A Culinary A-Z
Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg's The Flavor Bible
Sometimes I daydream about starting a cooking school that is dedicated to home-cooking. Or a cookbook club where we cook through certain books together and then potluck-style share everything. Or a bookshop that is specific to cookbooks and books on food. Or all of these rolled into one.
These daydreams normally start when I read a cookbook that really gets the gears in my brain turning - a book that’s applications reach further than a single recipe. The cooking school daydream specifically stems from the fact that as my collection grows, I keep building my perfect curriculum - I’ll see links between certain books, how one might expand on a principle another briefly touched on.
The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America’s Most Imaginative Chefs would be part of that cooking school curriculum, though I go back and forth on if it would be part of a Recipe Development 101 or Improvisational Cooking…
This book is unlike any other in my collection, and is a great tool when I’m trying to fine-tune a recipe to my liking. While it is considered a cookbook, it does not contain any specific recipes.
So what’s in it, then? I’m glad you ask. Let’s dig in.
What is The Flavor Bible?
Co-written by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, an award-winning duo of cookbook writers (who are also married!) The Flavor Bible took them eight years (!!!) to compile, and describes itself as “your guide to hundreds of ingredients along with the herbs, spices, and other seasonings that will allow you to coax the greatest possible flavor and pleasure from them.”
Because that is a mouthful, I like to call it a food thesaurus. That may be an oversimplification, but let me explain.
The book is technically divided into three chapters, but the first two (on flavor and cooking, respectively) serve just to expand on the metrics that are used in the third chapter, “Flavor Matchmaking,” which is 90% of the book. It goes from A-to-Z through 600+ ingredients, cuisines, cooking styles, even technical cooking terms - then it gives you “matches” to whatever you’ve looked up. These matches were crowdsourced from a variety of chefs around the country. The more a match was mentioned, the more they do to make you notice it - a match that came up several times is in bold, all-caps for the ones that came up the most. Other pertinent information, such as botanical relatives, season, or cooking techniques are listed as well, along with quotes from different chefs on how they like to use certain ingredients.
How I’ve Used This Book
I have a couple of memories stand out with The Flavor Bible:
In the summer of 2023, I thought it would be fun to enter a blueberry baking contest. The only hiccup? The extent of my baking with blueberries was almost nonexistent (we’re a blackberry family). So, I started with a really basic coffee cake recipe that I played with until I was happy, and The Flavor Bible was a big help in finding my direction. I didn’t win the contest, and I wouldn’t nail the cake until after the contest was over, but I developed a recipe that I’m proud of.
I love farmers markets and specialty food stores, and I’ve been known to pick things up just because I thought they looked nice - like the time I picked up some beautiful greens from Green Door Gourmet with no knowledge of what they were. They ended up being incorporated into a pasta dish that I’m not sure I could recreate if I tried, but the memory has stuck with me - the meal, but also the fun of playing around in my warm kitchen on a February day, having Edwin taste things with me as I adjusted. The Flavor Bible was my starting point - I looked at several greens, found the common denominators, and went from there.
She didn’t make the cut in last newsletter’s AI silliness but I felt like this was a good place for her. The hands, the lack of a bottom row of teeth, the melting into the stove. What a vibe!
Whether you’re new to improvising in the kitchen and you want to learn what goes together, or trying to expand your repertoire, or if you’re trying to finesse a dish and you don’t know what’s missing this is a great book to turn to. The Flavor Bible doesn’t ask to be read cover-to-cover, it just wants to lend a hand when you need it.
In the preface of the book, the authors mention an interview with poet Charles Simic, who when asked what advise he’d give people looking to be happy, he replied “For starters, learn how to cook.” The authors set out to make a book in that vein, and it definitely makes me happy.
Pairings
I listen to more children’s music now than I would have guessed before becoming a mom. This song came on the other day, and I’ve been singing Kermit’s main verse ever since. When I made the connection between this being an alphabet song and The Flavor Bible being an alphabetically-based reference book, I couldn’t help myself.
If you’re not in a phase of life where you need children’s music, might I recommend Passage Du Desir? Sturgill Simpson recorded this album under the name Johnny Blue Skies, and Edwin and I can’t get enough. It’s a great cooking album, too. The song below, Right Kind of Dream, is my favorite.
Extra Extras
I don’t have much in the way of links for you this week. Karen and Andrew don’t have a large online presence from what I can tell, but you can follow the couple on their Instagram page.
This is my fifth newsletter, and I’ve really enjoyed writing it. If you’re reading along, thank you! I’d love to hear what you think, or if there’s a topic you’d like to hear more about. Comment on this post, or reply if you’re reading it as an email - but please, let me know if you have (constructive) thoughts to share!
That’s all for now. I hope you cook something good this week, and I hope you try something new.