How do you do sour?

[sueatmo]

After decades of watching my fat and now watching my carb intake, I learned to like certain foods done differently than in the past. I like a sour hamburger, for instance. I like my low carb burgers from Hardees, or from my own kitchen, to be wrapped in lettuce leaves with mustard and pickle, no mayo and no ketchup. I love the mustardy sour taste of the burger. I love what we locals call "St. Louis salad," which has a dressing made of the oil found on jarred artichokes. Sour, sour, sour and addictive. Sometimes you encounter this salad with sweetener added to the sour dressing. For me this is utterly wrong. I want the sour taste of the artichokes in the salad without any sweetness. I also like to make my homemade vinaigrette sour, although white balsamic vinegar sweetens it to some extent. Today I made ham and cheese rollups with sliced dill pickles in the center of each. Such a nice way to eat Swiss cheese and ham. There are probably other sour things I like. Well I do like a nice big sour green olive, come to think of it. And I like saurkraut cooked with potato and sausage, too. What ways do you do sour?

[missclaudy]

Pomegranate molasses ! Sweet and tart and sour . So great in marinade for grilled meats and then brushed on top after cooking.

[CDouglas]

Lemon and capers go well with many proteins - smoked salmon, shrimp, chicken, pork, beef carpaccio, tuna and on and on...

[JungMann]

Check out sumac for some sourness without adding liquid.

You would probably also love Filipino food, which is all about sour foods. There's a whole school of foods cooked in vinegar, leaving me with a cupboard full of varietals: apple cider for pork adobo, rice wine vinegar when I need something racy, coconut or white if I'm cooking fish. If I want sour soup, I love the flavor of young tamarind, but I could also go with young guava, calamansi or camias. If food needs seasoning, there's usually a combination of soy sauce and citrus juice on the table. It's all about bold flavors, with sour often dominating.

[bdachow]

Being Chinese, I love love love the red vinegar. Liberally doused into hot and sour soup, sharks fin soup, chow meins, on dumplings of any kind. Love pickles but they need to be sour and crunchy. Sauerkraut, pickled mustard greens, I used to love the lemon candies called Super Lemons with the sour powder giving you this intense lip puckering start but the sweeter core part makes my teeth hurt now. The pains of getting older. :)

[teezeetoo]

tamarind, lime, chiles and any combination of these: tom yum soup, can chua soup, most thai and vietnamese tastes.

[EWSflash]

I call it tart because to me it has a more positive connotation, and I do it in almost everything. I even like valencia oranges more than navels because navels have no tart component and to me are very bland and insipid. A little bit of sourness or tartness fits in well with just about everything in my world.

[LorenM]

I love it all too. Pickles, strong mustard, sauerkraut, kimchi. In fact I always drink all of the pickle juice out of a jar of pickles (sometimes even first thing in the morning- does wonders for hangovers). I find the flavor "awakening" and "invigorating". I also love onion and cucumbers in vinegar for a refreshing summer salad.

[AdamD]

recently I have become addicted to lime pickled red onion

[sueatmo]

Do you make lime pickled onion, or do you buy it? Sounds good.

[montrealeater]

I have a weird relationship with 'sour'. Some of it I love, shamefully often in candy form (Sour Jelly Bellies, sherbet lemons shipped from the UK), but I often find foods 'sour' that other people don't seem to find so. I don't love goat cheese because it tastes sour to me. Same thing with yoghourt. I'll EAT these things, but I always find them a little offputting. I'm not wild about lemon, but I love lime. Salad dressed in sharp dressing (especially if the greens are bitter) - lemon, vinegar etc. - EURGH. An ex of mine was scathing about these tastes.

[sueatmo]

I too prefer limes to lemons. I do love my Greek style yogurt, but I also find it a bit sour on its own. I find myself licking the spoon, though! Something about that sour taste is so good and yet so bad. Can't explain it. I had forgotten about sour candies. Sour lemon drops--yum. :)

[ipsedixit]

kimchi

pickled veggies

vinegar

mustard

lemonheads (the candy)

One "sour' food I cannot eat is tart Granny Smith Apples. Ick.

[tastesgoodwhatisit]

Well, I snack on lemons and limes. Limes dipped in a mixture of salt and chili powder are particularly good. Soda water with fresh lemon or lime juice is also quite refreshing.

[sueatmo]

Like the soda water w/ limes idea. But I would never snack on limes, as much as I love them. That kind of citrus exposure would surely damage tooth enamel?

[LauraGrace]

I like sour everything, basically.

Sour cocktails -- whiskey sours, amaretto sours, maple leafs (basically a whiskey sour with bourbon, and maple syrup instead of simple syrup)

Sour breakfast -- super tangy yogurt (the tangier the better) with lime juice, rolled oats, almonds, raspberries and honey to make Bircher muesli; a dutch baby with lemon juice and powdered sugar

Sour savory dishes -- anything with pickles, vinaigrettes, brats and sauerkraut

Sour add-ons -- malt vinegar on fish and chips, lemon juice on sauteed greens, yellow mustard or white vinegar on bean soup

Sour desserts -- lemon anything, lime anything, tart berry compote, gooseberry pie, rhubarb anything

[EWSflash]

+1, plus lime squeezed over grilled meat is heavenly, too.