The Flavor Thesaurus: A Compendium of Pairings, Recipes and Ideas for the Creative Cook

by Niki Segnit

Ever wondered why one flavour works with another? Or lacked inspiration for what to do with a bundle of beetroot? The Flavour Thesaurus is the first book to examine what goes with what, pair by pair.

The book follows the form of Roget's Thesaurus. The back section lists, alphabetically, 99 popular ingredients, and suggests classic and less well known flavour matches for each. The front section contains an entry for every flavour match listed in the back section and is organised into 16 flavour themes such a Bramble & Hedge, Green & Grassy, and Earthy. There are 980 entries in all, with 200 recipes and suggestions embedded in the text.

It covers classic pairings such as pork & apple, lamb & apricot, and cucumber & dill; contemporary favourites like chocolate & chilli, and goat's cheese & beetroot; and interesting but unlikely-sounding couples including black pudding & chocolate, lemon & beef, blueberry & mushroom, and watermelon & oyster.

Beautifully packaged, The Flavour Thesaurus is not only a highly useful, and covetable, reference book that will immeasurably improve your cooking - it's the sort of book that might keep you up at night reading.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction, Reference, Culinary, Food and Drink

400 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Niki Segnit had not so much as peeled a potato until her early twenties, when, almost by accident, she discovered that she loved cooking. Much as she enjoys haute cuisine, she’s not likely to reproduce it at home, preferring to experiment with recipes from domestic kitchens abroad. Her background is in marketing, specialising in food and drink, and she has worked with many famous brands of confectionary, snacks, baby foods, condiments, dairy products, hard liquors and soft drinks. Since summer 2010 she has written a weekly column on food combinations for The Times. She lives in central London with her husband.

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. It is part cookbook, part food history, part a glimpse into the head of the author. I had it checked out (from my library) but by page 25 I knew I needed to own it. If you like food read this book!

I say I have finished this book because I have read every page but I think It will be awhile before I am ready to put it on the cookbook shelf. In a spare moment I pick it up and look through it or wonder if this flavor and that will go together and I check this book.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sorry. I really wanted something that would guide me to understand patterns, create new templates, visualize & predict what's likely to work or not. But the author and I do not organize ideas in complementary ways, and we taste and eat very differently. I could not study the 'color wheel' as I could not process/ understand it, and I am not motivated to read all the fine print stories interspersed with the lists of pairings. It really is most akin to an American Heritage dictionary, in that it's mostly lists, with the odd illustration, chart, or usage note (but in the cookbook, those additions are just text).

One idea caught my eye for chicken: the author paired it with sweet bell peppers, and is impressed by the rich saucy dish those two ingredients can make. Excuse me Niki, but you correctly specify to leave the skin on chicken thighs. You have three ingredients, the additional being chicken fat... and of course it's delicious! So, yeah, between my lack of respect for her understandings of real-life cooking, and my disinclination to use anchovies, lamb, truffles, etc.... I'm done.

[Elizabeth La Lettrice · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s no way I’ll ever stop reading this book so I might as well write my review now!

I’m only halfway into the second of sixteen sections and I already have so much to say (and the colorful post-its are taking over!). I only first heard of this book when they were coming out with the revised edition with the new cover. And it was SO PRETTY that it grabbed my attention right away. “The Flavor Thesaurus…” Hmm, sounds like a wonderful reference guide for explorations in the culinary frontier… and pretty too? I shall have it immediately. (My thoughts exactly.)

This book is way more entertaining than I expected. I had done a few brief “flip-throughs” before I obtained my own copy noting the lists of flavor pairings and thinking of all the new combinations I’d learn to love. Since I assumed this would be a pretty straightforward reference book (I mean common, thesaurus in the title, a British author, a seemingly complex diagram/color wheel on steroids on the inner front cover, an intro quote with the following words “Sauternes,” “foie gras,” “steak-frites,” rouille”…), I read through the intro before I went exploring. And whatdoyaknow. She’s witty! Funny! She admits to her own misgivings and like me questions, “Had I ever really learned to cook? Or was I just reasonably adept at following instructions?” – Questions I constantly ask myself. The idea of this book is “out-of-the-box” both in its concept and how it leaves you thinking. Sections are organized in “flavor categories” like Meaty, Cheesy, Sulfurous, Citrusy, Fruity, Woodland, etc. Flavor combinations are then listed in short paragraph form which could either contain a simple recipe (more guidance, than literal – see below), a witty anecdote, or an amusing aside. Take the commentary on Chocolate and Strawberry for example:

Not all it’s cracked up to be. Strawberry’s heart-like shape and color have seen it unimaginatively match-made with that default love token, chocolate. But doesn’t a strawberry dipped in chocolate just look like a fruit wearing big underpants? And aren’t they the sort of thing corporate raiders feed to call girls in cream-colored hotel rooms? I’d take chocolate and hazelnut over these two any day. I will never feel the same way about Chocolate & Strawberry again. But I’m okay with it.

