Q: Salt isn’t, as most think, used in a dish so it will tasty salty. Instead, it has three functions: to reduce bitterness, enhance sweetness and to heighten the aromas and natural tastes of other ingredients. While not all dishes need salt, it generally enhances the overall flavor of most so they don’t taste flat.  If you have a dish that tastes flat or bitter, try adding a three-fingered pinch of salt before anything else. Taste it again. If it’s still not right, add a little more and give it another taste. That might be all it takes. If not, proceed to balancing in other ways. Salt absorbs into food as it sits. If you add too much salt, you can try increasing the sweet or sour components or by diluting the dish a bit with water.  You can also try to compensate by adjusting the side dishes. For example, don’t salt the rice or add a sweet or sour side dish.  To avoid over-concentration when reducing liquids, add salt after the liquid is reduced. The taste of sweet is a great contrast to sour and salty tastes. It can help balance dishes with ingredients having these tastes or if a dish’s flavor becomes too salty or sour. While the sweet taste in most foods comes from sugars – cane sugar (granulated, turbinado, brown, powdered, bakers, fruit, etc.) and beet sugar – it can also come from molasses, maple syrup, honey, carrots, mango and other sweet foods. So consider these as alternatives when creating your recipes.  Sweet really benefits from sour, which is why a squeeze of lemon juice over a fruit salad or cream cheese frosting on cake work so well together.  Unfortunately, because people are consuming more and more packaged foods that often have a lot of high fructose corn syrup and the like, we have become more tolerant of sweetness and require more of it to taste it. At many restaurants, bottles of vinegar are sitting on the table and lemon wedges are served on the side with a number of entrees. That’s because sour as a taste brings out the natural flavors in foods. It also balances sweetness and spiciness and enhances saltiness. It’s generally found in acidic foods like limes, lemons, oranges, sour cream, yogurt and pickled veggies. It’s also in vinegars like balsamic, sherry, red, apple cider and rice. Many other fruits are also classified as sour: raspberries, blueberries, red currants and grapes.  If a dish is too sour, add something sweet or something with fat to balance it.  Sour also helps to balance foods that are too spicy. Bitter is offensive at best and inedible at worst when used in large quantities or when not balanced. But when in harmony with other tastes, particularly sweetness, it adds depth and richness to food. It’s tarty edge also perks up the taste buds. Chocolate and coffee are naturally bitter, as are olives; greens like radicchio, arugula, dandelion and kale; hops; bitter melon; brussel sprouts; turnips; chicory; and grapefruit. Pomegranate juice is used often as well. Experiment with adding arugula, chicory and endive to your salads; thicken sauces with unsweetened chocolate; or deglaze with a bitter liqueur Campari instead of a juice or stock. The last taste discovered, umami, is described as savory or mouthwatering, though there’s not an exact translation from Japanese to English. It amplifies the flavor of a dish and is found in a variety of meats, such as beef, pork, chicken, and cured ham; vegetables, such as shitake mushrooms, truffles, Chinese cabbage, soy beans, and sweet potatoes; seafood, such as prawns, squid, tuna, mackerel, seaweed, and shellfish; and cheeses like parmesan, Gruyere, and Swiss. It’s also in green tea, tomatoes and soy sauce. Bacon also triggers the umami taste.  Aging, curing, ripeness and fermenting all enhance umami.  Going overboard is difficult to correct. The best way is typically to add more ingredients that are not umami-rich. While spicy, floral, earthy, minty, buttery, fruity and so forth aren’t technically tastes in the sense that they aren’t processed by our taste buds, they are tastes in the sense that they are notes in foods that we identify with dishes. For example, if something becomes too spicy, you can balance it with a sweet taste. Think of Mexican chocolate with its pinch of cayenne pepper.
A: Learn the functions of salt. Find sweet outside of sugar. Brighten up dishes with sour. Beware and be fond of bitter. Discover a fifth taste, umami. Don’t forget other “tastes” in your recipes.

Q: The basic process for growing oyster mushrooms works for most mushroom species, but you will need to make adjustments. When you buy spawn, check the instructions or ask the seller for the following information so you can adjust your approach:  Preferred substrate (some species need a specially prepared compost) Ideal temperature during colonization Ideal temperature and humidity levels during fruiting (mushroom growth)Lion's mane, lingzhi, shiitake, enoki, and nameko mushrooms are all good choices for a second project, only a bit more difficult than oyster mushrooms. If mold or other contaminants take over your substrate, that batch of mushrooms will be unusable. Most mushroom species are not as resistant to contamination as oyster mushrooms are, so it pays to spend more effort keeping the area clean:  Wash your hands with antibacterial soap before handling any part of the operation. Take special care to pasteurize your substrate. If stovetop heating becomes impractical, look into a steam room or chemical treatment. Treating a compost substrate is complex, and may require help from an experienced grower. "Casing" is a layer of sterile material on top of a tray of substrate, usually a mixture of peat moss and ground limestone. Keep the casing moist so water gradually leaches through to the substrate, without making the substrate soggy.  Not all types of spawn need casing. Ask the seller or an experienced grower for advice. Do not ventilate the area until the tiny "pins" have appeared on the surface of the casing. Ventilating too early will trigger fruiting before the pins have broken through, growing mushrooms underneath the casing. Instead of buying spawn each time, you could grow your own from spores. This is a difficult and complicated task, but there are many free resources that can guide you. (Try contacting a mycological association in your area). One way to create a spawn culture is to make a spore print. Transfer the spores to a petri dish of agar using an inoculation loop, as described here (though you do not need to draw a T pattern). Repeat with several petri dishes, since some may fail to germinate. A mostly sterile environment is a necessity for making spawn. Before you begin, remove all rugs and curtains that could trap dust. Clean all surfaces with mild disinfectant, including the ceiling. Cover all openings with plastic sheeting, and make an "antechamber" at the entrance with a second layer of plastic.
A:
Experiment with other mushroom varieties. Keep conditions clean. Cover the substrate with a casing. Make your own mushroom spawn.