How do tomatillos differ in taste from under-ripe tomatoes?

Question

I can't get access to tomatillos, but I would like to know what they taste like.

This helped me a bit, but it's not entirely clear to me what would be different between tomatillos and under-ripe tomatoes.

Or are tomatillos closer to something else?

Asked by Mien

Answer

Under-ripe tomatoes definitely seem to me like they weren't exactly meant to be eaten like that. There are certainly still things one can do with them, but the flavor isn't always what you'd like (see tastefive's comment); they were selected for their characteristics when ripe. Tomatillos, on the other hand, have always been used like this. They're supposed to be tart and bright green (unless they're a differently-colored variety). I think tastefive was pretty on-target with the mention of lemon juice; they have a nice bright tartness to them but definitely no bitterness. They're quite pleasant to eat fresh, if you're the kind of person who likes tomatoes and fruit. (I just ate one to make sure I wasn't lying to you.)

A much bigger difference, though, isn't taste: tomatillos aren't really juicy. You can slice and dice all you want and your cutting board will still be dry. This is pretty clear from pictures - here's one I found with Google image search:

This makes them very well-suited for the kinds of Mexican sauces they're traditionally used in, more so than a green tomato would be.

Answered by Jefromi

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How can you make a sauce less spicy/hot?

Question

Sometimes when I'm making a sauce or soup that needs to be a bit spicy, I have no troubles spicing how I want to.

But if the dinner party is a bit late, or I made the sauce in advance to get time to really draw out all the flavors of the spices, vegetables and meat, sometimes I end up with a way to spicy/hot dish.

You can always pour a bit water and try to dilute it a bit, but that also takes away all of the good flavor. So is there some trick that I'm missing I can use, when this happens to me (other than being more careful or using the spices later)?

Asked by googletorp

Answer

In general, it is a good idea to go light on spices when trying a new recipe, if you're not intimately familiar with the flavor and spice combinations in question. It's a great deal easier to add spice later than it is to mask it once you've added too much.

Assuming you are reading this because you didn't do that, and have now ended up with a sauce that's far too spicy, then read on.

The pertinent question here is where is the spiciness coming from? There are actually several kinds of compounds that can produce that general aroma and/or sensation. In most dishes they'll tend to fall loosely into one or more of the following:

• Piperine, which is the active alkaloid in black pepper. This has poor solubility in water, however, it has better solubility in alcohol. If you can incorporate wine or better yet, brandy or vodka or some other strong alcohol, this can go a long way toward reducing the heat from pepper.

• Capsaicin, the heat-producing compound in most types of hot peppers, is the highest on the Scoville Scale; extremely piquant and can produce a "burning" sensation in very small quantities. It is also poorly soluble in water, but is far more soluble in fat, especially oils. Adding some olive oil or a good quantity of butter to your recipe is a good bet for reducing capsaicin/capsicum heat.

• Garlic, onion, and other members of the Allium family put out a volatile sulfur compound called Allicin. Although this is not "spicy" in the same sense as pepper, many people perceive it as such. Like piperine, it is more soluble in alcohol than in water. However, and here's the catch: That allicin breaks down into various polysulfides when cooked, and those polysulfides are fat soluble. So if you're trying to mask a strong garlic or onion flavour, it's best if you can add alcohol and fat to cover all your bases.

• If you've added too much Ginger - another ingredient often perceived as spicy - then you're dealing with Gingerols and Shoagols, the latter of which pack a much bigger punch. One of the things you can actually do with ginger is cook the spice off which converts those into much milder Zingerone. In other words, add some water to the sauce and then boil it to reduce the sauce again - you'll lose some flavour but in the process you'll break down the ginger spice.

  Alternatively (for ginger), all of the above compounds are alkali soluble, so if you add a buffering agent - say, Trisodium citrate (additive E331), it will improve the solubility a great deal. If, like most people, you don't happen to keep food additives in your kitchen, you can try using something like baking soda, but too much of that will completely ruin the taste, so be careful. In fact, don't add too much of any buffer because the acidity of most sauces is an integral part of their flavor.

I think that about covers it for common "spicy stuff" that goes in sauces. If you want to fix a dish that's too spicy, you need to know where the spice is coming from and choose what's most appropriate for that particular sauce.

You can also try to mask or balance the spice with something sweet, for example roasted vegetables or plain old sugar. That will not eliminate the heat at all, but does seem to make it more tolerable for many.

