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The Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah

Have you ever wondered why you put salt or olive oil into the water when you’re boiling pasta?  (For the record, I prefer salt to oil; the oil can prevent sauces from sticking to the pasta when the meal is prepared.)  A friend and I were discussing this recently, and neither of us knew why we salted the water, only that we were taught to do so and so we did.  I decided to do some research, expecting Google to reveal a short, sweet, and entirely un-blog-worthy answer involving taste or boiling points.  How wrong I was!  Before I get to the point, allow me a few digressions.

You may recall from middle school science class that humans experience five basic taste sensations: bitter, salty, sour, sweet, and umami.  (You may also remember that certain parts of the tongue are supposedly more sensitive to certain tastes; turns out, that may not be true.)  Like primary colors, these primary tastes cannot be recreated by combining the other primary tastes.  Interestingly, cutting-edge research suggests that a sixth primary taste exists for fat, and that people who are most sensitive to the taste of fat consume less of it.

The first four basic tastes are fairly self-explanatory, but you may want to know a little more about the fifth.  (If you don’t want to know more about it, just skip to the next paragraph, but it’s your loss…)  Umami is a Japanese word that is best translated as savoriness or deliciousness.  The glutamates that impart the umami taste are especially present in protein-rich foods like meat.  And if you ever wondered why monosodium glutamate makes food taste so good (and you know it does), it’s because MSG is almost pure umami.  It doesn’t have much flavor on its own, but it enhances other flavors in foods and adds a remarkable depth of flavor.

It’s easy enough to wrap your mind around the basic tastes, but I learned recently that the human palate is not as straightforward as it seems.  Common sense says that salt is the antithesis of sweet.  But, salt actually operates to mask bitter flavors in foods.  The end result?  The food tastes sweeter.  Think about it: doesn’t it make more sense now that many recipes for sweet foods like cakes call for a little (usually less than a teaspoon) of salt? Read here about an experiment you can try at home with tonic water to taste first-hand how salt affects bitterness.  It makes me think twice about the newest craze in haute cuisine, bacon-flavored desserts (chocolate; ice cream; etc.).  An unrelated aside: bacon-flavored vodka? Intriguing…

Knowledge isn’t all that exciting unless it has some practical application to your life, in my opinion.  In this case, this knowledge about the effects of salt on how we taste food may have more practical application for several of my friends, including Biloxi and Woodshed Players Wiley and Andrew, than for myself.  Take my word for it, it’s like pulling teeth to get these clowns to eat vegetables.  Ask Jamie Oliver — no matter what your high school cafeteria says, french fries do not count as a vegetable:

Turns out, there may be a reason that no matter how many times you tell them they should eat their veggies and no matter how many times you try to sneak it into a recipe without them knowing, they protest.  Recent research suggests that about one quarter of the American population have a higher concentration of taste buds on their tongues than the other 75%.  These “supertasters” are believed to be especially sensitive to the tastes of bitter and fats.  Vegetables like broccoli, spinach, and brussel sprouts are especially bitter.  Many people would suggest adding a fat like oil, butter, or cheese to broccoli to get these picky eaters to enjoy it, but remember that supertasters are especially sensitive and adverse to the taste of fats, too, so it’s six of one taste or a half dozen of the other.  But, salt masks bitterness without adding fatty flavors, so it may provide a way for supertasters to get the vegetables they need and the bitter compounds that some new research suggests prevents certain cancers.   But, if your picky eater enjoys grapefruits, strong coffee, green tea, hoppy beer, or many wines, then they are probably not a supertaster, because these foods are also high in bitterness.  As for Biloxi, Andrew, and Wiley, the supertaster diagnosis is unlikely: as I said, only 25% of the population qualifies, and about two-thirds of those people are female.

Do the NYTimes expirement with tonic water, or go sprinkle a little bit of a salt on a grapefruit or in some coffee; I bet you’ll be surprised what you taste!  Hope you enjoyed this little lesson about salt.  Want to know more about this world-changing compound?  Check out “Salt: A World History,” by Mark Kulansky.

Tagged: culinary adventures, who knew on Sunday, April 4, 2010 · 6 Comments »