And then some awesome recipes like the one under Coffee & Orange :

…it calls for 44 coffee beans, no more and no less. Take a large orange and make 44 slits in it. Put a coffee bean in each. It will now look like a medieval weapon or tribal fetish. Put 44 sugar cubes in a jar. Position the orange on top and pour over 2 cups brandy, rum or vodka. Leave it to steep for 44 days, then squeeze the juice out of the orange, mix it back into the alcohol, strain and pour into a sterilized bottle. Alternatively, put it somewhere dark and cool, forget about it completely, find it covered in dust something like 444 days later, try it skeptically, and realize on your second sip that its absolutely delicious without the addition of the juice.

She references The Sopranos in Peanut & Vanilla while arguing the importance of giving someone Fluff when they ask for it.

In Pork & Broccoli, her descriptions could convince even the most staunch broccoli hater to give it another go.

And like I said, this is only two sections in. Definitely a worthy addition to EVERY cook’s (all ranges from beginner to advanced) shelf. And a fabulous gift book.

[Luna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pros:
-It gives you a very rough idea of flavour pairings
- The book is physically appealing
Cons:
- It is completely anecdotal and subjective
- It is not logical
- It is not systematic
- It is not scientific

Conclusion:
I was excited for this book. I am deeply disappointed with it and I feel deceived. Reading from the descriptions on several bookstores, it presents itself to be an "encyclopedia". It is most definitely not. It is written in a very amateur manner that is illogical, vague and imprecise. The 'recipes' are about 2-3 sentences long.
The most horrific thing about this book is that it does NOT explain why the food pairs work or not. It had one job and it failed miserably.
The book is presented as scientific but at best is a pretentious food diary of a someone who every now and then tries something different in a fancy restaurant.

[Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cauliflower & chocolate anyone? This well-written and clearly organized compendium of flavour combinations is treasure trove of inspiration and full of food pairings I had never even dreamed of. It's also surprisingly funny at times. A book I will dip into often.

[Robert Hudder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going to put my notes here. And probably do up a blog post. Needless to say, this is the type of book that I would tend to buy to help me generate ideas.

Coffee + Black Currant
Coffee + Cardamom
Coffee + Orange
Blue Cheese + Pineapple "TGWRT #10"
Hard Cheese + Banana esp. Comte
Hard Cheese + Parsnip (parboil, then flour + parmesan to bake
Mushrooms + Chestnut
Sichuan Eggplant dishes
Potatos and Peanut (gado gado, peanut butter, S+V chips w/ peanuts shaken into the bag)
Potato pizza w/ fresh curds for the kids?
{Is tartar sauce just mayo and relish or do you need that caper kick?}
Onion + kumquat salad after the idea of onion + orange salad?
Egg + Banana - an omelet with a bit of sugar
Avocado Chocolate Mousse
Banana Tiramisu
Pineapple + Avocado
Pineapple + Banana
(Pineapple or mango) + Cabbage (slaw)
Oysters as iodine/seaweed flavour
Saffron + almond
chili pepper + lemon {how about a lemon onion salad w/ habanero oil?}
Nutmeg + Avocado - aphrodosiac
Watermelon soup w/ chocolate
Watermelon + goat cheese
Watermelon + lime + cinnamon
Watermelon + oyster
Watermelon + Pork
Rhubarb + cucumber + salt (arugula, lemon juice, mint)
Rhubarb + juniper (gin)
Rhubarb + saffron
Tomato + Strawberry
{Exchange tomatoes for strawberries in other applications}
Strawberry + Cinnamon
Strawberry + cucumber
Strawberry + Coconut

Auld Spot refers to a breed of pig.
cocoquemada (look up)
Coconut + Lemon
{Infuse coconut milk}
{maple syrup lassi - thin lassi with coconut milk}
rhubarb + mango
white chocolate + cardamom
White chocolate + Pineapple
White Chocolate + Saffron
Claudia Roden - orange cake
mimic yuzu by 1:1 lime + grapefruit juice
Rosemary + chocolate
Sage + liver
Juniper + Cabbage
Juniper (Gin) + Orange
Juniper + Sage {+ pineapple}
{thyme + custard + vanilla}
mint jelly + pb sandwich
Black Currant + Peanut Butter
Black Currant + Peanuts
Coriander Seed + coffee 1 tsp to 6 tbsp coffee before the grind
citronelle ratafia
Vanilla + Tomato
{White Chocolate covered Peanuts}
{what about amchar + cabbage?}

[Sarah Morgan Sandquist · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was unable to make it past the chocolate section. The author's rambling is so incoherent it is indiscernible from bad editing.