Answered by Aaronut

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Masking the grass flavor of green tea

Question

I would like to start drinking green tea regularly.

Unfortunately I am much more of a coffee drinker than a tea drinker. On top of my general apathy towards tea I happen to think that green tea in particular tastes rather like grass. This seems worse when I oversteep it, but I pretty much always taste an unpalatable flavor. I have even experienced this flavor with green tea that contains other herbs for other flavor notes. Since I have good reasons for drinking green tea at the moment, I'm trying to get around them.

At the moment I'm masking the flavor with sugar, sometimes lemon juice, and non-dairy creamer. Is there something else that will counter the grassy flavor or at least mute it? If there is, why does it work?

Asked by justkt

Answer

Green tea is not to everyone's taste. You can try adding honey instead of sugar. As honey has more of a distinct flavour than just sugar it may help mask the green tea flavour more successfully. Another suggestion is to add some mint leaves if you're a fan of mint. If you're drinking green tea solely for health reasons the mint can be excellent for aiding digestion.

Certain tea companies also sell 'light' green tea. This can be more palatable, especially for people like yourself who don't like the taste of steeped green tea so changing your brand of tea might be helpful.

It may be that with perseverance you may acquire a taste for green tea (I personally used to hate camomile tea but continued to drink it every day and now it's my favourite).

Answered by nixy

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What's the point of using sugar in savory dishes?

Question

I never get why people add a sweet substance to a savory dish. Especially in something like a a curry or noodles. People say it balances out the flavors. But which flavor is it actually balancing out?

Asked by Uday Kanth

Answer

Hot Sour Salty Sweet

Sugar balances both salty and sour flavors in dishes. Adding just a little sugar makes salty things taste less salty and sour things taste less sour, without actually reducing the amount of salt or acid in the recipe.

For example, the liquid base of the Pad Thai recipe I follow contains chili powder, fish sauce, tamarind, and light palm sugar. The palm sugar balances out the sour from the tamarind and the salt from the fish sauce. Without it, the noodles would come out too sour and too salty.

I don't know the physiological reasons for this. Would be interesting to hear them if someone knew ...

Answered by FuzzyChef

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Getting flavor powders to stick to nuts

Question

I've just checked for some recipes online on how to make flavored (in particular, hot and spicy) peanuts. It seems that in every one of these recipes, there has to be some kind of roasting procedure (coating with oil, powdering and then oven-roast), or cooking them, in order to get the powder to "stick" to the nuts.

What I'm wondering is which two of these methods will yield better results, and whether a food dehydrator (I got the excalibur ones) can be used to "dry" these nuts.

Perhaps it's possible to get the flavor to stick some other, easier and less messier way?

edit -- another question : is the oil necessary for flavoring them? I mean, nuts are oily naturally, so would heating them in the pan and then putting the chili/garlic powder or parmesan straight after be good enough?

Asked by kamziro

Answer

Nuts are much tastier when they are roasted. Dehydrating may be ok but it will not do the same thing for their flavor or texture.

Nuts have a lot of oil but there is not enough on their exterior for powders to stick to. Of course some of the powder would stick anyway- and with parmesan even more would when the cheese melted. If you are ok with a milder flavor and a lot of powder left in the bowl when you eat them then you could try to use less or no oil.

It is possible that you could make it work with some other liquid other than oil but oil tastes good and won't dry out. Additionally for spicy peanuts, capsaicin is soluble in fat so the oil will actually be intensified.

I don't know about an easier/less messy way because I don't consider this to be particularly difficult or messy. Just toss nuts with oil, then powder, spread on a pan and bake. Doesn't get much simpler than that.

Answered by Sobachatina

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Why is orange juice or apple juice added in a smoothie?

Question

I currently have strawberries, bananas and yogurt in my fridge and this got me thinking about the Strawberry-Banana Julius from Orange Julius. Previously I've made smoothies with strawberries, bananas, yogurt, milk and a light dash of sugar.

I know most places add in some orange juice or apple juice. What does the addition of orange juice or apple juice do to the smoothie? Does it amplify the flavor of the strawberries and/or bananas?

How much would someone suggest adding if I do not want the juice flavor to overpower the smoothie?

Thank you!

