We eat and savor; if we are very observant, we also pause to notice the smell. The fact is that, besides the sense of taste, when we eat, we put all five senses into practice, to a greater or lesser extent, sometimes without even realizing it.
We know that our taste buds, depending on their location on the tongue, can distinguish bitter, sour, sweet, salty, and the still recently described umami flavor, which is produced by monosodium glutamate and is present in ripe tomatoes, mushrooms, and aged cheeses. It is said that the variation in taste buds makes some of us more or less sensitive to flavors. When we mix the sensations from our taste buds with the smells that foods release, sometimes we cannot tell where taste ends and smell begins. The most typical example is when we have a cold and food "doesn't taste like anything." It is not that our taste buds stop working, but that our sense of smell is compromised. Believe it or not, the sense of touch is also an essential part of tasting. For example, how many times have you felt displeasure at the texture of a food, even if you like it in its normal state? This happens, for instance, with purées: obviously, applesauce has the flavor of apple, concentrated by cooking, but many people dislike the texture of purée. How often do we find people who prefer a food raw and are disgusted by it when cooked? All these issues relate to our ability to detect textures, through the sense of touch. But also, to the associations we make between purées and situations where one cannot chew, such as being ill.
They say love is born from sight, and without a doubt, food also enters through the eyes. Sometimes, it is enough for a dish to look pleasant or unpleasant according to our visual criteria for us not to even dare to try it. Hearing also determines our perception during tasting. Does a potato chip that doesn't crunch (texture and sound) taste the same to you as one that does? And what about the importance of hearing in cooking? From the traditional coin placed at the bottom of the tamale pot to know when they are well cooked, to using hearing to tell from afar when water is boiling.
The most curious thing about all this is that recent studies on the influence of the senses on food perception have led to unheard-of discoveries. There is a project at the University of Oxford where they have found that what we hear while eating changes how food tastes to us. Listening to a harmony of first sweet (soft) and then bitter (strong, powerful) sounds while drinking a cup of coffee, more changes in the balance of flavors are detected. The same happens with chocolate and certain types of wine. The difference in perception is so marked that there are even recommendations for music and sounds to pair with different wines and enhance specific properties. These discoveries have applications in marketing to induce certain types of perceptions. Have you ever thought about what kind of sounds you hear when you eat? If you invite someone to eat at home, do you play music? What kind of music? According to the same researchers, listening to ocean sounds while eating seafood would increase the perception of freshness.
So, next time you have guests, remember that good cooking, flavors, smells, and textures can all be enhanced by the quality of music that accompanies your gatherings. Undoubtedly, all these sensory perceptions are ultimately modified by culture and society, where certain tastes in music are associated with specific social classes. Biology, then, is never free from being influenced by the social, whether we want to recognize it or not.
— This article was originally published in Spanish by Liliana Martínez Lomelí. Translation generated with AI from the original text.