Basically the title. Counts for drinks too.
In: 1
Because a large majority of taste is actually aroma that goes up the back of your throat to your nose, and aromas vaporize at different strengths depending on composition and temperature. So at a warmer temperature, you’re getting a different combination of aromas.
Colder, all aromas are subdued some, leaving you with more of just your tastebuds reacting to basic salty, sour, sweet flavors instead of complex aromas.
Because a large majority of taste is actually aroma that goes up the back of your throat to your nose, and aromas vaporize at different strengths depending on composition and temperature. So at a warmer temperature, you’re getting a different combination of aromas.
Colder, all aromas are subdued some, leaving you with more of just your tastebuds reacting to basic salty, sour, sweet flavors instead of complex aromas.
There’s also a thing in cooking called the Maillard reaction. It’s what makes browned, toasted or caramelized foods a have a different flavor when cooked.
There’s also a thing in cooking called the Maillard reaction. It’s what makes browned, toasted or caramelized foods a have a different flavor when cooked.
Although we think of the taste of some food as just using the sense of taste, it is actually a combination of taste and smell. Think about when you have a cold with a really blocked nose, food tends to taste fuller.
Plus the overall experience includes the actual feel of it in your mouth and other senses
So the whole “taste” is actually a combination of multiple sensory processes being combined.
So if something happens to the food that alters how we sense any of these things, it will alter how it tastes to us.
Often when you heat something, it will smell stronger. We will then smell it more as we eat it and it will often taste stronger than if it’s cold.
You then have hearing or cooling can also change how thick a liquid is. Generally cooling a liquid down will make it thicker. And we are actually really good at sensing slight changes in how a thick liquid is, so again it changes the tasting experience.
Theres also things that others have mentioned, like the Maillard reaction, which will only happen when something has been heated and particles in the food have been changed by the direct heat. For example, if you poached a chicken breast it gives you one texture and flavour. Pan fry it or roast it and you’ll get a slightly different taste to it, and when it goes cold you will get a very similar flavour but slightly more muted.
I do know a really weird fact about one of the reasons cold pizza the day after it was made tastes good, and it results in a very subtle change in the taste that most don’t consciously notice, they just know this does taste good and doesn’t need reheated. The carbs in the cheese have had time to slightly break down into simpler sugars, making it ever so slightly sweeter and more flavourful.
As I’ve mentioned above the overall “taste” of a food is a combination of sensory inputs. Our memories will also affect that experience. So if you have very pleasant memories of a food and they all connect with when the food was either hot or cold, then that food may become a bit of a comfort food for you. If you have that food at the wrong temperature, it doesn’t give you that same subconscious connection to the pleasant memory, so there is something telling you this tastes wrong.
My personal example of the above isn’t about temperature of food is not about food, but texture. When I was little my gran would regularly make Scottish tablet. This requires heating the ingredients to boiling the stirring it until very very thick. It’s difficult for a little kid, who wants to be involved to do, and not safe due to the temperature (boiling sugar plus clumsy little kid is not a good combination). So I would stand on the bench at the kitchen table watching my gran do this. When she’s done and poured the tablet into trays to set, she would give me the now cooled pan and a spoon to scrape the remaining tablet off the sides and eat it. That would be solid so when you scrape it off, it crumbles and becomes small crumbs and flakes. So now I get far more enjoyment from eating tablet that is in this form rather than taking a bite of tablet normally. Mmm, I really want tablet now. But I hope you get what I mean. It’s a completely different experience to me and the tablet pretty much tastes different to me because elf that change in texture.
Hope that at least some of this makes sense and answers at least part of your question
Although we think of the taste of some food as just using the sense of taste, it is actually a combination of taste and smell. Think about when you have a cold with a really blocked nose, food tends to taste fuller.
Plus the overall experience includes the actual feel of it in your mouth and other senses
So the whole “taste” is actually a combination of multiple sensory processes being combined.
So if something happens to the food that alters how we sense any of these things, it will alter how it tastes to us.
Often when you heat something, it will smell stronger. We will then smell it more as we eat it and it will often taste stronger than if it’s cold.
You then have hearing or cooling can also change how thick a liquid is. Generally cooling a liquid down will make it thicker. And we are actually really good at sensing slight changes in how a thick liquid is, so again it changes the tasting experience.
Theres also things that others have mentioned, like the Maillard reaction, which will only happen when something has been heated and particles in the food have been changed by the direct heat. For example, if you poached a chicken breast it gives you one texture and flavour. Pan fry it or roast it and you’ll get a slightly different taste to it, and when it goes cold you will get a very similar flavour but slightly more muted.
I do know a really weird fact about one of the reasons cold pizza the day after it was made tastes good, and it results in a very subtle change in the taste that most don’t consciously notice, they just know this does taste good and doesn’t need reheated. The carbs in the cheese have had time to slightly break down into simpler sugars, making it ever so slightly sweeter and more flavourful.
As I’ve mentioned above the overall “taste” of a food is a combination of sensory inputs. Our memories will also affect that experience. So if you have very pleasant memories of a food and they all connect with when the food was either hot or cold, then that food may become a bit of a comfort food for you. If you have that food at the wrong temperature, it doesn’t give you that same subconscious connection to the pleasant memory, so there is something telling you this tastes wrong.
My personal example of the above isn’t about temperature of food is not about food, but texture. When I was little my gran would regularly make Scottish tablet. This requires heating the ingredients to boiling the stirring it until very very thick. It’s difficult for a little kid, who wants to be involved to do, and not safe due to the temperature (boiling sugar plus clumsy little kid is not a good combination). So I would stand on the bench at the kitchen table watching my gran do this. When she’s done and poured the tablet into trays to set, she would give me the now cooled pan and a spoon to scrape the remaining tablet off the sides and eat it. That would be solid so when you scrape it off, it crumbles and becomes small crumbs and flakes. So now I get far more enjoyment from eating tablet that is in this form rather than taking a bite of tablet normally. Mmm, I really want tablet now. But I hope you get what I mean. It’s a completely different experience to me and the tablet pretty much tastes different to me because elf that change in texture.
Hope that at least some of this makes sense and answers at least part of your question
Latest Answers