The Flavor Thesaurus

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Here’s a lovely bit of writing from a book called The Flavor Thesaurus, a compendium of pairings, recipes, and ideas for the creative cook. It’s by Nikki Segnet, and she writes about different flavor combinations that you might never have thought of, but she writes about them in such a beautiful way.

And under Blackberry, she writes, shop-bought or cultivated blackberries, tall as beehive hairdos, bright as spit and polished toe caps, may sometimes be pleasantly sweet, but they never, ever have the countervailing intensity of sharpness, mustiness, and deep spice that comes of growing in the wild.

And then she goes on to talk about the different flavors that you might pick up in that, like rose, mint, cedar, and clove. Some even have a shimmer of tropical fruit.

And then she writes, come August, when there should be plenty to choose from, treat the hedgerows like free sample ladies. And once you’ve found a juicy, full-flavored strain, denude the bush until your ice cream carton is full.

Black, shiny fruit won’t be as sweet as those that have reached the matte blue-black of full ripeness, but then again, they’re less likely, having retained their bulbous resistance, to dissolve in your grasp like a teenager’s handshake.

You know what I’m talking about, Grant.

I do.

I think I shared this with you. Somebody once described a handshake like that as a handshake like a dead bird.

Oh, that’s really good.

And the hedgerow blackberries, I know it. And they’re a little dusty and you don’t mind.

And they’re so good.

They’re so good.

Oh, they’re so good.

Late August in Missouri, the blackberries and the hedgerows.

Oh, and you’re sick with them. You’ve eaten so many.

And the next day you have more.

Well, that book again is called The Flavor Thesaurus and it’s by Nikki Signet. And it’s just got gorgeous writing about all these different flavors.

I mean, even if you never cook anything in the kitchen, this is really delicious reading.

And we’ll share that wonderful book on our website at waywordradio.org.