Garlic

[kavaris]

@Elliott Alright, i ended up buying this: It was a last second diversion, and funny because, we want from tlkin bout garlic, to fish sauce, To me sayin , 'Oh that dark sugar looks good (its xtra extra extra dark, but it might give off more like a graham cracker thing... or maybe thats wat ive been missing, i dont know yet...)

p.s. the way i describe it in my head, is like choc bean and chicken soup, but i didnt wanna say the word chicken cause theres no chicken flavor im tasting, nor any bouillon or the other stuff thats like bouillon. Its jus like a sweet bean from another planet met a chicken soup for the soul, but w/ a slight fish 🐟

Edited Monday at 09:32 PM by kavaris

[kavaris]

I feel like i still wanna try something in the bean department. Anyone try this douchi before?

[Bjorn K Holmstrom]

I've only tried japanese fermented beans, natto. Was peculiar for sure.

[kavaris]

37 minutes ago, Bjorn K Holmstrom said:

I've only tried japanese fermented beans, natto. Was peculiar for sure.

oooo okay. That helps alot.

I believe, atleast a large part of me now belirve its soy beans that i need, or atleast im over half percent sure that theres a soy bean flavor out there that im chasing ~ whereas, things like fermented beans, chinese black beans, etc, thats prolly a totally diff story (i dont even like beans outside of soy beans usually)

Today i was experimenting w/ one of these first things i ever bought called Kimlan soy paste, And, within said experiment i tasted something that, to me, reminded me of wat im now calling "rich soybean". Granted i had mixed several things together, to try to really accentuate the appealing side to it, nevertheless, for sure, i feel that its more of like, finding "the magical soy bean" sauce.... Alongside probably any oyster sauce... ive tried many, and it turns out, or atleast i now belirve, its really the soybean that i really desire. What that means, i dont kniw, but i feel thats what im lead to after 10+ years of experimenting - Not that i have lots of money to keep trying one thing after another, but i think thats what it comes down to...

There is also things like soy protein powder, but iuno like, how diff that would be from cornstarch and things like this. I mean, apart of me just wants to take a bunch of soybeans and grind em down, like... Okay, lol, srry, thats all.

Edited Wednesday at 03:56 PM by kavaris

[kavaris]

Tamari was on sale for like 2 or 3 dollars, so i took it as a sign, i said fk it, lemme see what its about... I just made chicken, prepping pan, tiny amt o water (dont care if its thick or not, jus goin for flavor flave) simmer w/ a little brown sugar, avocado oil, couple pours of the slightly less~intense garlic mix, (garluc, vinegar, oil, kimlan, touch of cornstarch -mix, cause i said fk it, etc), the chicken,, Tamari (a little), Oyster sauce (doesnt matter which brand, as itll be buried), etc, and BLAM... was that it?

No not quite, i mean... i liked the tamari... it tastes like... well it tastes like really good soy sauce. But its got a touch of what kimlan has, but just a touch, like, i mean... heck, i dont know, and i think ill have to hold my hat up and resign now.

Dont get me wrong, like i said, tamari is good, its jus somehow wasnt enough soybean or something, like... wrap your head around it, i jus dont know atm... its beyond me.

Edited Wednesday at 10:38 PM by kavaris

[kavaris]

Okay last thought on this, cause i just so happened to find something i never heard of, its called O'LONG Premium Black Bean Soy Sauce 黑龍 特級春蘭黑豆蔭油(膏）As... ... I had never heard of this, and i sortve like the stats/ingredients. i tried to get Ai to do a deep search to see how long the company (and others like it) have been around, as i believe theyre claiming theyve been makin' sauce for 60+ years, so this is what im gonna try next... but on the off chance any of yous have already tried it (not that i expect anyone to, i literally have never heard of this product in my life) then do let me know, before i make said purchase. You can also ask me bout things, as ive tried quite a few soy things in past.

Or before i do anything, i was thinking maybe i just want regular beans, so call me crazy but i feel like i wanna try, first, buying regular canned black beans from the food store  and mush em up and try to get it to be like a saucable paste, to see what they taste like ~ before i try anything else. It maynot be what i want, but hey, ya never know. p.s. i dont wamt too much of a smoky flavor-node, so thats another wrinkle in this story, its gotta be more bean than smoky.

Scientific study regarding smoky flavor in soy sauce vs. black bean (...) ~ Food science identifies 4-ethylguaiacol as a key flavor component of soy sauce, with a smoky, bacon-like, clove-like profile. A study of premium soy sauces found one with a strong smoky aroma due to its variety of phenolic and ketone compound.

Smoky in douchi — A 2024 Food Chemistry: X study compared three Chinese douchi types (Yangjiang, Pingjiang, Liuyang). Consumers favored "Sauce-like," "Smoky," "Nutty," "Roast," "Caramel," and "Flower" notes. Omission experiments showed that guaiacol was the key aroma compound for Liuyang douchi. Guaiacol is the same phenol family as 4-ethylguaiacol in soy sauce. The other two types were driven by different compounds: benzene acetaldehyde, dimethyl trisulfide, 2-acetyl pyrrole, and a pyrazine. So "smoky" in douchi is sometimes real smoke chemistry and sometimes not, depending on the type.

The "beany" note is a separate, measurable thing. A 2021 study of Liuyang douchi tracked aroma through fermentation. It found that hexanol, hexanal and propanoic acid marked the unfermented black beans and contributed beany and grassy odors. Mushroom notes came from 1-octen-3-ol and 3-octanone, and the mature douchi gained cocoa, fruity and nutty aromas from esters and pyrazines. The same study found that phenols accumulate during fermentation.

Take that study w/ a grain of salt as im not 100% convinced i even understand it.

Edited 18 hours ago by kavaris

[kavaris]

I discovered some weird scientific reaction thing w/ garlic, specifically that batch i had in a jar w/ - cornstarch, vinegar - and a couple other things ~ that is, when you dump out all the smelly garlic liquid, in its marinated form now, and then choose/pick out a couple of the small chopped garlic pieces ~ when you put them in the <target> sauce, for some weird reason,  the whole entire sauce thickens / transforms, as if you had put cornstarch in the sauce (granted, the garlic mix had cornstarch in it, so i guess garlic absorbed the cornstarch maybe? i dont know ..) i literally picked out 4 tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny pieces've garlic and placed them into the sauce, and it was like a chemical reaction, but in regards to thickening... and it was only heating for like, 30 secs, if that? I mean, i dont even really get it to be honest... I still dont have a significant *bean* flavor, but thats atleast interesting.

Edited 1 hour ago by kavaris