Primary ingredients, catalogued by what they do to your tongue. Each entry holds origin, peak window, sensory profile, the cuisines that lean on it, and the flavor compounds responsible for the result.
1
specimens · n
2
subtypes & varieties
7
sensory axes
7
categories
§ 01 — Specimen in focus
The specimen of the month.
Capsicum annuum · fermented
Plate I. · Capsicum annuum · fermented┣━━ 10 mm ━━┫
GjUmami
Gochujang.
Capsicum annuum · fermented
Korean fermented chili paste — deep, savoury, sweet heat. A little goes a long way.
What the atlas is for, how it's organised, and why I bothered.
A standing catalogue of every ingredient I keep in my pantry, scored against six sensory axes (acid, fat, bitter, sweet, aromatic, umami) plus a mineral axis. Each specimen carries provenance, peak season, the cuisines it lives in, and — where it matters — the specific brands worth buying.
Two axes. Sensory category (acid, fat, bitter, sweet, aromatic, umami, mineral) describes what the ingredient does on the tongue. Kind (primitive, pressed, spice, dairy, cured, ferment, condiment, mineral) describes what kind of thing it is. Sriracha is aromatic on the sensory axis and a condiment on the kind axis. Lemon is acid + primitive. The two together pin most ingredients to a recognisable corner of the kitchen.
Acid sharpens and lifts. Fat carries flavor. Bitter pulls focus. Sweet rounds and anchors. Aromatic lifts before you taste it. Umami adds weight and savouriness. Every ingredient scores 0–10 on each, mean of three tastings against a reference. The primary axis is the one a cook would name first; the secondary axes describe the texture of the experience.
Because they belong in the same conversation. A modern home pantry holds composed condiments alongside single-ingredient primitives; tagging them on the same axes makes them comparable. The kind field flags which is which, so you can filter for one or the other.
By tasting, mostly. I keep three to six commercial versions of most pantry workhorses and rotate through them; the ones that have stayed for a year or more get listed. Where a category has a clear floor (Kikkoman, Heinz, Diamond Crystal) I name it; where there's a meaningful ceiling (Yamaroku, ABTM 25 yr, Échiré) I name that too.
Yes. Email a one-line note about what it is, what it does to your tongue, and one brand worth buying. The catalogue grows by reader correspondence as much as by my own shopping.
Plate I. · Capsicum annuum · fermented