Asked by SirCobalt

Answer

Apple juice will give you very little additional taste, but it will sweeten your smoothie. Especially filtered apple juice has a rather subtle flavor which is easily covered by other fruit flavors. Juice producers use this to make their juices cheaper - if a juice advertises 100% fruit, and a flavor from an expensive, non-juicy fruit like strawberries, it is usually a blend of a small amount of strawberry juice and a large amount of apple juice (this is not fraud, the ingredients are listed on the package if you care to read it). Apple juice is normally made from low-acid apples, and it tastes quite sweet, so it is useful not only for bulking, but also for sweetening blends made with sour juices like elderberry, cranberry, etc. In a smoothie, it will have the same effect as in a juice blend, plus a diluting effect, as it is less viscous than your other ingredients. It won't amplify the flavor of the smoothie, it will even reduce it, as sugar tends to suppress other flavors in general. But the reduction won't be too big, and you might find the overall result better if you are accustomed to heavily sweetened food. You can also remove the sugar if you use apple juice - I wouldn't put it there anyway, even without juice.

Orange juice is much more acidic than apple juice, and it has a stronger aroma. It will add an orange flavor to your smoothie. I would count this as an advantage, because orange flavor goes especially well with bananas and is OK with strawberries too. It will also make the smoothie taste more sour, and again dilute it. Overall, the effect will be pleasant. As for what constitutes "overpowering" the taste, I think this is subjective. You should just experiment, adding a the juice in small proportions, until you have achieved the ratio which tastes good for you.

Answered by rumtscho

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How do you make sure aubergine doesn't go bitter when cooking?

Question

Sometimes aubergine and courgette tastes fine when cooked as is, but other times they are so bitter that they're almost inedible. I've tried dry salting and leaving the slices in salt water beforehand for various lengths of time, but this is a mission and can often make them too salty. Also the outcome seems pretty random given that sometimes this isn't necessary. Is it to do with freshness?

Asked by Andre

Answer

Yes, it is to do with freshness - the fresher and younger the aubergine, the less bitter it will be. If you have an old aubergine, you could try peeling it, as the bitter compounds are concentrated just under the skin.

Answered by ElendilTheTall

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How to get rid of the taste of flour in homemade bakery?

Question

I usually get random cookie and cake recipes from the internet and try them. They are good but all of them have floury taste to me. Possible culprits are the flour I use and how I mix and bake dough. I use Gold Medal All-Purpose Flour and my hands to mix ingredients, having no mixer. What can I get wrong? Is there an easy fix?

Asked by puri

Answer

Assuming you aren't very unlucky and happen to download a series of bad recipes I think it's one of a few things.

It's possible you could be undercooking your goods. Fully cooked baked goods should not taste like flour.

It's also possible that you could be mixing insufficiently. If this were the case though you'd likely have some cookies that weren't floury.

The most likely culprit though is packed flour. If you are using volume measurements (most likely given the source) for flour, it's quite possible to use nearly twice as much flour as the recipe intends simply because your flour is packed down more than the author's was.

I recommend using either a food processor or a sifter to sift your flour adequately before measuring. Don't undo your sifting by rapping your measuring cup on the counter either! Simply scoop, scrape to level and dump it in the mixing bowl.

See Also:

• What Kinds of Recipes Should I Sift/Aerate The Flour?
• How can I make sifting easier?
• Sifting dry ingredients

Answered by hobodave

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How can I use white pepper without having the odor dominate the food flavour?

Question

I received several different pepper (spice) for christmas. One of them is a white pepper. Whenever I use (very) little of this white pepper in my dishes, the odor/flavor is very dominant cutting out all other flavors. How can I use this pepper without losing the other flavors?

Asked by froeschli

Answer

It's interesting that this is your experience, since "common knowledge" is the white pepper is milder than black. White pepper is the dried ripe fruit of the pepper Piper Nigrum, and the black is the unripe, cured and dried fruit. Black is usually hotter than white, but generally they are considered to be interchangeable, with the white being used in sauces and in cream dishes for a better look (no black specks).

Since this pepper is so strong for some reason, I would advise that you only use it in dishes that rely on the pepper flavor to the exclusion of others, say steak au poivre, or pepper pot, or salt and pepper scallops.

Other than that you can cut back on the amount or grind it now and let it sit around for a while...pepper has its strongest, best flavor when freshly ground; it kills me to suggest that, but I'm trying to answer your question.

