A principle entry that consolidates David Thompson's approach to tasting throughout the cooking process — not tasting as a final check but tasting as a continuous, active form of attention that guides every addition and every adjustment. Thompson's books are unusual in the degree to which they describe the internal state of the cook's assessment during cooking — the specific questions to ask at each stage, the specific flavour registers to assess, the specific corrections that each imbalance requires. This entry is a consolidation of that principle.
**The tasting sequence:** At any stage of a Thai preparation, taste with the following four questions simultaneously: 1. Is the salt/salty register present and carrying the other flavours? 2. Is the sour register present, distinct, and bright? 3. Is the sweet register present, rounding, and not dominant? 4. Is the heat present and building in the correct manner for this preparation? **The correction logic:** - If the dish tastes flat overall: the salt is insufficient. Add fish sauce in small increments. - If the dish tastes harsh and one-dimensional: the acid is present but the sweetness is missing. Add palm sugar. - If the dish tastes sweet-bland without brightness: the sour is missing or insufficient. Add lime juice (off heat) or tamarind water. - If the dish tastes correct but lacks depth: the fermented notes are insufficient — shrimp paste in the paste, or a few drops of fish sauce as a final addition. **The incremental approach:** Thompson adds all seasonings incrementally — half a teaspoon at a time, tasting after each addition. No Thai recipe specifies a fixed quantity of fish sauce or lime that applies universally — every batch of fish sauce is slightly different in concentration, every lime varies in its acidity, every coconut milk batch varies in its sweetness. The recipe is a starting point; the cook's palate is the finishing instrument. **Temperature and seasoning:** A hot dish tastes different from the same dish at room temperature — heat amplifies volatile aromatic compounds and suppresses some salt perception. Thompson notes that food tasted at the temperature it will be eaten is the only valid assessment — not tasting cold from the spoon and adding seasoning for cold, then serving at 80°C.
David Thompson, *Thai Food* (2002); *Thai Street Food* (2010)