I try every different ingredient I haven't come across before and I try the food at every stage of its making. I want to taste what is being added and what it adds to the overall dish / food. So trying everything is a good mantra to have and it is more fun than just watching food get prepared and tasting the final product.
It is a lot more fun when in an old kitchen and ingredients are home grown or homemade. You never know what an anonymous looking jar contains or can ever guess the potential within. My experience is, the more dusty the container, the better the contents. It is also my experience that it is not always the case. Like this old thing.
I saw this lying amongst everything else brought out for the meal and immediately went for it. Lucky for me there wasn't much left in the tin, otherwise I would have chewed on a few more pinches of it trying to decipher what it was. It tasted like burnt citrus - a bit bitter, a bit lemony and had a chewy texture to it. I decided to wait and see when it was added to ask what it is.
But end came the dish, "Fertig!" (Ready!) was announced and the contents of the tin was not used. So I held it up and asked if it was forgotten.
'No. This one not for cooking.' A sprinkling action and a wave of the hand gesturing aromatic fumes to be breathed in followed. Ah, I thought, not to be cooked but added as a finishing touch at the end for aroma. So I waited at the table for it to be sprinkled onto our plates. Still nothing. Again, I had to hold it up as a reminder.
Instead of trying to explain, I was brought to the kitchen stove, where I was showed how a few granules are sprinkled onto the hot metal stove, upon which they melted and the smell of cooked food in the kitchen was replaced by a fresh citrus scent.
'This one not for eating. This is weihrauch. This one for air.'
I ate room incense made out of tree resin. Explained the chewiness.
