Pairing basics

This post is going to focus on some of the simple guidelines for food and wine pairing. Similar concepts can be used for beer but there are much less official rules for beer pairing. I will go more in-depth in the future but today will just go over the most basics things to know to create a successful pairing.

In food and wine pairing there are 13 guild lines which help you determine how to pair a food with a wine, or vice a versa. The most important for a basic pairing are

• The food sweetness level should be less than or equal to the wine sweetness level.
• The food acidity should be less than or equal to the wine acidity level.

Basically you want the wine to have the more dominate trait so it does not become muted and over powered by the food.

You also need to decide if your pairing will be based on contrast, similarity or neutrality.

• Contrast would be a sweet port wine with a salty blue cheese. The sweet and salty will be playing off of each other and helping balance each other.

• Similarity would be a pinot noir with a mushroom risotto. Both have earthy equalities, this is also known as a bridge ingredient.A bridge ingredient is a flavor in the wine and a ingredient in the food.
  

• Neutrality would be a young dry white wine with a simple salad. They go together and it is refreshing but there is no wow factor.

And always, when in doubt pair with bubbles!

From this post on I will try to post a tip of the day on days I do not post a full blog post.