FLAVOR: It's Sensory Perception

Winter is a season of flavorful bursts. The dinner to warm and nourish, a breakfast of eggs plucked from perhaps your own hens' laying boxes, dishes prepared with carefully preserved vegetables and fruits (talking about YOU, Master Food Preservers!). Cookies and cakes mixed with a perfectly calibrated helping of vanilla, to which you always add more. If you were asked to give an opinion about any one of these food experiences you might say “oh, dinner tasted great!” or “the cookies are delicious!” But, in a more descriptive manner, you might respond---"the carrots were cooked to perfect texture, the shape of the cookies made me smile, the herbs added to the potatoes reminded me of my uncle's cooking, the scent of the grilled fish was fragrant with citrus.” These alternate descriptions recognize the use of sight, touch, aroma, memory, and other tools to express the perception of flavor.

Although we tend to use the words ‘taste' and ‘flavor' interchangeably, Flavor (capitalization intended) is composed of all our senses: taste, smell, touch, sound, and sight. And, of these, the smell of food is the captain that steers the ship of Flavor perception.

For many gardeners and cooks the standout flavor in the home garden is that of the luscious tomato. And, if asked what the initial attraction in the selection of a tomato is, aroma usually pops out as the answer. We know that the industrialization of food plays a part in the blandness of tomatoes that we buy from a supermarket instead of growing in our garden patch. Yield, size, and shipping are just a few of the issues that affect the bottom line. But another factor is the lack of historical data needed to compare the flavor of past decades with what we find now. We believe that fruits and vegetables tasted better in the past but there is not adequate scientific data in the record to tell us why that may be true. One of UC Davis's own food scientists, Dr. Alyson Mitchell, weighed in on this topic for FLAVOR. (see author's note below) A starting point for information about her work may be viewed online here.

A recent conversation with a food scientist shed more light on the connection between industrialized food and flavor. Kalsec is a Michigan-based company founded in 1958 in Kalamazoo. Its purpose was to extract spices and create consistent flavor profiles for commercial customers. For example, Company XYZ needs to establish standardized flavor attributes for their canned soup product. Consistency is essential. Kalsec scientists will create this flavor profile using raw spices from agricultural fields. The process involves extracting variations found in the spice crops. The flavor profile is then designed minus the variations that would prevent standardization. Testing and quality control guarantee consistency throughout production of the canned soup variety. Yes, it's processed food born out of the cultural changes during the years after WWII. It became all about appearance, ease of shipping to further destinations, consistency in taste and texture and ease of preparation.

The topic of wine flavor is incredibly complex and is covered in the book entitled FLAVOR. It's a subject I wanted to distill and present in this article but found it too daunting. See author's note below to learn where to find it. And, as my food scientist friend offered at the close of our conversation, “don't think about the flavor complexities too often; just sit and enjoy a glass of wine that you like...…for whatever reason.” He makes a good point!

Author's note:
Some of the information in this article may be found and savored in author Bob Holmes' book: FLAVOR The Science of Our Most Neglected Sense published 2017

Finally, various incomplete definitions of Flavor through the years:
(a 1980 pocket dictionary) Taste; esp., a distinctive element in the overall taste of something
(Dictionary.com) Taste, especially the distinctive taste of something as it is experienced in the mouth.
(Wikipedia) either the sensory perception of taste or smell, or a flavoring in food that produces such perception