As far as It ingredients go, citric acid is an unlikely one – it's the stuff found at the bottom of the bag of sour gummy candies. But the grainy, white powder's ability to heighten flavours and bring ...

Whenever I can’t quite figure out what a dish needs, the answer is usually acid. It simultaneously intensifies and balances flavors like nothing else—even when you can’t immediately tell it’s there.

Drinking a citric acid-based drink at a fancy cocktail joint gave me a nervous feeling, as if Ashton Kutcher might lunge out of the freezer at any moment to announce I'd been punk'd by something made ...