heat isn’t a flavor, so why do we prefer food hot or cold?
In: Biology
A lot of the compounds in food that we taste are fats, oils, and other volatile compounds. You would taste those more intensely when you eat hot food. This means that some flavors are made more or less intense based on heat. Some foods would benefit from this, especially if they were prepared with the intention of being served hot.
Heat changes the food that we eat. The temperature can change the texture of many foods, sometimes quite drastically. Something like ice cream is a pretty extreme example, but many (probably most) foods have some noticeable texture changes as they’re warmed or cooled.
But also, much of our sense of taste is actually processed via our sense of smell. There are passages in your throat that connect to your nose, so food particles travel up there when you eat and your brain combines those smells with the signals from your tongue to produce the overall ‘flavors’ that you taste.
Anyways, at different temperatures, foods can release more or less of various compounds, so they can smell/taste differently depending on their temperature.
Heat is just one property of many that make food more familiar or enjoyable. We also enjoy texture, which also isn’t a flavor, and that’s more than hard or soft, crunchy or rubbery, it’s how it feels in the mouth, how it feels when chewed, when swallowed. There is also color, presentation, smell, etc. Why do we prefer crisp green lettuce rather than wilted brown lettuce? Both are edible. We are capable of appreciating more dimensions of food than just flavor alone.
And flavor isn’t singly dimensional, either, it’s informed with cultural context, for example. In India, cinnamon is a spice in savory meaty dishes. In western Europe, it’s used in deserts and sweets, which is nearly unimaginable and unheard of in India.
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