Flavor

What is Flavor? Texture, Taste, and Smell Flavor Defined Flavor or Taste Flavoring Tasting Taste Sweet, longest, most lingering and strongest taste throughout life Ripeness of fruit warning for good nutrition Craving carbs fuel for the body Mothers milk Salty Sour Bitter Flavor as a part of a meal Importance of Flavor Considerations in Selecting Foods Cost Health and Nutrition Sanitation and Food Safety Convenience Appearance Flavor Temperature Smell Color Elements of Flavor Ingredients of Flavor Smell/Olfactory For some foods like cinnamon and banana smell is extremely important, for others, like chiles smell is not as important. Taste palate Persistence of memory Consciousness How do we know to go back to foods? Treatment of food Place of Origin (country, region, soil grown in, agricultural conditions) Organic, where grown Ingredients Herbs Spices Carriers of flavor Fat Salt Vinegars

Lillies Onions/Garlic Fungi Sugars Alcohol Chiles Cultural Differences Cooking and Food Preparation Methods Flavor Building Adding Layers Aging Carmelization Reduction Smoking Brining/Marinating Temperature Creating Flavor Developing Flavor is a Complex Process Termed Flavor Building Flavor is Individual The standard map of the tasting tongue is wrong (quadrants of sweet, salty, sour, and bitter). Taste receptors have the ability to sense all tastes Sour, salted dried plums Variable tastes in likes for bitter, hot, and sour Flavor is Personal/Individual Flavor Principles of Elizabeth Rozen Ethnic Foods Same IngredientDifferent Uses of Combinations Why do people come back to eat Why do they chose the foods that they chose?

Flavor
Stephen C. Fernald Primary point: Flavor is an important component in the creation of food to be consumed. Key Points: 1. 2. 3. Flavor is one of the key factors in the enjoyment and appreciation of food. The development of flavor is a complex process involving myriad sources of contribution to the overall process. Flavor is so important in the enjoyment and appreciation of food that it must be considered as a central organizing principle in the preparation of food for human consumption.

Flavor Facts
The widely accepted and long used map of the tasting tongue which has separate quadrants locating the prime reception for the tastes of sweet, sour, salty, and bitter was not based on valid scientific proof when it was established more than 100 years ago. It is now recognized that there are taste receptors all over the tongue for the four tastes and that the tasting tongue map which has been used for all of the last century is wrong. The power of smell far exceeds the power of taste. When concentrations of ethyl alcohol are used to evaluate powers of taste and smell, the taste threshold (ability to discern the taste) is reached at roughly 1/3 the concentration needed to arouse a cutaneous sensation of burning. The smell threshold is reached at 1/60,000 of the same concentration. Bitter and hot are two sensations of taste which are connected to the pain threshold in the brain. All human beings have a desire and affinity for sweet and salty while affinity for sour and bitter is more culturally dependent. Cold temperature dulls the taste receptors thus requiring greater flavoring in food served cold. Hot temperature stimulates the taste buds thus validating the kitchen adage, Hot food hot. FernaldFlavor Facts

Women have more taste buds than men. They have a greater ability to taste. As we grow older we lose taste buds which would indicate the need for greater flavoring in producing food for the elderly. The flavor and experience of foods is the last cultural component that ethnic groups are willing to give up when they are incorporated into a new society. The taste umami is widely considered to be the fifth taste. It is a taste which was discovered at the beginning of the century by the Japanese at the same time that glutamates were discovered. Examples of foods that contain the umami taste are MSG, oysters, meats, and wines. Researchers at the University of Miami within the last five years have located the receptors in taste buds for umami thus proving its existence. In Chinese culture consideration is given for the need for no taste to better stimulate the ability to taste a dish. A prime example is the use of plain white rice or wheat noodles along with highly flavored other ingredients in a dish.