For many years I’ve had an interest in Chinese medicine and philosophy. The Chinese have an elemental cycle similar to the Greek elements of water, air, earth, and fire. The Chinese have a cycle of 5 elements, water, earth, fire, metal, and wood. The Chinese cycle focuses on the transitions between these elements rather than the elements themselves.
There is a control cycle and an engendering cycle. Water nourishes wood. Wood feeds fire. Fire creates earth. Earth produces metal. Metal condenses water. In the control cycle, water extinguishes fire. Fire melts metal. Metal cuts wood. Wood grasps earth, and earth contains water.
Each element has an associated flavor (and body organ, etc.) Water represents saltiness. Wood represents sour. Fire represents bitter. Earth represents sweet. Metal represents spiciness.
I note also that there are some flavors that don’t necessarily fit into this simple model. The meat-like flavor known as Umami or savory is lumped in with sweet instead of having its own element. Also neglected are alkaline-acid reactions as in baking soda neutralizing lactic acid in sourdough bread. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s a good place to start.
I haven’t done a lot of study on how all these flavors work together, but I have noticed that good food tends to have all of these flavors balanced. You also begin to realize why certain flavors are combined. For example in hot and sour soup, spicy (metal) controls sour (wood). Another example is that if you put too much salt (water) in something, you can balance it out by adding sweetness (earth).
The key is learning to balance the flavors in unique ways. I use this theory most when making soups. Soup making allows for nearly instant feedback. With a handful of items you can make a very balanced flavor. You can use vinegar, lemon or lime for sour; wine, honey, or sugar for sweet; various herbs for bitter; black pepper or cyan for spicy; and salt or soy sauce for salty. Why follow a recipe when you can have a unique and tasty soup each time?
[...] But what I really want is to know which food belong to which categories. The Chinese have a system of five flavors, or elements, in which they use to flavor their food. Brian Glass has a wonderful article about this here. [...]
What I find so interesting is you could never find this anyrwhee else.