Passion for Pairings

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appetizer In looking around the "Sip Smoke Savor" website, you have probably reached the conclusion that it is operated by confirmed "Maltaholics" with a passion for pairings that enhance the malt whisky experience. Needless to say an area that has been woefully neglected by star chefs, foodies and cookbook writers, is the art of scotch to food pairings. Lest whisky fans feel totally maligned for their liquor religion, we've come to the rescue.

Welcome to our food pairings section and join our quest for the perfect edible companion to your favorite dram. It is believed that at least 80 distinct flavor compounds have been identified in the wide range of scotch whiskies available today. With 90 distilleries in Scotland aging and bottling thousands of expressions, our mission is somewhat daunting but guaranteed to be lots of fun. Our goal is to become the definitive resource and inspiration for the next new culinary experience. Perhaps someday we might even merit for our efforts a "Quick Fire Challenge" on Bravo Channel's Top Chef?

This section will contain a hedonistic catchall of flavor pairing information. Articles will focus on how those many scotch flavors are technically developed and what is essential to know when pairing. We will point you to the best informational websites, and provide pertinent book reviews. We hope to identify and celebrate whisky-friendly chefs and their tasting menues, as well as share exciting recipes along the way. Newcomers to the world of whisky need not be intimidated as there is only one rule. This is all about personal palates and preferences as we are dedicated to the belief there is a dram for every taste.

Musings on Sensory Discrimination In Whisky and Food Tasting

Each person has their own threshold of sensory discrimination. In part due to the differing aspects of individual physiology and also influenced by learned preferences from positive and negative experiences. Known as the "Proust Phenomenon", the link of sense to memory was vividly described in the "tea and madeline" encounter in his famous novel "The Rememberance of Things Past". This literary passage artfully describes the interplay of sight, smell, taste and memory in delivering "an exquisite pleasure" to a simple everyday meal. Taste and smell substantially benefit from visual cues that exploit our memory of those good and bad experiences, or create new ones. Sight is often the first sense to be engaged prior to any connection with aroma or taste. Needless to say, food preparation profits from a little artistry of presentation to set the stage for the stimulation of the other senses to follow.

You have probably read that humans can distinguish around 10,000 different smells. Many scientist believe that no two substances smell exactly alike, thus posing the opportunity to experience an infinite number of scents. Each odorant activates a unique set of olfactory receptors to create a "signature", though no one seems to be able to explain unique preferences for deeming a fragrance pleasant or unpleasant, beguiling or offensive. "Nosing" is an essential element to the enjoyment of whisky. Special drinking glasses and master classes have been created to enhance one's ability to fully exploit the olfactory experience. A nosing kit was specifically designed for the scotch industry that provides 24 essential aroma samples along with a 40 page guide. Developed by expert and aroma scientist George Dood, this kit is as much about identifying the specific scent as building a vocabulary to consistently communicate the experience (What exactly is phenolic?).

Sampling definitely stimulates olfactory receptors and contributes to refining one's sense of smell. If tasti young-drinker ng notes suggest ripe banana peel, wet blanket and seaweed, the quickest way to isolate those scents in a whisky is to experience them in their purest form. This is an exercise (often best done in private) that anyone can perform to sharpen their olfaction acuity. I for one hope that aroma and tasting experts are made and not born. I devour nosing/tasting notes like a chef collects recipes and find these musings immensly intriguing, entertaining and educational. Coveting the skills of these highly trained sniffers, I often check their notes after my initial tasting encounter to ensure not to miss a beat in the sensation/perception department. Beloved and dearly departed Master Whisky Taster Michael Jackson once described a certain scotch as the taste of "barbecue on the beach". I knew even before tasting, that this would be a smoky, peaty, medicinal Islay malt. This phrase is now inseparable with my enjoyment of this dram, adding a suggestive Pavlovian element to the Proust Phenomenon.

Taste has been said to be 75% smell. Much of the flavor of food and drink happens when a fragrance hits the cell receptor both in the naval cavity, back of the mouth and through the complex chemical reactions that intricately dance their way to our brains as we breathe in, chew, taste and swallow. Taste buds have the task to intrepret sweet, sour, salty, bitter and savory characteristics of a morsel or liquid while they are also registering its temperature and texture. A rather Freudian focus on "mouth feel" is elemental to the total scotch experience. Phrases such as astringent, oily or mouth coating are routinely used to describe this sensation. Master Tasters go to great lengths to capture an apt description for flavor intensity (body), as well as how layers of taste develop and how long they linger on the tongue (finish). Having been left out by birth from the club of enviable 25% "Super Tasters" in the world, my enjoyment is no less as I struggle to identify that 15th elusive flavor note so vividly described from an aficionado who has sampled more drams than I. While too often this effort results in pondering whether I am actually drinking the same whisky, there is no substitute for the marvelous victory once the flavor is found and the continuing realization that experience truly improves ones sensory discrimination.