McCormick’s 2010 Flavor Forecast offers 10 new ways to pair food and spices. How does a spice company decide what’s hot? The flavor experts at McCormick team up with leading chefs, food writers and other culinary authorities to identify the top flavor pairings and key trends that are poised to shape the way we eat.

This is the 10th anniversary of the McCormick Flavor Forecast, so join the celebration and try the recipes (THE NIBBLE has been publishing them since 2008). We’ll present one a day for the next 10 days.

The first pairing is almond and ale. You might enjoy nibbling on almonds as you drink an ale; now see what it’s like to put almonds into the ale.

Why does this pairing work?

You like ale, you like almonds; so how about
an Ale Almond Spritzer? Photo courtesy McCormicks.com.

• Ale has a mildly sweet, full-bodied, fruity taste from the top-fermenting brewers’ yeast used to make the beer ferment quickly. (Bottom yeasts are used to ferment other beers, such as lager. See our Beer Glossary.) The types of hops used in making in ale also impart a bitter herbal flavor, which balances the sweetness of the malt.
• Almonds are actually not a true nut, but rather the seed of a drupe, a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell with a seed inside (other examples include peaches and apricots). Almonds possess a bittersweet flavor that leans toward the sweeter side.

The Recipe:

The bittersweet character of both ale and almonds makes a congenial, cozy and hearty match. Invite friends to try this recipe for an Almond-Ale Spritzer, a moderately sweet beer-based cocktail. Enjoy it with a good food-themed movie.

And come up with your own recipes: ale-steamed shrimp with toasted almonds, for example.

Make hamentaschen this weekend. Photo
courtesy Zabars.com.

The story of Purim, as told in the Bible’s Book of Esther, tells of the deliverance of the Jewish people from an annihilation plot of the Persian king Haman, who wore a tri-corner hat (hence the shape of the cookies, the name of which translates into “Haman’s pockets”).

• Make this hamantaschen recipe, courtesy of New York food destination Zabar’s.
• Buy hamantaschen online at The Exceptional Dessert (they’re decorated and dipped in chocolate).
• Find more of our favorite cookies in our Gourmet Cookies Section.

This, plus the fact that too many guests don’t like the heavy fondant that covers many wedding cakes, means that you’ve just paid a fortune to serve people something they may just pick at—or ignore completely.

But there’s a happy solution:

Cupcake “trees” have been fashionable at weddings and other parties for several years.

You can make the presentation even more exciting with cupcake wrappers—gracefully die-cut outer wrappers into which the finished cupcake is placed—are now offered in so many colors and designs, that there’s a beautiful presentation that elevates the already-charming cupcake.

A wide range of wrappers turn cupcakes
into celebration cakes. Photo courtesy KitchenKrafts.com.

Next recommended improvement: Make the wrappers edible or collectible. It’s a crime to throw something so lovely away.

Visit the collection at KitchenKrafts.com.

• Find more of our favorite cake ideas in our Gourmet Cakes Section.