are introduced into a culture. We do 
have some data, however, indicating 
the importance of flavor principles in 
treating new food items. In a Mexican 
village where we observed food habits 
closely, a number of women were 
asked how they would prepare three 
items they had never eaten before. 
The three “foods” were sardines (one 
of the few canned foods available in 
the village store but rejected by a 
majority of the residents), alfalfa (an 
animal food), and a common shrub 
not considered food. All responses in- 
cluded flavoring the item with chili, 
the indispensable flavor-principle 
component. Several of the other re- 
sponses indicated the use of lime, an- 
other traditional flavoring ingredient. 
In all these cases, the women had no 
reason to believe these new foods 
would cause them any harm, although 
they had no desire to try them. When 
faced with hypothetical use, however, 
they treated them like familiar foods. 
There is something to be said then 
for the reassuring nature of traditional 
seasonings; they are the familiar cu- 
linary theme, linking together the 
known and the traditional with the 
new and the unfamiliar. 
But what of the omnivore’s second 
problem, the need for variety and the 
reduction of boredom? With the rise 
of agriculture and the growing depen- 
dence on a few staple crops, the num- 
ber of different foods eaten by most 
cultures dropped; it is probably still 
the hunter-gatherer who, even in mar- 
ginal environments, consumes the 
greatest variety of food items. Elabo- 
rate culinary preparation (in terms of 
techniques, equipment, and novel 
combinations of ingredients) can pro- 
duce variety, and this greater com- 
plexity of culinary procedure occurs 
in virtually all cultures that rely pri- 
marily on the staple-plant diet. But 
how can the placing of a recurrent 
flavor combination on almost all foods 
at almost all meals, reassuring as it 
may be, also provide variety and re- 
duce boredom? 
The answer may come from a close 
study of the use of flavor principles 
in cuisine. What seems a monotonous 
repetition of flavorings may well be 
an illusion of the outsider, just as all 
red burgundies taste alike to the in- 
experienced wine drinker. A closer 
look at actual culinary practice reveals 
a rich and subtle variation of flavoring 
from dish to dish and from meal to 
meal. In the Mexican village we stud- 
ied, for example, chili pepper is used 
in many ways. It is cooked into soups 
and stews or sliced and placed upon 
other foods or ground into a sauce, 
often with tomatoes and other ingre- 
dients. At least ten types of chili pep- 
pers are used in this village: some 
are fresh, some are dried, some are 
red, others green, some strongly pi- 
quant, others less so. They differ some- 
what in the type of “burn” they pro- 
duce in the mouth. And villagers as- 
sure us that each type of chili has 
a different taste. Some kinds of pep- 
pers are used interchangeably with 
others in the making of soups or sauce. 
A few may be mixed together one 
day, a different combination on the 
next, but their use is far from random: 
some varieties are specified for certain 
culinary preparations. The chili ancho, 
for example, a large and relatively 
mild variety, is used almost exclu- 
sively in moles , the traditional stewed 
meat dish of the region. The number 
of different kinds of chili peppers 
available in the area is quite large. 
Nine homes that we surveyed had 
from three to six different chilis in 
the house, while in the large regional 
market of Oaxaca, dozens of varieties 
can be found. Within the single 
“theme” of this Mexican chili pepper 
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flavor principle there is a great deal 
of subtle and controlled variation. 
The same kind of theme and vari- 
ation can be shown to function in other 
cuisines that consistently utilize re- 
current combinations of flavoring in- 
gredients. Indian cookery is charac- 
terized by a flavor that naive outsiders 
call “curry”; curry, in fact, does not 
refer to the flavor of the food but 
to dishes that have a sauce. Within 
the realm of curried, or sauced, prep- 
arations, there is no single flavor but, 
again, a recurrent combination of in- 
gredients that are manipulated with 
great subtlety and surprising variety. 
Brahman Tamil cuisine of southern 
India relies heavily on several core 
seasoning ingredients, including chili 
pepper, asafetida, mustard seed, tam- 
arind, fresh coriander, and turmeric. 
A close inspection of Tamil recipes, 
however, reveals that this general 
theme is varied from dish to dish: 
sometimes all the ingredients appear, 
sometimes only one or two; the relative 
proportions differ from preparation to 
preparation; and the basic flavor is 
varied with the frequent addition of 
other seasoning ingredients such as co- 
conut, coriander seed, and cumin. 
Again, what may look and, indeed, 
taste, like the very same thing to the 
outsider is not the same thing at all 
to the insider. Simple and complex 
variations are created by the individ- 
ual cook within the thematic limits 
set by the traditions of the cuisine. 
We suggest, then, that the prevalent 
human practice of adding character- 
istic combinations of flavors to most 
foods may be the result of our om- 
nivorous heritage and an expression 
of our unique humanity: we have other 
things to do with food than merely 
to consume it. To appease our fear 
of the new and to support our sat- 
isfaction with the familiar, we create 
a label or theme. But at the same 
time, to avoid monotony and to satisfy 
our desire for variety, we play with 
the theme, fashioning as we do so, 
the elaborate and richly textured com- 
position we call cuisine. 
Elisabeth Rozin, author of The Fla- 
vor Principle Cookbook, teaches and 
writes about cuisine and is a chef 
in Philadelphia. Paul Rozin, profes- 
sor of psychology at the University 
of Pennsylvania, is a psychobiologist. 
His wife’s interest in flavor principles 
drew him into the study of human 
food habits and how people develop 
likes and dislikes for foods. 
14 
