What types of flavors and fragrances are there? What are the chemical components?

Flavor substances added to improve the flavor of food are called edible flavors, or edible flavors for short. In addition to the flavors directly used in food, other flavors such as toothpaste flavors, tobacco flavors, oral cleaners, internal medicine flavors, etc., can also be regarded as edible flavors in a broad sense.

Edible flavors, which are made up of various edible flavors and permitted additives, are food additives used to enhance the flavor of food.

1. Edible spices

From the chemical structure point of view, the molecular weights of various fragrance components are relatively low, and the volatility and water solubility are quite different. They usually have some characteristic functional group. Take compounds with two carbon atoms as an example: ethane, odorless; ethanol, wine aroma; acetaldehyde, spicy; acetic acid, vinegar aroma; ethanethiol, garlic odor; dimethyl ether, ether aroma; dimethyl sulfide , tomato or vegetable fragrant. In addition, esters such as ethyl acetate are fruity, and methylthiopropionaldehyde is potato, cheese or meaty.

(1) Natural flavors.

There are many varieties of spices in our country. Commonly used natural spices are star anise, fennel, prickly ash, ginger, pepper, mint, orange peel, clove, osmanthus, rose, nutmeg and cinnamon. They can not only taste and impart fragrance, but also have bactericidal functions (such as garlic being heated or under the action of enzymes in the digestive organs to generate allicin or propylene sulfinic acid, which has strong bactericidal power), and also contain a variety of vitamins (such as onions containing high amounts of B vitamins). Dry seasonings such as ginger powder, onion puree, pepper powder, and chili noodles are available in the market.
Onion, ginger, garlic, and pepper are known as the "Four Gentlemen" of seasoning. They can not only season, but also sterilize and remove mold, which is of great benefit to human health. But how to put it in cooking to enhance the taste and be more effective is a matter of knowledge.

Put more pepper on meat. When roasting meat, it is advisable to put more pepper, and more roast beef, mutton, and dog meat should be added. Pepper has a warming effect and can also detoxify.

Fish focus on putting more ginger. The fishy smell is big, the nature is cold, and improper eating will cause vomiting. Ginger can not only ease the coldness of fish, but also relieve the fishy smell. Put more ginger when doing it, it can help digestion.

Shellfish focus more on onions. Green onions can not only relieve the coldness of shellfish (such as snails, mussels, crabs, etc.), but also resist allergies. Many people will have allergic cough and abdominal pain after eating shellfish. When cooking, you should add more onions to avoid allergic reactions. Poultry meat focuses more on garlic. Garlic can enhance the flavor. When cooking chicken, duck, and goose, it is advisable to add more garlic to make the meat more fragrant and delicious, and it will not cause diarrhea due to indigestion.
(2) Synthetic fragrances.
Mainly: vanillin, with the unique aroma of vanilla beans; benzaldehyde, also known as artificial bitter almond oil, with the special aroma of bitter almond; citral, with strong lemon aroma, colorless or yellow liquid; c- Amyl cinnamaldehyde, a yellow liquid, similar to the fragrance of Riley; Isoamyl acetate, known as banana water; Benzyl acetate, for the fragrance of jasmine; Ethyl propionate, with the fragrance of pineapple; Isoamyl isovalerate, with the fragrance of apple ; Maltol, also known as maltol, is a yellowish needle crystal or powder with a burnt sweet aroma. Although its own aroma is not strong, it has the function of relaxing and improving the aroma of other spices. It is often used as a flavor enhancer or a fixative.

2. Edible flavors

Edible flavors refer to the flavors of natural foods, and use natural and natural equivalent flavors and synthetic flavors to carefully prepare various flavors with natural flavors. Including fruit water and oil quality, milk, poultry, meat, vegetables, nuts, preserves, emulsification and alcohol and other flavors, suitable for beverages, biscuits, cakes, frozen food, candy, seasoning raw materials, dairy products, canned food, wine and other foods.

It is divided into water-soluble and oil-soluble. Among them, the essence based on fragrant ketone, geraniol and geranyl formate is the most important.

Since fragrance is a specialized technology, there are many types of fragrance, mainly two types: floral type, such as rose, jasmine, orchid, sweet-scented osmanthus, musk, etc., imitating the fragrance of various famous flowers in nature; imaginary type, such as fragrance , Fruit, Fangfang (orchid type), Dongfang, Feifei (grass-scented type), Cologne (citrus-scented type) and Mejiajing, etc., that is, on the basis of fragrance, use a suitable name to strengthen the psychological effect.

3. Seasoning

There are mainly wine (which can dissolve and volatilize trimethylamine in the fish body, thereby removing fishy smell), vinegar (sterilization, dissolving fishbone and bone, removing fishy smell, removing alkali, increasing gastric acid), soy sauce (flavoring agent and coloring agent) Wait.

4. Accessories

Excipients generally refer to solid or liquid finished products that are not directly eaten alone, but can be used to enhance the taste of meals, and are usually cooked. Mainly include: pepper salt, pepper oil, chili oil, onion ginger oil, clear soup, milk soup, broth, various sauces.

To sum up, edible flavor is the abbreviation of food flavor, which refers to the substance that can be used to prepare edible flavor and enhance the flavor of food. Food flavors are generally formulated into food flavors and then used for food flavoring, and some food flavors can also be directly used for food flavoring. The purpose of using food flavors and essences in food is to produce, improve or enhance the flavor of food.