Describing Foods - A Masterlist
As a broke university student, I love reading about food. It’s almost like eating a real meal myself <3.
I get a little angry when characters are eating a meal and I barely get to experience it with them. In that, I mean I don’t just want to know what it is, but what it’s like to eat that food—how it tastes, smells, sounds, and feels. Is a perfect croissant still a perfect croissant without the crack of the exterior, the airiness of the pastry inside, the smell of yeast?
Probably not. When writing about a dish, the smell, texture, technique, taste, and how it looks are all important to painting the experience, so here’s some words to use when describing a meal:
Taste:
Acidic: Sharp tasting. Often used to describe tart or sour foods as well.
Aftertaste: A different taste that remains in the mouth after eating something
Bitter: Tart, sharp, and sometimes harsh flavour.
Bittersweet: Less harsh than bitterness. Tartness + sweetness.
Bland: Has no significant flavor or texture
Briny: Just means salty. Often describes pickled foods.
Citrusy: Bright flavour like… well citrus fruits—oranges, lemons, limes, etc.
Cooling: Mimics that cooling feel—like mint.
Earthy: Reminiscent of soil. Can be used to describe wines, root vegetables, and mushrooms.
Fiery: Another word for spicy.
Fresh: Light and crisp—describes produce or herbs.
Fruity: Sweet and reminiscent of fruit.
Full-bodied: Rich and ‘feels heavy’ in your mouth. Can describe wines or soups.
Herbal: Bright, fresh, sometimes earthy from the presence of herbs
Honeyed: Sweet or candied taste like honey.
Nutty: Taste similar to the flavors of nuts. Often used to describe certain cheeses.
Rich: Full, heavy flavour. Often dishes that contain cream taste rich.
Robust: Rich + Earthy. Used for lots of wines or aged liquor.
Savory: Describes meaty, earthy dishes and soups.
Sharp: Harsh, bitter, or tart taste. Used to describe acidic foods.
Smoky: Reminiscent of the smell of smoke.
Sour: Biting, tangy, tart flavor.
Spicy: Burning taste.
Sweet: Sugary.
Tangy: Tart, biting taste—feels tingly
Tart: Sharp, bitter, or sour flavour. Used to describe acidic foods.
Woody: Earthy, sometimes nutty taste. Describes some coffees or cheeses.
Yeasty: Earthy taste reminiscent of yeast. Describes beer and bread.
Zesty: Fresh, vivid, or invigorating flavour.
Sound/Texture:
Sound has a lot to do with texture, so I've combined them for this section!
Airy: Light, pillowy texture (think inside of croissant)
Brittle: Hard but easy to break
Bubbly: Usually during heating, when bubbles rise to the surface—low sound.
Buttery: Smooth, creamy texture (think certain pasta sauces)
Chewy: Food that needs to be chewed thoroughly. Can be light and bouncy (chewy bread) or heavy (steak) and sticky (candy)
Creamy: A smooth and rich texture, comes from dairy.
Crispy: Light texture with slight crunch.
Crumbly: Food with loose structure that falls apart into crumbs.
Crunchy: Firm, crisp texture with a sharp, loud noise.
Crusty (behave): Food with a hard outer layer and soft interior (many loaves and breads)
Delicate: Light and fine, feels like it can come apart easily.
Doughy: Soft and heavy, usually pale colouring.
Fizzy: Usually liquids—a hissing sound, feels like ‘static’
Flaky: Light, characterized by layers that come apart during eating.
Fluffy: light and airy.
Frothy/Foamy: Airy bubbles, usually in a drink like a latte.
Gamey: Usually refers to meats when they’re very “meaty”
Gooey: Viscous, sometimes sticky texture from moisture in a dense/solid food.
Hearty: Firm, robust texture.
Juicy: Tender and succulent texture from liquid in a solid food (steak)
Molten: Hot, gooey
Oily: Slick, heavy, lingers on the tongue.
Silky: Fine, smooth texture that feels sleek.
Smooth: Texture free of grit, lumps, or edges.
Snap: A quick, sharp, crackling sound when broken.
Squelch: A soft sucking sound when pressure is applied. Somewhat gross.
Sticky: Gluiness in the mouth.
Succulent: Tender and juicy
Tender: Soft and easy to break down
Velvety: Smooth and rich
Smell:
Acrid: Strong, bitter, unpleasant
Comforting: pleasant, probably calls back to a nice memory
Damp: Wet smelling—probably a bit earthy
Delicate: subtle, faint, not overpowering
Earthy: reminiscent of soil
Fetid: Caused by decay—unpleasant
Fishy: reminiscent of fish
Floral/flowery: Reminiscent of flowers
Fragrant: Sweet or pleasing
Fresh: Cool, crisp, refreshing—produce, probably not cooked
Funky: Something’s gone off
Heady: Strong smell, pungent, rich
Musty: Not fresh
Perfumed: Pleasant, reminiscent of something (can be perfumed with citrus, say)
Piquant: stinging, pungent—tickles the nose
Powerful: strong
Rancid: Definitely gone off, decomposing
Ripe: Strong, usually unpleasant smell
Savory: spicy, salty, no elements of sweetness
Sour: has gone off
Spicy: Sharp, tingles the nose
Tangy: Strong and bitter but in a good way
Tart: Sharp
Woody: earthy smell, reminiscent of wood
Sight:
Usually texture gives us a really good picture of what a food looks like, so here’s some non-texture sight additions:
Blistered: Bumpy exterior.
Caramelized: Usually golden brown
Cloudy: Splotched. Almost see through if not for a slight white or grey mist.
Colourful: Bright and vibrant
Glassy: Resembling glass
Glossy: Smooth, shiny
Marbled: Two colours intertwined
Opaque: Not transparent. Can’t see through.
