Saw this yesterday. It’s a $40 book on sale for $3.99 on kindle. The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001FA0P86/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_5smkCbBV27J03
I was going to copy over the listing from The Flavor Bible but it's too long.
but the highlighted ones are: almonds, basil, blackberries,, blueberries, capers, cheeses (goat, ricotta), chicken, coconut, greek cuisine, lamb, mint, nuts (esp. hazelnuts), orange (juice, zest), pistachois, poppy seeds, raspberries, rosemary, thyme, vanilla, veal.
The capitalised and bold are: fish, garlic, honey, shellfish, sugar (brown, white).
Meyer Lemons are: cream, grapefruit, honey, lemon, lime, orange, sugar, vanilla.
Flavor Bible is currently $4 for Kindle version on Amazon if anyone is looking for a discounted copy. https://www.amazon.com/Flavor-Bible-Essential-Creativity-Imaginative-ebook/dp/B001FA0P86
In many food applications the use of fermentation is the most tried and tested method. The colour of a mold is a great indicator how the process is going. Blue and white are good while yellow or red are really bad. The best pickles often have a thick layer of mold that is skimmed before jarring. In traditional charcuterie practises the salted meat cultivates a bad bacteria to feed the good during the aging process. a good introductory book is Mastering Fermentation https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00BO4GTSI/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
I bought this book, paperback, for a fraction of this price. Digital is your smartest bet. It was my first attempt at Indian cooking. I really enjoyed it, because it has so many recipes.
660 Curries https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01DZ0V9ME/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_5GDV707NN1VX9GC7MR64
As usual, I have a book about the subject under discussion sitting on my Kindle waiting to be read.
The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice
Teas (including black, green, oolong, and matcha), coffees, fresh juices, flavored syrups, shrubs (and other drinking vinegars), fermented drinks (kombucha, tepache, etc), and other worldwide regional favorites (horchata, agua frescas, maté, salep, aryan, lassi, Thandai, etc) are your friends. A good soda/seltzer is essential. Good flavored seltzers also have their place. Karen Page's The Flavor Bible is crazy helpful in build flavor profiles.
Perhaps grab a copy of the The Flavor Bible.
Beet-Rhubarb
Tomato-Basil This and the previous also allow for more savory profiles
Strawberry-Rhubarb
Lavender-Rhubarb
Strawberry-Basil
Plum-Chilli
Maple-Ginger
Pear-Ginger
Cardamom-Pear
Apple-Ginger
Blackberry-Thyme
Kiwi-Lime
Tart Cherry-Vanilla
Cranberry-Orange
Citrus (grapefruit, clementine and/or lemon)-Rosemary
Ginger-Orange
Pineapple-Jalapeno
Elderflower-Mango
Blueberry-Ginger
Raspberry-Peach
Years of cooking, starting with following recipes exactly, then combining part of this recipe with that recipe, then being willing to fail and try again to create something good without a recipe. You might benefit from The Flavor Bible (https://www.amazon.com/Flavor-Bible-Essential-Creativity-Imaginative-ebook/dp/B001FA0P86/ref=nodl_) or a subscription to Cook’s Illustrated, a magazine that not only tells you what works well but why, so you can use the knowledge for other dishes. Both have been helpful to me.
A word of warning: Baking is different from cooking, which is generally more forgiving. Very experienced bakers use formulas that depend on ingredient ratios as a foundation for their creations and riff from there. I’ve been baking for many years and still rely on recipes, though I might tinker around the edges a bit.
I HIGHLY recommend getting yourself a copy of The Flavor Bible by Karen page and Andrew Dornenburg. It's a great resource for learning what flavor profiles go together well, especially as you start to tweak recipes and get more creative. The Flavor Bible
They also have a vegetarian version which might be better if you have more food restrictions.
There's the kimchi cookbook.
Some of the recipes have ingredients that make the recipes fussier than they should be, but overall it's a great book.
I love how it has seasonal kimchi that interesting produce such as french radishes. Also, I like how they instruct you to cut your vegetables different sizes based on how long the kimchi will ferment.
I used the book as a starting point to make six different types of kimchi for a kimchi taco dinner party.
this recipe book should still be free.
It was mentioned in another post. No idea how good the recipes actually are, but free is free.
There is a flavor combination bible conveniently titles the Flavor Bible. You'll find it frequently recommended here. Using its guidelines and tasting everything individually and in combination, over time you'll develop an intuition as to what will work.
Take a look in the Recipes section of our FAQ for more advice on moving past recipes into improvisation. Also, moving beyond basics in the Basics section. I may have to reorganize.
I do have a copy of The Flavor Bible. It's quite nice to not have to get up and hunt for it though by having a similar list on the computer.
I honestly have never used it in cooking either! If you're curious I read a decent book about the history of the spice trade called "Spice: The History of a Temptation." Pretty worthwhile read.