# A little goes a long way - Food Edition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [July 14, 2021, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-goes-a-long-way-food-edition/946476 "2021-07-14T15:40:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2021, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-goes-a-long-way-food-edition/946476/61 "2021-07-16T23:48:19Z")
My basic chili recipe for newbs says “Cumin. Lots of cumin. No, more than that.” ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-goes-a-long-way-food-edition/946476/62 "2021-07-17T15:42:28Z")
Mustard powder. ¼ teaspoon goes a long way. I suspect my husband thinks I overdo the cumin. I’m not a big fan of rum, so a little bit of rum goes a long way, but I do use it for flavoring. My 3 scoworker and I can polish off a 2 L bottle of coke and a 750 mL bottle of rum in one session. Of the 4, I drink the least amount of rum and the most amount of coke. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2021, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-goes-a-long-way-food-edition/946476/63 "2021-07-17T18:53:24Z")
Tarragon can really take over a dish. I once was told by a waitress that they would not be serving the salad that day because they were out of tarragon for the dressing. I almost told her, Thank God!" ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-goes-a-long-way-food-edition/946476/64 "2021-07-18T13:14:04Z")
> [@Briny\_Deep](#): > > Some people _pretend_ to like capers, but the truth is that any dish that tastes good with capers in it tastes even better with capers not in it." -Nora Ephron I have to respectfully but strongly disagree with Nora here. Pasta Puttanesca and Chicken Piccata, two go-to meals in my rotation, would not be the same without capers. Also, capers and seafood, like a nice salmon filet, pair up nicely. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-goes-a-long-way-food-edition/946476/65 "2021-07-18T14:33:19Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Also, capers and seafood, like a nice salmon filet, pair up nicely. I like a spoonful in my tuna salad. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-goes-a-long-way-food-edition/946476/66 "2021-07-18T14:51:52Z")
A little goes a long way. My friend Mike. I don’t see him all that often. We have fun when we do stuff and always say we’ll get together more often, but really that wouldn’t be good. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-goes-a-long-way-food-edition/946476/67 "2021-07-19T02:00:59Z")
I love capers. I put them in chicken, turkey, tuna salads, maybe into macaroni and potato salad, and into home-made tartar sauce. All they are are a form of tiny pickle… There used to be a mediterranean olive bar with all the usual suspects, and whole big marble sized caper buds. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-goes-a-long-way-food-edition/946476/68 "2021-07-19T02:24:02Z")
I agree with most of the “too much” opinions, but i have too say that I’ve never felt a dish had too much cumin, nor too much thyme. I mean, it would be a different dish without them. And maybe I’d like it more. But neither ruins an otherwise tasty food like too much sage, or too much caper, or too much mustard. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-goes-a-long-way-food-edition/946476/69 "2021-07-19T16:05:44Z")
Actually, I love them myself. Funny quip though. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ukulele_ike1/32/4613_2.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike1)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2021, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-goes-a-long-way-food-edition/946476/70 "2021-07-20T01:33:02Z")
Too much cumin in anything makes it taste like the dank armpits of a Middle Eastern day laborer on a crowded downtown F train. I deal with cloves in recipes by leaving out cloves. I make an excellent tourtiere Quebecois with no clove whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2021, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-goes-a-long-way-food-edition/946476/71 "2021-07-20T06:08:26Z")
Caper berries (the big ones) go really, really well with aged goat cheese. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2021, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-goes-a-long-way-food-edition/946476/72 "2021-07-20T13:03:53Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’ll also mention nutmeg, mostly because it’s a lot stronger than one might expect. I once made an apple pie, and put in a little less nutmeg than I did cinnamon. The result didn’t actually taste bad, but you couldn’t taste anything other than the nutmeg. I make a mac and cheese that’s a knockoff recipe from a fairly well-known restaurant in my area, and it’s a big hit with friends and family. It **needs** nutmeg, but just a very small amount. Too much will ruin it. It’s a very small window. Years ago I bought a Jamaican recipes cookbook at a garage sale. Still reference it to this day. It had been well-used since it still had a couple dozen little sticky note tabs marking recipes that the former owner had tried. A small detail I found amusing was that ‘nutmeg’ had been crossed out in every single recipe the person had tried. I wondered if the person was allergic, or they just really, _ **really** _ didn’t like nutmeg. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2021, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-goes-a-long-way-food-edition/946476/73 "2021-07-20T21:52:01Z")
There’s a fine line between just enough and too much hot Chinese mustard (the real kind, not what take-out places offer in plastic packets). You want scalp-tingling heat, but not enough to blow out a new sinus cavity. A real killer is the hidden hot mustard pocket; it’s considered uncouth in some circles to suddenly spew a mouthful of Szechuan beef and broccoli across the room. Speaking of etiquette: > [@Chefguy](#): > > I took the first girl I was ever serious about out to an expensive Japanese restaurant that served the best steak in the city. She asked the Japanese server for ketchup. It wasn’t part of the server’s English vocabulary, so she had to find someone to translate. The guy looked at my date with some disdain and offered a curt “No!”. I was embarrassed by the whole exchange and that was end of the relationship. Yeah, I’d never go back to that restaurant again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-goes-a-long-way-food-edition/946476.md?page=3)