Not your average Red Wine Braised Short Ribs

With bacon, red curry paste, and coca cola

In culinary school, they talk a lot about the depth of flavor and how it distinguishes a “good” meal from something extraordinary. But wtf even is “depth of flavor,” and how is it accomplished? Flavor and how we perceive it is marked by a few things: salt, sweet, umami, acid, spicy, bitter, and the newly added fat. To get the depth of flavor, you want to avoid leaning too heavily into one category and steer completely clear of bitter (that’s what you get when you burn food, so humans naturally avoid it). When you get a balance of sweet, salt, acid, umami, and fat, it lights up every tastebud on your tongue and creates magic. This recipe is rich and saucy, and delicious for the holidays. I would have better photos if my husband hadn’t eaten almost all of it.