SpiceLines

Feiler says that two long accepted theories—first, that there are four basic tastes (sweet, salty, sour, bitter; five if you include umami) and second that different parts of the tongue taste different things—have been discredited. Instead, scientists now believe that there may be at least 40 different taste receptors—and hence many different tastes—and that they are located all over the mouth. More specifically it is now possible to target “which proteins in which receptors send which signals to the brain.”

Quite naturally, food manufacturers are salivating over the prospect of new ways to tweak the taste of their products. Weiler found that low-sodium V8 juice tasted “more tomatoey and savory” when laced with Betra, a “bitter blocker” that counteracts the metallic aftertaste of potassium chloride.

More disturbing, perhaps, is the idea that restaurants will begin to use taste blockers to manipulate flavor based on a diner’s personal DNA. Chemist Chris Young, formerly a food research manager at Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck, told Weiler: “If understanding your genome allows chefs to understand, in advance, your likes and dislikes, that would allow them to personalize the experience even more.” So what if I love asparagus and you don’t? Under this scenario, you and I could both order the asparagus risotto, but each be served a different chemical-laced version that tastes….fabulous!

This is probably the next stage in the evolution of scientific cooking. But I’m dubious. Somehow, the delicious flavor of fresh sweet asparagus, simply stewed in butter and stirred into a creamy risotto with finely grated lemon zest, seems to have been left out of the equation.

The perception of aromas: in "What’s the Peppery Note in Those Shirazes?" (The New York Times, June 4, 2008, p. D5), Harold McGee reports that shiraz and white pepper have a molecule in common: rotundone. A team from the Australian Wine Research Institute, seeking to identify the compound that makes shiraz peppery, found that “most people can smell rotundone at levels of parts per billion, making it by far the most potent aromatic in pepper, and a significant contributor to the aroma of shiraz. Still 20 percent of those tested couldn’t smell rotundone at all: proof, the researchers said, the two people can have entirely different experiences of the same peppery foods, or peppery wines.

And about miracle fruit: By now you’ve surely read about the Supreme Commander’s miracle fruit flavor-tripping party (“A Tiny Fruit that Tricks the Tongue” by Patrick Farrell and Kassie Bracken, The New York Times, May 24, 2008.) Demand has soared for the tropical red berry which makes everything, even lemons and vinegar, taste sweet after eating it: Curtis Mozzie, who grows the berry in Florida and sells it through his website, can’t keep up with the glut of orders that have flowed in since the article was published.

While you’re waiting to launch your own tasting party ($90 for 30 berries with overnight shipping) you can watch The Times video about the party. And to learn about the plots and counterplots which have kept the miracle fruit from being widely marketed in the U.S., read Adam Leith Gollner’s The Fruit Hunters, which devotes an entire chapter to the West African berry. Surely there’s a movie in the works.