Power of Aroma

We all know that aroma is a huge part of flavor. I had a really cool reminder of that the other day that I just remembered. I was making some homemade mouthwash with peppermint extract, which is pretty intense and the fumes filled up my nasal cavity. Shortly after I ate a cracker that is strongly flavored with spices. The cracker tasted exactly like peppermint the whole way through, even after chewing.
Also, while on the subject of flavor trickery last night I made moussaka with ground turkey instead of lamb. When making the meat sauce part I added extra garlic, rosemary, and mint: all flavors associated with lamb that are not usually in moussaka except the garlic. I also added a couple TB of olive oil near the end for fatty mouth feel and it totally tasted like lamb. It makes me wonder if a very small amount of caraway would accentuate rye in a beer since caraway seeds are so closely associated with rye bread. (Many think the taste of caraway is what rye tastes like).

That is an interesting point and makes a lot of sense. It would be an interesting experiment trying that with rye beer. Maybe even do a split batch with the caraway in one half and none in the other.

I have put caraway in rye beers, but always enter it into SHV category.  It works really well. 
I served mini Reuben sandwiches once with a dry-carawayed pilsner.  That was a great beer and food match up.  Instead of having the caraway seed on the bread, it was in the beer.

Sounds great. Or I could put corned beef and sauerkraut in my next rye beer. :wink:

That’s not too far off the guy who was posting here last year on how to make a sandwich flavored beer along the lines of a reuben (or something similar).    :wink:

Yes, I remember. He wanted to use mustard in it and everyone but him as I recall thought that would be horrible. I cannot stress enough that I was kidding about the corned beef and sauerkraut.

I know, just made me think of it.  You don’t strike me as somebody who wants to pour out 5 gallons of undrinkable beer.  ;D