Jennifer McLagan has spent the past few years trying to win home cooks over to the ingredients they fear. She's written a cookbook on fat, one on bones and one titled Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal.
Now, at a time when "arugula eater" is nearly a political slur, McLagan is back with a book of quirky history and culture, sprinkled with recipes aimed at rehabilitating the image of bitter greens. And it's not just greens — McLagan's recipes highlight everything from grapefruit to beer and chocolate.
The book is called Bitter: A Taste of the World's Most Dangerous Flavor, with Recipes. And McLagan makes the case for why bitter is the most interesting flavor.
"We're all programmed genetically to react negatively to bitter," McLagan tells Morning Edition host Audie Cornish. "Bitterness can indicate a poison or something that's toxic." (This is the prevailing sentiment, although one recent study raises questions about that assumption.)
As we grow older, we start to acquire a taste for it, she notes. "Your first sip of coffee — it's so bitter,'" she says. But most people get used to that taste. And it helps that coffee perks us up. "It stimulates the nervous system," McLagan says. "So you're prepared to, like, deal with the bitterness for the benefits."
Bitterness has its own benefits, of course. "It balances things that are rich," McLagan explains. That's why her book features dishes like Pork Chops in Coffee Black Currant Sauce. "The bitterness of the coffee balances out the fat," McLagan says.
In addition to coffee, the book features common ingredients like walnuts, beer and orange rind. It also includes lots of vegetables you've probably never heard of. There's cardoon, for example, a vegetable McLagan describes as "celery on steroids." The flavor is bitter, similar in some ways to artichoke. "It's an old vegetable and I'm trying to rehabilitate it single-handedly," McLagan says.
Other intriguing ingredients include methi leaves (fenugreek) and bitter melon, dandelion greens and chicory. These veggies are most popular in places like India, East Asia and Italy, McLagan says.
All of the dishes in the book are bitter in different ways. One of McLagan's recipes is for toast soup — soup made from charred toast. "People say to me: 'Well, that's not bitter.' "
The burnt parts of toast add bitter flavor, McLagan says. That way, when you spread jam on top, "you're balancing the sweetness of the jam with the bitterness of the toast."
That's why in Europe, and especially in France, people like their pies and tarts to have slightly browned edges, she adds. The bitter, caramelized parts pair well with the sweet, tart filling. "Things don't have to be immediately bitter, but if there's a little bit of underlying bitterness in them, they taste more interesting and complex," she says.
Still, not everyone will agree on what tastes bitter, McLagan says. Different people have different sensitivities to the flavor. "Bitter is probably the most interesting taste because we probably agree on it the least."
She says she hopes her book will open up a dialogue about the flavor of bitter, and inspire readers to introduce more bitter flavor into their diets. Ultimately, she says, "a lot of these bitter-flavored vegetables are very good for you."
The bitter turnip takes a star turn in dessert.
Here's an example of the unusual recipes in the book. We know. You're thinking, "Turnip Ice Cream?"
"It's good to surprise your taste buds every so often," McLagan says.
Turnip Ice Cream
8 3⁄4 ounces / 250 g turnips, about 3 medium
1 cup / 250 ml whole milk
1 cup / 250 ml whipping (35 percent fat) cream
A blade of mace, or a good pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
3 egg yolks 1⁄3 cup plus 2 teaspoons /2 1⁄2 ounces / 75 g sugar
A pinch of fine sea salt
1 tablespoon vodka
Peel and coarsely grate the turnips, then place them in a medium saucepan and add the milk, cream, and mace. Bring to a boil over medium heat, remove from the heat, cover, and let stand for 15 minutes. Taste the mixture: it should taste of turnip; if not, let stand another 10 minutes. Strain the mixture into a large measuring cup, pressing down on the turnip to extract all the liquid.
Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and salt in a large bowl until the mixture is light and thick and the sugar is dissolved. Whisk the strained milk and cream mixture into the egg yolks, then pour into a clean saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Strain into a bowl and cool quickly by placing it in a larger bowl or sink filled with cold water and ice. Stir the mixture often. When it is cool, cover and refrigerate overnight. Also, place a container for the ice cream in the freezer to get cold.
The next day, remove the ice cream mixture from the refrigerator, stir in the vodka, and then churn in an ice cream machine following the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to the cold container and freeze until ready to serve.
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Transcript
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
Food writer Jennifer McLagan has spent the last few years on a campaign of sorts, trying to win over home cooks to ingredients they might fear. She's written a cookbook on fat, on bones and one titled "Odd Bits: How To Cook The Rest Of The Animal."
Now, at a time when arugula-eater is practically a political slur, McLagan is back with a book of recipes aimed at rehabilitating the image of bitter greens - actually not just greens; McLagan's recipes highlight everything from grapefruit to beer and chocolate. Jennifer McLagan's book is called "Bitter: A Taste Of The World's Most Dangerous Flavor, With Recipes."
JENNIFER MCLAGAN: Bitterness can indicate a poison or something that's toxic. So we're all programmed genetically to react negatively to bitter, but as we get older we know, you know - like your first sip of coffee - it's like so bitter. But as you get older, you get used to it. You try the coffee several times. It seems less bitter. And then of course coffee stimulates your nervous system, so you're prepared to, like, deal with the bitterness for the benefit.
