TREND BITES:
Winter Flavors
When we think of seasonal food for winter, we tend to think of types of food—soups, stews, casseroles—instead of the flavors and ingredients that are more popular throughout the winter months. For this Trend Bite we're highlighting the ingredients that give our favorite cold-weather foods their comforting or festive flavors.
What makes a cozy flavor?
To find out why humans think of things as "cozy" and "comforting," we're not looking to food science, but to psychology. In Inverse's "How to Engineer a Comfort Food," flavorist Marie Wright explains that comfort foods change peoples' moods by "igniting a sense of nostalgia and triggering positive memories." The taste and aromas of foods can spark specific memories or just remembered feelings of happiness. Wright says, "what actually makes a 'comfort food' is context dependent and different for everyone," but we think popular cultural holidays are a good place to start.
If you want a dish to be comforting to the majority of your customers, look to the holidays that are most commonly celebrated in your area. We see restaurants pulling ingredients from traditional holiday meals into their seasonal LTOs. Peppermint lattés and cranberry turkey sandwiches feel comforting to consumers because the flavors are associated with soothing warmth and family gatherings. Read on for ideas on how to bring holiday ingredients into your own LTOs!Try these winter recipes!
Holiday-Themed LTOs
Since Thanksgiving is THE food holiday, it has so many iconic ingredients to choose from for seasonal menu offerings. Operators from full-service restaurants to convenience stores have introduced Thanksgiving-inspired dishes that range from full dinners to grab-and-go sandwiches.
Our culinary team made two dishes using Thanksgiving ingredients: a Thanksgiving Chicken Pot Pie, which combines eight traditional dinner ingredients into one creamy dish, and a Holiday Breakfast Sandwich, which uses both Thanksgiving and Christmas ingredients in a grab-and-go format!Winter's Ingredients
As temperatures cool, it's time for white rice, chorizo, quinoa, and Greek yogurt to shine in entrees! According to Datassential, those are among the most common ingredients in new winter menu items. Sauces and flavors that build into rich, comforting, elevated entrees are also being introduced, including tomato cream, rosemary, honey butter, and cocktail sauce.
Our new Creamy Tomato and Mushroom Chicken Pasta recipe is full of wintery ingredients. It uses diced chicken, tomato paste, heavy cream, and cream cheese for the perfect hot pasta to serve on a cold winter day.
Chicken for Winter Meals
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