Ripe: Colourful (can be to a fault). Nearing the end of its edible state.
Scaly: Covered in scales, fish.
Shiny: Appears wet or glossy
Sparkling: Glimmers under the light
Stuffed: An ingredient placed inside a larger part with no additional space.
Translucent: Allows light through
Vibrant: Striking, bright
Food Prep:
How the food is prepared gives it these other attributes. If your character is familiar with cooking (or is the cook themselves!) they may describe food this way.
Baked: Cooked in an oven. Results in browned or crispy outer layer.
Blackened: When food is dipped in butter and coated with spices then cooked in a hot pan—spices darken, making it appear ‘blackened’
Blanched: Food scalded in boiling water and moved to cold water so it stops cooking. Texture comes out soft.
Braised: Food that is briefly fried in fat and then stewed in a pot. Results in seared, crispy exterior with a tender interior.
Breaded: Coated with breadcrumbs/batter then baked or fried so it turns crispy
Broiled: Food cooked with intense radiant heat in an oven or on the grill. Results in a darkened appearance and crispy texture.
Caramelized: Food slow-cooked until it’s browned, nutty, and has a bit of sweetness.
Charred: Grilled, roasted, or broiled and gains a blackened exterior and smoky flavor.
Fermented: Food that’s sat with bacteria, yeast, or another microorganism and has produced acids, alcohols, or gases. Results in a biting, pungent flavor. (Kimchi is fermented)
Fried: Food cooked by submerging in hot oil. Creates crispy, crunchy texture and golden colour.
Glazed: Food with a coating brushed onto its surface. Appears glossy with a thin, flavorful, and crisp outer layer.
Infused: Food steeped in liquid with another ingredient so it carries the essence of that ingredient. Used with herbs usually.
Marinated: Usually meat soaked in liquid containing flavourful herbs, spices, vinegar, or oil.
Poached: Food cooked in near boiling water. Results in tender, moist texture.
Roasted: Food cooked with dry heat in an oven or over the fire. Results in browned exterior and crisp coating.
Sautéed: Food cooked quickly in small amount of fat.
Seared: Food cooked in small amount of fat until caramelized. Finished by roasting or grilling. Results in crisp exterior and tender interior.
Smoked: Food exposed to smoke from smoldering wood for a long time. Results in that distinctive smoky flavor.
Whipped: Food beaten to incorporate air. Light and fluffy.
What did I miss?
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If you have celiac or otherwise can't eat wheat, btw, and you like bread, I highly recommend investing in a breadmaker. Even the best store-bought gluten-free bread does not hold a candle to the stuff that comes out of our breadmaker, and it's cheaper per slice even when we buy bread mix in single-loaf bags.
This is our breadmaker. Evie got it on sale, but it is an investment. I'm not going to pretend it isn't a chunk of change up front. There are cheaper ones, but the reason I like this one and think it's worth the money:
It has two smaller paddles, where our older bread maker that my mom got us and got destroyed by getting construction dust in it had one big paddle in the middle. This leaves a big hole in the middle of the finished loaf, which makes the bread much less useful for, like, sandwiches.
Zojirushi is not as well-known a brand in the US, but it's a Brand Name in Japan for good reason. Evie's had our Zojirushi rice cooker for over a decade & we had to replace the inner bowl once bc someone used metal utensils in it and scratched the non-stick coating. We expect to use this machine for at least a decade.
You can program your own cycles, which we found really useful. Evie built a custom cycle that removed the punch-down sections (gluten-free bread tends not to rise as much) and that made our perfect loaf.
A lot of bread machines produce very tall, square loaves, which are awkward to slice, store, and make sandwiches with. This produces loaves that make good sandwiches and toast, and the French toast slices don't crowd the pan.
The top heating element on this gives a really amazingly browned top crust that we definitely didn't get on our old machine.
It's so pretty.
So how is it cheaper in the long run if the machine costs $300+? A little like this:
We use Pamela's Bread Mix bc it's really consistent and easy - you need the bread mix, water, yeast, 3 egg whites, and oil. (We use avocado oil and find it best and most consistent, but regular vegetable oil works!) We buy Pamela's in bulk, and without any subscription discounts or whatever, the $48 pack of 3 bags makes about 11.5 loaves. With the cost of yeast and eggs and stuff, it ends up costing about $4.50 a loaf. (If you buy your yeast in larger bags & store it in an airtight container, you can create less waste and it's also cheaper.)
By comparison, a loaf of Franz GF Bread costs $7-8, and Canyon Bakehouse usually runs about the same.
However, that's not an apples to apples comparison because the Franz loaf is an 18 oz. loaf, whereas our breadmaker makes a 2 lb. loaf. Assuming even the lower-end cost for getting a Franz loaf at the store, an equivalent amount of bread would cost $12.42, and it's not nearly as good.
(Yes, gluten-free bread is fucking expensive. That's part of why I'm writing this post in the first place.)
Anyway, assuming you eat 2 lbs. of bread a week in your house - a breadmaker loaf, basically, to make the math simple - you'll end up spending $7.92 less on bread every week. That means that even at the most expensive cost for the Zojirushi, if you buy it at its highest price (don't do that! wait for a sale!) it'll take 50 weeks - about a year - before the breadmaker pays for itself. If you manage to get it on a 25% off sale (which we did), it pays for itself in about 9 months.
Nine months, I must stress, in which you are eating much more delicious bread.
We tend to go through a couple of loaves a week because toast, sandwiches, and melts are great food for people with low spoons.
Evie and I perfected the Pamela's mix recipe for this particular machine - I'll get it typed up when I'm downstairs next, along with the quasi-babka recipe. (Really, it's like a marble cake and babka and bread had a baby, and it's a family favorite.)
Bread good. The end.
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