I get why sugar makes things taste better since it tastes good by itself but why does something like cooking oil which doesn’t taste good on its own make food taste better than it otherwise would be?
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Basically evolution. How about a carrot for example. Not bad raw. But much sweeter when boiled in water at higher temps. This breaks down a lot of starch in the carrot which are long chains of sugar. We can’t taste long chains but love the taste of short chains (glucose, sucrose, etc).
Now, instead of boiling in water, do the same in oil. Now you have the same thing happen but a ton more calories as well. This is obviously something we’ve evolved to find more delicious.
In the wild, the amount of energy (calories) it takes to chemically breakdown food after consumption is a big deal. As humans, we often take this for granted since we cook everything which breaks it down for us and therefore releasing the calories. In fact, it is understood that cooking food and the extra calories it provides was essential in human brain evolution — an organ that requires a lot of calories.
Back to the oil, you’re basically just artificially adding survival yummy points to your less yummy ingredients. You’re also releasing locked up yummy points in your ingredients with the heat. You could probably fry up some tissue paper and salt it and would be not so bad
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