A couple of examples: the section called CHOCOLATE AND COCONUT features the author going on about her cigarette addiction. There is no connection. She goes through her addiction journey, childhood memories and the tasting notes of tobacco. I am genuinely unsure if this is a misplaced CHOCOLATE AND TOBACCO entry or if the author is making a connection to the 'addictive' flavor combo. Coconut is tossed in once or twice, enough to make it truly ambiguous.

In CHOCOLATE AND HAZELNUT, the author casually speculates about the plumpness of contemporary duck breasts. Did hazelnut spread used to be called duck breast? The only naming note we're given relates to an Italian folk character.

However, the absolute worst and reason I stopped reading was CHOCOLATE AND STRAWBERRY. Obviously I dont care about individual taste preferences. I'm fine with her decision not to include zucchini, as it seems she doesnt enjoy it. She should have felt comfortable doing the same with chocolate and strawberry. What she does instead, is rant in an ugly manner about how chocolate covered strawberries are the food fed by 'businessmen to call girls in hotel rooms'.

To be honest, if I'm hearing as many second hand memories and grudges about cigarettes and whores, I'd rather be reading a food reference book by Tony Soprano. Or I guess theres the obvious, Anthony Bourdain.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

What’s good together? Anything and this book!

I ran across this book at the new coffee shop in my town, and I was so taken with it that I asked the coffee shop owner if I could borrow it! Yes, I am now asking to take home books I run across at coffee shops. And then I had to buy my own copy.

I’ve told a dozen people who I know love to cook about this book now, and all of them have given me some version of the same stare, a You-Want-Me-to-Read-a-Book-About-Flavor Combinations? look that reminds me of the look a person might have on his face as he fills out the paperwork for taking out a mental illness warrant against you.

But trust me on this. It’s about flavor combinations, yes, and I know you are familiar with lots of these, but the author is odd and snarky and fun, and, most important, she can write about food in a way that will make you look for more of her works, even if it’s a food dictionary or a taste encyclopedia.

I have to share a little so you will get the---uh-hum---"flavor" of this book:

"Chocolate & Strawberry Not all it’s cracked up to be. Strawberry’s heart-like shape and color have seen it unimaginatively match-made with that default love token, chocolate. But doesn’t a strawberry dipped in chocolate just look like a fruit wearing big underpants? And aren’t they the sort of thing corporate raiders feed to call girls in cream-colored hotel rooms?"

"Fungal fraud aside, there’s nothing wrong with synthetic truffle oil, which can work wonders pepping up mashed potato, cauliflower, cabbage or macaroni and cheese, and will certainly give you an idea of what truffle tastes like if you’ve never had the real thing. In the same way that reading the study guide for Anna Karenina, rather than the actual novel, will give you an idea of the book."

"Apple & Cinnamon A classic. The spice graces the sharpness of apple with a sweet, slightly woody warmth. Like the sitar on a Stones track. Similarly, shouldn’t be overdone."

"Mint & Chocolate Hell is a milk-chocolate mint crisp. The kind whose flecks of mouthwash-flavored grit the manufacturers hope we’ll be too drunk, after dinner, to spit back into the foil. Fudgy, saccharine milk chocolate meets sinus-widening menthol: I’ve had more appetizing things collect in my dishwasher filter. Mint with bitter dark chocolate, on the other hand, you can feed me till my teeth ache."

Oh, I could go on and on....

[Mubi · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is my first one-star review. Not just on books, but on anything. I am generally of the opinion that if I don’t have nice things to say about other people’s hard work I might as well not. Sometimes, though, it’s good to warn people.

I’m sure there are people who will get some value out of this book. People who, say, aren’t too clear on what a thesaurus is and so isn’t mislead by the title.

