Re: [CH] What Taste?

VoodooChile (rael64@qwest.net)
Sat, 9 Mar 2002 11:32:30 -0700 

>At the risk of once again starting the pro and con burnt cat hair thread, I
>have just one direct question:
>
>Who on this list has ever eaten a burnt cat to know what the hair flavor is
>like?
>

Ever smelled your, or someones, hair burning? I'd wager the smell of 
cat hair is similar.  Ever tasted the herb epazote raw? I think the 
prevailing description of it's taste is: tastes like creosote (sp?) 
smells.  And what a nasty smell to enjoy as a flavor, eh?

More to the point tho: I forget the actual percentages and such, but 
most of our "taste" comes from smell.  Ever have a cold and nothing 
tastes right? Nothing tastes good?

Experiment: pinch your nose closed and have someone feed you small 
plain (cubed) pieces of fresh fruit.  Try to guess what they are. 
Your nose must be *tightly* closed.  Don't breathe in air through 
your mouth over the food either, don't tongue it to death trying to 
figure out texture/etc.  Just chew, taste, swallow...and then see if 
you can guess what's what.  Not as easy as one thinks.

I can't remember, but I think extracts come through better than real 
flavors.  More concentration? I may be wrong...it could be the other 
way around.  Did an experiment with the old Tootsie rolls in the 
above manner.  It's interesting because a flavor becomes dominant 
with your nose pinched, and it is NOT chocolate.  I'll spoil the 
surprise, but it's cherry flavoring.  Oddness, indeed.

Experiment 2 (pretty cool): get some of those flavored *clear* water 
drinks (clearly Canadian? i think that's one), about 2 or 3 different 
flavors; must be single flavor, i.e. not "berry flavor" or such; 
lime, grape, cherry, and so on.  Pour a nice shot of each into 
glasses (technically, glasses, liquid levels, etc, should be 
identical), 2 glasses of *each* flavor.  Now color each glass of 
liquid with food coloring, making certain one color "matches" the 
flavor for *one* glass, and doesn't match for the other glass, e.g. 
blue coloring for grape flavor and yellow coloring for grape flavor. 
Keep the colors consistent too (no dark blue/light blue...all the 
same shade) Now bring in someone who actually trusts you enough to 
taste them all, and have said person guess what the flavors are; then 
muse over your results.  Quite interesting.  We "taste" with our eyes 
too, more so than one, or at least I, would imagine.

Weird stuff.  Abused in the market, IMO, but cool to a certain degree...