If it were mine, I would try to figure out a dish that this pepper would truly enhance, as I suggested.

Answered by Doug Johnson-Cookloose

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Adding flavor & sweetness to plain greek yogurt

Question

I've recently taken a liking to greek yogurt. So far, I've been buying the Chobani low-fat and non-fat yogurts, which all have flavoring added. I've recently bought a container of plain greek yogurt, and I was surprised at how bitter and flavorless it tasted in comparison.

So, my question is, how can I "manually" flavor and/or sweeten plain greek yogurt? This is for someone who doesn't cook much, so instead of saying "add banana", how would I do that? Puree it? Mash with a fork? I assume simply sticking a banana in the yogurt and calling it a day isn't the right approach. Thanks!

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EDIT: To provide some more detail, in my head, there's a difference between "fruit-flavored yogurt" and "yogurt with a piece of fruit in it". This question is an attempt to figure out how to achieve the former and not the latter.

Regarding flavoring, I'm specifically interested in the following fruit: banana, strawberry, pineapple. I'm not sure how different the process would be to incorporate the different fruits in, but that's what I'm looking for.

Asked by eykanal

Answer

To sweeten it, add your favorite sweetener: sugar, honey, agave... whatever you prefer. This is important, because sweetness will help bring out the flavor of the fruit.

General advice:

If you have a fruit you want in your yogurt, pick the form (chunks, pureed, mashed, juice) that you want and mix it in. The Chobani yogurts appear have a variety of these forms, always along with some sugar. If you want banana flavor, sure, mash up a banana and mix it in. Or if you want chunks of fruit, chop it up. Assuming the fruit is soft enough, for this purpose, mashing with a fork is probably a good substitute for pureeing; you'll get some small chunks and some juice.

In response to the updates:

if you want actually fruit-flavored yogurt, then you need juice and/or puree. If you don't have any other tools, mash it as best as you can. If you have a small food processor or blender that will work with small enough quantities (or are making big batches), blend things up and stir them in. Juice and puree will disperse quite well through the yogurt.

Bananas mash easily, especially ripe ones, so just do that with a fork. Strawberries aren't as soft, but you should get enough juice to flavor with if you mash them. Pineapple is tougher. If it's juicy enough, you can probably get some juice out by mashing it; otherwise you might be better off with a food processor or blender. (If it's from a can, you can use the liquid from the can, too - that might also have sugar in it.) Depending on how thorough you are, you may want to use the juice and discard the fibrous parts that are left over.

Answered by Jefromi

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Why does cold coffee taste sweeter with the same amount of sugar?

Question

I have observed that the same amount of sugar tastes differently in hot and in cold coffee. If I drink hot coffee, I feel I can add more and more sugar, without it tasting too sweet. However, cold coffee tastes overly sweet with only small amounts of sugar.

Why does this happen? Why does sugar taste differently sweet in cold and hot coffee?

Asked by tech_learner

Answer

Its possible that when you drink a hot liquid, you swish it around your mouth a lot less than when you drink a cold liquid, and thus fewer of the taste buds on your tongue are exposed to it. This wouldn't be surprising: it's hot after all.

Another possibility is that if you're starting with hot coffee, and adding sugar to it, that the sugar isn't fully dissolved when you drink it hot (it takes time, especially if you don't stir it much), but has dissolved by the time the coffee cools. With more dissolved sugar, it is sweeter.

Answered by derobert

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How to make sweet-tasting noodles?

Question

I've never made noodle dough before, and I want to try it today. However, I'd like to make the noodles more sweet.

Is the base ingredient ratio for making the noodle dough one egg per 100g flour?

How can I make it sweeter? Would I just add sugar or is there a better ingredient to add that will not change the texture of the noodles?

Will adding butter and milk change the texture of the noodle?

Asked by thejh

Answer

Butter and milk will add fat and water which will definitely change the consistency of the dough (the noodles may possibly fall apart when cooked). You will have to adjust the ratios if you add them (surely more flour if you add milk).

If you want sweet noodles my best bet would be to add sugar, although I wouldn't do sweet egg noodles... maybe sweet rice noodles?

Why don't you just do plain noodles and then make a sweet condiment instead?

Answered by nico

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How to increase flavour intensity in this recipe?