When the attempt at writing such a thing as a flavor thesaurus failed, a reworking of the concept might have saved it. This could have Bern dement and helpful. But somehow that didn’t happen, and instead we get this: A book which isn’t what it says it is, and isn’t nearly good enough to make up for it.

[Graham Hall · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sure there must be some good combinations and foody stuff in here. The style just grates on me - flicked through and read a few of the descriptions then just shuddered and put it down.

In fact, I just noticed the "About Niki Segnit" here and that grates on me as well. Read that, if you're OK then maybe the book is for you.

[mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

yes, technically i have finished reading this, but i feel like it’s going to be on the roster forever. The FLAVOURS. the PAIRINGS. The RECIPES. i love that it’s not just description of flavours, it’s examples, it’s recipes, it’s ideas, it’s tips, tricks, books and restaurants to hit up if you travel. She’s funny, smart and honest.

[Elisabetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Questo libro è pura gioia: lo sfoglio ogni tanto anche solo per il puro piacere di scoprire nuovi abbinamenti e leggere le descrizioni dell’autrice!
Favoloso se, come me, provate piacere anche solo a leggere di cibo, ma utilissimo per lasciarsi ispirare e cercare nuove idee in cucina.

[LeslecturesdeJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un outil pour combiner les saveurs très pratique, avec des associations différentes et surprenantes!

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about food, and has recipes in it, but it’s not a cookbook as one usually thinks of it. The author set out to classify all the possible flavor elements, describe them, and list the foods that contained them. She lists flavors such as roasted, meaty, mustardy, green & grassy, spicy, woodland, fresh fruity, citrusy, floral fruity, marine, and sulfurous- there are a huge number of possible flavors. Some I already knew; a few surprised me- I would have never guessed ginger root went under ‘citrusy’! The recipes are right in the thesaurus, put down as one would tell a friend how to create the dish rather than as a list of ingredients & quantities followed by instructions. The book includes an extensive bibliography, recipe index, ingredient index, and a regular index, so you can find anything easily. I wouldn’t recommend reading it straight through like I did (I was getting a bit restless by the ‘T’s, but what can I say, it was a library book) but rather to keep around for inspiration when faced with an ingredient and no ideas. It’s a fun read, though- it’s like listening to a friend describe what she’s eaten in places and how those things were made.

[Giuliana Barone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, all my food industry friends would just hate me for saying this but I didn't like this book at all. It felt like there was no rhyme or reason for the author's flavor pairings, sometimes using recipes, sometimes personal anecdotes to justify why certain things go together.
Maybe my mistake was attempting to read it like a novel (from cover to cover), instead of just using it for inspiration, all I know is that I will try The Flavor Bible in the future, and hope that one has a more scientific approach to ingredient matching.

[Sylvia Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the Flavor Bible much better.

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

The funniest and most inspiring food writer I've ever come across. This book almost by guarantee makes me want to cook food, just open the book on a random page and start reading, or browsing the pairing sections with some starting point (I have loads of cauliflower and don't know where to take it, or I'm hit by a sudden craving for anchovis and bread and wonder what might go well as a side). The wonderful thing about Segnit is she writes about all kinds of mistakes, ideas that were great in her head but in reality awful, and it just takes cooking down to earth, making it approachable and fun to experiment with. There's something like the "logic to cooking" behind her work, even more so with the companion volume Lateral Cooking. It's a strange time to be alive, when globally less and less people know how to cook their own, having to spend so many of their waking hours doing wage labor, and at the same time the amassed knowledge and creativity in culinary literature is so high.

[Kaia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really interesting book that’s clearly a labor of love! I didn’t think the layout was the most cohesive and some of the listings had way too many irrelevant pop culture references. But I had a nice time using this as kind of a meditative tool to reflect on flavors and I loved her use of descriptors for each ingredient.

[Patricia Chávez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un libro que por si solo es bello.
Una guía de los diferentes mezclas de sabores fuera de lo que creemos es "normal o común " y te invita a seguir explorando un sin fin de ingredientes qué pudiéramos pensar que sería impensable poder convinar.
Se debe considerar qué la autora es de Inglaterra y los sabores son limitados.

[Zora O'Neill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! I've always wanted a book like this, and here it is. Reaches out beyond European culinary traditions, which I especially appreciate. And it's really well written--so many good turns of phrase.

[Kendall Snee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a cool and needed way to look at cooking!! Never seen anything like it! Incredible

[Belén · Rating 1 out of 5]

Una estrella porque no le puedo poner 0.

