Your skin adapts to the touch of your clothing. Your sense of smell adapts to persisting odors that your brain accepts as harmless. In the same way, your sense of taste adapts to sensations that repeat, the better to register new tastes that may signal danger for you (such as spoilage or poison). This caveman trick of the body provides us with much of the joy of eating, too, as it allows us to perceive each new, pleasurable flavor as long as that flavor is sufficiently distinct from the one preceding it.
This is one reason successful chefs offer a harmonious interplay of flavors in their dishes. As each taste—sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami—expresses itself, it refreshes the palate from the previous taste, and you taste more in every bite. (Add the effects of texture and temperature to taste, and your total experience becomes even more layered.)
But it’s not quite that simple. Food rarely exhibits only one taste—most foods have different levels of various tastes. An apple is sweet (from natural sugars) and sour (from acidity). Miso is sweet, salty, and umami. So, when ingredients are combined, adaptation may suppress one taste and cause another to become artificially heightened. Chefs work to use this side effect to their advantage and to avoid being snared by its downside.
To experience it, try this experiment. You’ll need commercial toothpaste and orange juice. First put a dab of toothpaste on your tongue, taste, and swallow. Note the sweetness. Now take a sip of orange juice. Not as sweet as it should be, is it? The OJ tastes bitter because the taste receptors in your mouth have adapted to the greater sweetness of the toothpaste. This “cancels out” the lesser sweetness of the juice, making its bitter component stand out more.
Adaptation can work for or against you in food and wine pairing. An upcoming post will include a few tricks to remember.
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