Question

I am thinking of making dinner tonight (probably pasta) and the ingredients that I have a courgettes, tomatoes and half a butternut squash. I am 70% vegetarian

I first added olive oil, then fried onions and garlic, then added in the vegetables. I added in salt, pepper, souvlaki seasoning, sage and thyme I believe for extra taste. At the end I mixed in a tablespoon of Ricotta (my favourite cheese). The pasta I had with it was Rigatoni.

However the taste turned out to be a bit bland. What can I do to spice up this recipe? I want it to be more intense,perhaps roasting the vegetables first and then frying them. Will that help? Otherwise what can I add to increase its taste?

Thanks.

Edit : Instead of having pasta with this sauce, can I have Ciabatta baked in the oven with it?

Asked by Benjamin Lim

Answer

try adding some green, yellow and red peppers with the added vegetables. I believe these peppers give a strong taste.

Also you could try to add some paper laurel when cooking, then remove it upon serving, it gives a good taste and smell too.

Answered by Zeina

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Why is my icecream bitter?

Question

I am new to making homemade ice cream. I just started to feel confident with plain vanilla, so it was time for the next step - adding fruit.

The custard recipe says it can be turned into fruit ice cream by adding 30g pureed fruit per yolk. I looked into the basket for a fruit likely to make a good puree, and settled for a honey dew melon. I made the custard base (yolks, cream and sugar with a pinch of salt), and, because I wanted more fruit taste, made 50g of melon puree per yolk and thickened it with a bit of guar gum, because I feared crystals from the rather liquid melon. I added the melon to the prepared custard, it wasn't exposed to heat.

After chilling and transferring to the freezing plate, I indulged in licking the thermometer, spoon and bowl used for the making of the ice cream. I was unpleasantly surprised at the lack of melon aroma and strong bitter taste. It was as if I was chewing the seeds of the melon, although there were none in the ice cream, I am sure I'd have seen them if they had fallen into the puree. Combined with the overbearing sweetness of unfrozen ice cream, I thought of throwing the batch out. But I froze it anyway. Frozen, there is much less bitterness (and of course much less sweetness), it tastes as if I am eating a raw gherkin. In fact, if I didn't know that there is melon in there, I probably wouldn't have recognized. It is eatable, but not especially good.

The aroma problem was solved when I ate a piece of the melon: this exemplar must have grown in a dark greenhouse. It was watery, only a hint of sugar content, only a hint of aroma. But it wasn't bitter, just tasteless.

But I am still wondering what went wrong. Does melon react with guar to create a bitter compound? Does melon react with cream to create a bitter compound (I know kiwies do, but melons?) Was there so much heat in the custard base as to cook the melon, and does cooked melon taste bitter? Would a better melon have made a difference, or would it have been bitter, sweet and aromatic at the same time? Is melon generally unsuitable for making ice cream?

Asked by rumtscho

Answer

It's no surprise to me that you describe the final taste as being similar to a raw gherkin, because both melons and gherkins are closely related to the cucumber.

Melons actually do have bitter notes; according to McGee, they contain "green, grassy compounds" as well as sulfur compounds, the latter being the same sort of thing you'd find in garlic.

Since melons only get sweeter on the vine, I would assume that the general blandness was caused by the melons being harvested too early and possibly sitting on the grocery store shelf for a long time.

If there was noticeable bitterness beyond what you tasted in the raw fruit, it was probably just because you got a concentrated dose of it in puree form. Overcooking it would also increase the bitterness, but you say it wasn't exposed to heat (could the custard still have been very hot when you incorporated the melon?).

There is no way it was a reaction with guar gum - it's a very common additive in melon-based drinks and desserts. It's also extremely unlikely to have been a normal reaction with the cream; I've made melon mousse and other dairy items with melon and never noticed any kind of unusual bitterness.

The only other possibility I can think of is that there may have been a problem with the cream itself. This varies quite a bit from brand to brand and region to region, but most of the time, the "cream" you buy does not just have cream in it; for example, I'm looking at a typical supermarket carton that contains cream, milk, skim milk powder, dextrose, and a bunch of E numbers, and even some sodium citrate. These creams can easily take on bitterness before they go sour. So if you were using the typical supermarket brand of heavy cream, and it was sitting in your fridge for a while, that may have been a contributing factor.

All in all, I think it was probably a very random and unfortunate combination of factors that would have been due to the specific ingredients used rather than the types of ingredients. I doubt you'd get the same results if you tried again with fresh melons, cream, and eggs.

