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.
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).
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.