Esperaba un libro con sentido, que explicase por qué ciertos alimentos combinan con otros hablando de los sabores y, por qué no, quizás algo de ciencia detrás de ello.

Tiene muy buena puntuación y no entiendo porqué. La mitad de entradas son desvaríos de la autora que no explican nada y no sirven de mucho.

Te pongo un ejemplo:

“Chocolate y coco: al igual que los ministerios de sanidad nls advierten de que consumir marihuana puede conducir al uso de drogas más duras, a mi el tabaco dulce me condujo a mi adicción a los cigarros. Con papel de arroz se pueden liar las hebras de coco con sabor a cacao. No pidamos la luna, dije echándole el humo al perro, a lo Bette Davis. A partir de ahí, no hubo más que unas cuantas toses secas y falsas evocando el sabor verdaderamente repelente de los auténticos cigarrillos. <> Si las compañías tabaqueras eran tan avarientas como me habían hecho creer, ¿por qué no aprendían algo de las compañías confiteras y hacían productos irresistibles? No tardé en enterarme de que ya lo habían hecho, pero que no tenían nada que ver con el gusto. Años después, volví de nuevo a la confitería, pero esta vez a comprar chocolate de fantasía con notas de tabaco y humo. Si está buscando un buen pelotazo, pruebe el Tanzanie de pralus (tabaco, melaza y pasas) o su Vanuatu (humo, especias, regaliz). Si prefiere un chocolate con notas de tabaco y coco, pruebe el Mangaro lait 50% de Michael Cluziel, un chocolate con leche que, como su nombre indica, contiene un asombroso 50% de cacao.”

También os dejo la entrada de café y cereza: “Mientras el mundo se preguntaba angustiado quién mató a Laura Palmer en Twin Peaks, de David Linch, yo lo único que quería era escabullirme para reunirme com el agente Cooper en el restaurante Doble R para tomar un buen café y una porción de pastel de cereza”.


No creo que se merezca el nombre de enciclopedia de sabores ni que sirva de mucho. No me he tenido que pensar mucho el devolverlo.

[Dominika · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm obviously a bit of a gourmand and attempt to push myself with my creations, not only by utilizing different techniques but also by being more adventurous with my flavors. This book is more of what I hoped the Flavor Bible would be: providing the "why" and "how" to creating unique flavor combinations in addition to the "what". While the food list is not as detailed, there is a description of why the pairing works and the different recipes and cultures that use it. Both books have their place on some passionate epicurean's shelf: The Flavor Bible is a bit better for planing menus and drink pairings while the Flavor Thesaurus provides more novel ideas. The style is somewhat bland, but the substance makes this a joy to read.

[Stella Parks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing exploration of flavors and their relationship to each other and ourselves. Despite being called a thesaurus, this isn't some sort of dry textbook or manual, but rather a visceral, poetic, and sometimes emotional profile of flavor pairings, both classic and modern. It's not too heavy on science, but whenever applicable you will find little gems explaining the nature of essential oils or the the chemical similarities between complementary flavors and such.

[rafal federowicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

outstanding!
the must for those who want to cook instead of blindly copying formulas from cookbooks.
foundation to make your creativity awaken!!!

for those who don’t speak english and come from poland... there has been polish translation available for a few weeks now :-)

now in polish: ;-)
zajebista książka która uczy kreatywności w gotowaniu. od kilku tygodni dostępna również po polsku!

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

The inferior version of The Flavor Bible. Organization was odd, complete lack of pictures.

[Frog42 · Rating 1 out of 5]

20 - I fail to see the point of the book. A section titled "Onion and Mint" poorly describes an 80's bubblegum commercial with the most tenuous of connections. There is no "thesaurus" aspect here, just a list of mostly obvious pairings of ingredients coupled with enough anecdotal gibberish to fill the word count. I refuse to believe an editor read this.

[Adrienne Michetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this a few years ago but have been prompted to add it now. This book is a staple reference book in my home. It's inspiration as well as practical. It is where I go when I am stuck in a cooking rut or wondering what goes with X. Highly highly recommend.

[HadiDee]

I like the theory and, for an experienced cook, it's a lovely way to think about creating and making new dishes. What let's it down is something seemingly mundane and pragmatic - it typeset in font 8 or 9, which makes it very hard read.

[Hélène Vandorpe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Een praktisch kookboek voor de avonturiers die zich weleens overmoedig in kookblunders storten. Niet alleen de smaakcombinaties zelf, maar ook de uitleg en geestige anekdotes in dit boekje smaken zoals het moet: naar meer!