Answered by Aaronut

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What's the secret ingredient in beef jerky?

Question

I've been making beef jerky using various marinade recipes I found on the WWW. The results have been mixed, but always lack that one distinct flavor that seems so prevalent in store-bought jerky. If I had to describe it, I'd say "protein-y". It's not a spice I recognize, and doesn't seem to be present in any combination of soy sauce, Worcestershire, etc.

Recently I found an old seasoning packet that came with my dehydrator, took a little taste, and recognized that same flavor immediately. Unfortunately there is no ingredient list printed on the packet. Where is that flavor is coming from?

Asked by Evan

Answer

"Proteiny" usually indicates "umami", the so-called "fifth flavor" after sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. It's triggered by glutamates. Common sources of umami include beef, mushrooms, some seaweeds (most especially nori), rinds of some hard cheeses (most especially pecorino romano) and tomato paste. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the store-bought jerkies you are comparing it to include monosodium glutamate, a common food additive that is essentially concentrated umami flavor.

Answered by Dave Griffith

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Which oils are considered flavorless?

Question

The cake recipe is calling for a vegetable oil. I have refined sunflower oil, and refined soyabean oil.

Do they qualify for flavourless oils? I haven't noticed any taste in any oil by now! Taste buds problem, perhaps.

Asked by Anisha Kaul

Answer

Both refined sunflower oil and refined soybean oil are generally considered flavorless.

Also included among these are:

• Canola (rapeseed) oil
• Corn oil
• Peanut oil
• Safflower oil
• Vegetable oil

The most reliable method of course is to taste the oil :). I'm sure you can actually taste the flavor of extra virgin olive oil.

Answered by hobodave

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How do you coat almonds in wasabi and keep it spicy and crunchy? (my wasabi paradox)

Question

I've been trying to make wasabi and soy sauce almonds, like the ones you find at the store (Blue Diamond) but the only recipe I've found (food.com) is very underwhelming. Despite using varying increasing amounts of wasabi, the spicy factor is non-existant.

I suspect the heat from baking causes wasabi flavor to lose it's intensity, so it must be added at the end. But, I haven't been able to find anything to coat the almonds to the outer shell and maintain the roasted/crunchy almond exterior.

Since wasabi powder is "matured" [and activated] with water and a short (covered) resting period, refining it into more powdery makes it stick better but still not spicy.

How do I get my wasabi almonds to come out spicy?

Note: I have also tried horseradish on almonds (which is just wasabi without food coloring) and baking it off.

Asked by Lam

Answer

Wasabi can also be activated by oil. So. Make yourself a nice intense wasabi oil, add equal part by weight of maltodextrin, stir. Voila, a nice sticky powder perfect for adhering to your almonds.

Answered by n/a

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What ingredient adds the sweetness on Croissants in Europe?

Question

I'm travelling in Europe right now, and in France, Spain, and Italy I've had croissants and similar pastries. Unlike the ones I've had in America, these have a bit of sweetness to them - my intuition is that something like honey or agave nectar has been drizzled on top, either before or after baking. Does anyone know for sure? I'd love to try baking pastries more often when I get back home.

Answer

In Rome I was informed that I was eating a croissant with honey on top (after informing my host that I had a honey allergy). It had the sweetness that I suspect you're experiencing. To help you determine if we were trying the same thing: the croissant I had was shiny and slightly sticky on top, and it seemed more like it was brushed on top rather than drizzled. That would support @Carmi's answer that it was brushed on with the egg. It was definitely honey, though, not sugar syrup.

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How would I add heat to a brine?

Question

I am interested in making roast chicken with a bit of a kick. I'm thinking about adding heat to the brine, but I'm not sure what the best way of doing that would be.

How would brine work with hot peppers?

Answer

Hot peppers won't work with brine, as brine is water-based and capsaicin (the pepper hotness) is not soluble in water. You would need an oil-based marinade to pass the 'heat'.

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What are the ways of classifying bread?

Question

What words and dimensions are used to describe bread and their recipes?

I realize describing bread is subjective, I'm only looking for common words to describe bread.

Answer

As for judging crumb, my favorite two terms used by German Meister Bakers are juicy (saftig) and woolly (wollig).

The first, praise for tarter breads such as sour rye; the second for toast bread and lunch rolls.

An unflattering term would be cotton (Baumwolle) for flavorless and dry fluff.

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