What’s an ingredient, condiment, sauce, etc., that you don’t necessarily dislike, but too much of it will ruin a dish?
For me it’s mustard. I like a little smear of mustard on a hot dog or a ham sandwich or something. It adds a nice little zing. But I saw a French’s commercial the other day that totally triggered me. It showed people slathering gobs and gobs of mustard all over everything, and it literally almost made me gag. It also made me aware that while I do like mustard, I only like it in small doses.
A month or so ago I saw Kettle brand potato chips had a ‘truffle’ flavor. Had to try it.
After eating the first couple chips I thought “this is the best potato chip flavor ever!”. But after 5 or 8 chips the flavor became too much. The main ingredient other than potatoes was listed as 'truffle salt", whatever that is-- I assume salt doctored with artificial truffle flavoring, not actual ground-up truffles. The potatoes were too salty in general as well, so I think if they had just been a little more moderate with the truffle salt the chips would have been much better.
Contrary to the OP, I like a lot of mustard on hot dogs and sausages, along with a a lot of onions. But silenus nails it for me: Fish sauce. My wife is an excellent cook and uses it often for umami as well as the Asian and Thai cooking she does (I also use it in my winter chili cooking). But, it is a fine line between “delicious” and “too much”!
Capers. When I notice capers in a dish, I usually think, “hey, capers, cool!” Yet I think they do their best when subtle, leaving you wishing there were more.
Anchovies. They can improve pasta sauce by adding umami, but if you use too much the result tastes salty and fishy.
Bell peppers are surprisingly strong-flavored. They may seem mild and innocuous, but the flavor can overwhelm a dish. For instance, if you put chopped bell pepper into vegetable soup, you get bell pepper soup. Some dishes (like black beans and rice) benefit from this strong taste, but most do not.
It pays to be careful with rosemary. The taste is strong and persistent.
Mayonnaise. I actually like the stuff, but it should serve as a slightly tangy binder, not as a prominent ingredient. A tuna or chicken salad sandwich with just enough mayo to hold it together is great - one that is positively gooey with the stuff is nauseating.
Raisins in savory food are another. The occasional raisin in stuffed grape leaves, cole slaw, spiced couscous, etc. tastes good. But I don’t want so many raisins that my savory dish becomes sweet.
Most strongly flavored ingredients. I have a very strong sense of smell and taste. When i was a kid i couldn’t tolerate things like mustard at all. Now I’m old and my senses are fading, and a smidge of mustard can brighten a dish. But too much kills it.
Garlic is easy to overdo. I love garlic, but a little goes a long way. (I can eat something that mostly just tastes like garlic, but it’s a waste of the other ingredients.)
I agree re anchovies and fish sauce. I’d add black pepper. Delightful in small quantities.
I completely avoid cooked bell pepper, and any hot pepper at all, so i can’t speak to levels of those.
Ketchup, way too much sugar for my taste and for my health. Only use it on fries occasionally and then only about a tenth as much as I see other people using. Mostly I don’t even use it, a bottle stays in my fridge for a couple of years until people come over and ask or I throw it out.
Ritz crackers, with a dab of sour cream and a bit of anchovy, were my mom’s ‘fancy’ canapes and to this day, I crave them…
The thing I don’t care for is the craze for RED. HOT. PEPPER/SAUCE poured over everything, the hotter the better. A little perks up a dish. A friend bought some chicken riggies and the sauce was blindingly hot with half a bottle of Frank’s hot sauce. I ate some, but I was in the bathroom the next two days about a dozen times.
I used to make a potato soup thing (it had more than just potatos, of course) as a cheap but nourishing meal. Cloves were the magical ingredient in that soup that really brought out the flavours of the other components so I felt like I wasn’t eating dilute mashed potatos.
So clearly, more cloves would be “more better”, and that held true for awhile.
The problem is also that cloves are a bit of an emetic. There’s a certain line where the food now starts to smell like puking. I found that line and, unwittingly, went over it.
Who wants to eat a food that, upon smelling, makes you want to hurl? I didn’t even go back to that soup recipe for a long time, I tell you what.
The more cooked the garlic, the milder and more tolerable. I can deal with a lot of garlic in cooked stuff, but if I make a raw ‘garden fresh’ salsa or a batch of hummus, I’m careful to not add more than one small to medium-sized clove of garlic or it overwhelms everything, and I taste garlic into the next day.
