What's The Difference Between Seasoning And Flavoring?

Knowing the difference between taste and flavor or the difference between adding favors and flavor enhancing helps separate the hobbyists from the pros. Today, we're looking at the difference between seasoning and flavoring. While some may use them interchangeably, the terms mean two different things depending on context. In defense of their interchangeability, seasoning and flavoring are so closely related that they're basically siblings in the food-enhancing world; however, they serve different purposes.

In short, people use seasoning to strengthen the flavors of their food. Seasonings are kind of like foodie hype-men in that they enrich the natural flavors of your dish, but they should never overpower the overall taste. Additionally, seasonings in properly cooked meals are rarely noticed. Flavorings, on the other hand, are there to add a twist to your dish. They are very much an additive and not simply an enhancer — something that changes the taste and aroma of your dish. Things get confusing when, say, you find out that an ingredient like cinnamon could both be considered a seasoning or a flavoring depending on how it's used. To make matters even more head-scratching, all spices can be considered seasonings or flavoring agents, but not all seasonings are considered spices.

Seasoning should never change the character of what you're cooking; it should merely amplify it. Seasonings come in dry or wet forms, and most fit into three core categories: salt, acid, and heat. Salt-based seasonings are the most popular, with heat and acid following behind. Acid seasonings include all sorts of vinegars and fruit juices, and they are commonly used in dressings, marinades, and soups. Hot seasonings include things like peppercorn, cayenne, chili flakes, and cumin. Some people consider saccharine things like sugar and honey to be a seasoning, but sugar isn't technically considered a seasoning because it doesn't draw out flavors as much as savory seasonings do.

Conventional wisdom calls for you to salt or season a dish at the beginning of cooking, but there is much debate about this. In fact, some say it's the opposite — that you should season toward the end of the dish, once you're other ingredients are mostly cooked. In general, it depends on what you're cooking and how. For example, it takes seasoning like salt a longer time to penetrate the walls of a vegetable than it does for the exterior of meats. Additionally, it takes seasoning a longer time to penetrate cold foods than it does warm foods.

So what does this all mean? Scientifically speaking, it's better to season foods toward the beginning of cooking to give them time to infuse into your ingredients. However, if you forget to add your seasoning or the recipe calls to add it toward the end, you can still season successfully with smaller amounts to elevate flavors.

Unlike seasoning, flavoring is more often the star of the show, in that you want to be able to taste the flavor you add to a dish. Like seasoning, flavorings come in a range of compositions from liquids and powders to extracts. Not to add one more term to the party, but it's important to note that spices are typically used as flavoring agents. So when we say that all spices are considered seasonings but not all seasonings are spices, we're talking about the amount added and the type. 

Salt is a seasoning but not a spice, whereas ginger is a spice (flavoring) and a seasoning. For example, you can use lemon extract to flavor muffins, or you can use lemon juice to add acidity (a seasoning) to a salad dressing. Lemon is the primary flavor profile of a lemon and poppy seed muffin, but lemon is not necessarily the primary flavor profile of a salad or dressing.

Another simple way to look at the difference between flavoring and seasoning is that flavoring typically works alone. It's a single ingredient added to your dish to change the original flavor. So if you're baking a poke cake and give it a boozy twist with bourbon, the brown liquor becomes your flavoring agent. Liquid smoke is another good example of a singular flavoring agent. Meat does not naturally taste like smoke, but adding some liquid smoke to your rub will change its flavor to give it that satisfying charred taste.