General Principles for Preparing Gourmet Fare
As mentioned on The Gourmet-O-Matic tm home page, the difference between a "regular" meal and epicurean fare can be remarkably small, albeit creative.The Gourmet-O-Matic tm accomplishes these changes by using a system of ingredient substitutions.
As examples:
If you want to depart from the common salad of iceberg lettuce and venture into something different, use The Gourmet-O-Matic tm Salad Greens Substitution Guide to create a new one. Perhaps an arugula-watercress salad will fit the bill, with or without sunflower seeds and mandarin orange slices.
Tired of your everyday broiled poultry dish? Escape from your usual spices and use The Gourmet-O-Matic tm Spice Blends Guide. There you will find a spice chart with combinations that can give your protein Creole, Jamaican, Indian, Middle Eastern flairs - and others.
Want a new marinade? After reading the Rules for Marinades, go to The Gourmet-O-Matic tm pH of Common Beverages Substitution Guide and have some fun. Try carbonated beverages, beer and other acidic fluids in place of ordinary white vinegar.
In the mood for a creamier dressing or more crunch? The Gourmet-O-Matic tm Food Textures Guide will offer suggestions.
See what The Gourmet-O-Matic tm is getting at? Sure you do. Now read about The Gourmet-O-Matic tm, then go and have some fun!
The FitnessMed tm Guide To Healthy Eating contains recipes for entrees, side dishes, sauces, spices and marinades. It also instructs on the different cooking methods and explains standard serving sizes for entrees and side dishes and how to calculate your caloric needs based on your current and desired weights.
About The Science of Experiencing Food
I have "hidden" this part down here so those of you uninterested in the science behind The Gourmet-O-Matic tm can avoid it.
This will be simple stuff and I think that if you read it you will be rewarded with a better understanding of how to easily create gourmet meals and expand on what you will learn at The Gourmet-O-Matic tm website.
It is universally acknowledged that humans possess anatomical structures (taste buds) capable of sensing four basic tastes - bitter, salty, sour and sweet. Some believe there is a fifth taste sensation called umami. If it really exists, it is characterized as a subtle taste found in proteins and not of great concern to us in the overall scheme of creating gourmet fare.
The Gourmet-O-Matic tm manipulates three of the four tastes - sour, sweet and salty.
Sour taste comes from the acid in foods, either naturally occurring or added. A good example of an added acid is vinegar. An example of a naturally acidic food is the lemon.
Sweet can also come from natural and other sources. Natural sources of sweet include cane sugar and honey. Other sources include aspartame and sucralose.
The Gourmet-O-Matic tm operates mostly by manipulating these first two tastes in foods.
The Gourmet-O-Matic tm deals with the third taste, salt, carefully. There are data to suggest that too much salt in the diet can cause health problems. Since a goal of The Gourmet-O-Matic tm is to help in creating meals that are flavorful, unique and healthy, The Gourmet-O-Matic tm approaches salt conservatively and with respect.
Bitter is avoided by The Gourmet-O-Matic tm since it is usually an unpleasant taste. There is a reason for this unpleasantness. Harmful and toxic substances that occur in nature tend to taste bitter. By being unpleasant, the human knows not to eat the potentially harmful, toxic substance. This protects us from hurt. Since it is unpleasant, why tarry on creating foods with a bitter taste? The Gourmet-O-Matic tm doesn't.
Clearly, there is more to experiencing food than taste.
Factors such as aroma, texture, temperature and appearance affect how we perceive the foods we eat (or reject).
The Gourmet-O-Matic tm offers some guidance to these other factors, however, the main thrust of The Gourmet-O-Matic tm is the creation of gourmet fare by manipulating ingredients for taste - specifically sweet and sour (acid).
The FitnessMed tm Guide To Healthy Eating contains recipes for entrees, side dishes, sauces, spices and marinades. It also instructs on the different cooking methods and explains standard serving sizes for entrees and side dishes and how to calculate your caloric needs based on your current and desired weights.The strategies used by The Gourmet-O-Matic tm can be found in Dr. Applebaum's meal strategy guide, The FitnessMed tm Guide To Healthy Eating. That book contains recipes for over 1 trillion (yes, with a "T") meal combinations.
All of Dr. Applebaum's books can be found here.