CORNISH: And you use coffee in recipes here. One example is a recipe with pork chops and coffee. How does the bitterness of coffee work in food?
MCLAGAN: Well, the best thing about bitterness is it balances things that are rich, and, you know, if you have a good pork chop - and of course being who I am, I buy a pork chop with a good layer of fat on the edge of it - and so the bitterness of the coffee balances out the fat. It makes it a much more pleasant dish to eat. It kind of cuts through the richness and makes it balanced in the end.
CORNISH: So there are flavors we recognize like coffee and chocolate that you use, and then there's stuff I've just never heard of. Like, what is a cardoon?
MCLAGAN: A cardoon is one of my favorite vegetables. It's an old vegetable, and I'm trying to rehabilitate it single-handedly. They grow them out in California. It's very popular in Italy, and it kind of looks like celery on steroids. It has big branches and it's bitter.
CORNISH: You're not selling this for me though, with celery on steroids. I mean, celery for me is like the last thing left on the platter.
MCLAGAN: Yeah, celery's another thing that people dislike, too, but, you know, cardoons are more interesting. They have a slightly artichokey flavor. It's a fabulous plant to grow. It has beautiful, silvery-green leaves. I have one in my garden at the moment. But it's just a very interesting vegetable to eat, and so if you mix that with something rich like beef, it also works to balance the richness of a stew.
CORNISH: You also talk about the way bitter flavors are used in other regions of the world. You give the example of bitter melon. There's also recipes here that use methi. Can you describe what that is, where it comes from?
MCLAGAN: Yeah, it's actually fenugreek leaves. People might be familiar with the fenugreek seeds, and it's very popular in India. They often mix it with spinach to mellow out the bitterness. And I've got a recipe where there's eggs baked on the top, and so that richness and fattiness of the eggs also mellows out the bitterness of the methi. It's very interesting dish and perhaps a good introduction if you can find the methi leaves.
It's very funny because when I was buying some in an Indian store, there were a group of gentlemen shopping, and they couldn't believe that I would like the bitterness of methi leaves. They thought that was something only Indians would like - these cultures, like the Indians, the Asians and of course the Italians, who are big lovers of bitter lettuces and chicories and radicchios and of course amaros and bitter drinks like campari.
CORNISH: Now, there were also some completely unexpected ingredients which made me actually wonder about your definition of bitter.
MCLAGAN: Yes.
CORNISH: One of those was toast. There was actually a recipe for toast soup.
MCLAGAN: It's a fabulous soup, and it's interesting because people say to me, well, that's not bitter. But, you know, toast - if you make good toast, it should be just a little bit of blackening and burn on it. And that's the bitterness, and that's what makes the soup delicious. But it also makes, like, a piece of toast and apricot jam delicious because you're balancing the sweetness of the jam with the bitterness of the toast.
CORNISH: You've just helped me win many arguments with my husband with that. I'm going to be going around saying, like, no, it's supposed to be that way on the edges.
(LAUGHTER)
MCLAGAN: No, but toast has to be toast. The problem sometimes - toast is just warm bread, and that's something to think about. Even on a dessert like a pie or a pastry, you'll see that in Europe, especially in France. It's a little burnt edges around there, and people think that that's bad. But no, that's great because the sugar is caramelized and become burnt, and it kind of balances out the sweetness of the tart. Things don't have to be immediately bitter, but if there's a little bit of underlying bitterness in them, they taste much more interesting and complex.
CORNISH: I want you to talk a little bit more about the desserts because there are lots of really kind of interesting things in the book, one of which is turnip ice cream. This one's for the kids in the car who are going to say, mom, don't get any ideas. Explain to me how this possibly works.
MCLAGAN: I like turnip, and I thought, you know, turnip is kind of a little bitter. So if I make an ice cream that won't be super sweet, it will be a perfect match with, like, caramelized apples or even something as an apple pie. There's something good about that vegetable, creamy taste that goes perfectly with apples. So I would suggest if you made it, you would serve it with a nice apple pie.
CORNISH: Jennifer McLagan, you've had these books on fat and bones and now bitter. What's behind this interest in the ingredients that the rest of us are a little bit scared of ?
MCLAGAN: I don't know. Maybe I'm just a little bit of a contrarian, but I write books that interest me. I like topics that I see that are not covered, and I like to write books that aren't just about recipes that introduce people to something else, like the history and the background.
You know, I think it's very interesting how we taste, and I've talked a lot in this book about how different things alter our perceptions of taste and how all of us have a different perception of bitter. And I think bitter's probably the most interesting taste because we will agree on it the least. You know, we'll all probably agree, yes, that's salty; that's sweet; that's sour; that has that savory taste; it's fatty. But no, that's bitter; no it isn't; yes it is. So maybe that'll open up the discussion and get people putting more bitter into their diet, and in the end, that will be good for them because a lot of these bitter-flavored vegetables are very good for you.
CORNISH: Well, Jennifer McLagan, thanks so much for sharing your recipes with us.
MCLAGAN: My pleasure.
CORNISH: Food writer Jennifer McLagan. Her latest book is called "Bitter: A Taste Of The World's Most Dangerous Flavor." Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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