Smells like industrial soap to some
Somebody I work with said they don’t like cilantro at lunch the other day. And it wasn’t just “don’t like” it was visceral distaste. Like me and mayonnaise.
I was surprised, as I thought cilantro was pretty innocuous. I don’t seek it out, but it doesn’t bug me.
It turns ought, though, that cilantro can be a very divisive food… Cilantro has 6 or so odor generating chemicals in it, some of which smell like bad stuff. Depending on how sensitive you are to those, your “this food will taste bad – avoid!” brain pattern might fire and you will hate cilantro – based on the smell.
The senses of smell and taste evolved to evoke strong emotions, he explained, because they were critical to finding food and mates and avoiding poisons and predators. When we taste a food, the brain searches its memory to find a pattern from past experience that the flavor belongs to. Then it uses that pattern to create a perception of flavor, including an evaluation of its desirability.
If the flavor doesn’t fit a familiar food experience, and instead fits into a pattern that involves chemical cleaning agents and dirt, or crawly insects, then the brain highlights the mismatch and the potential threat to our safety. We react strongly and throw the offending ingredient on the floor where it belongs.
Mayonnaise makes me want to throw up if I eat it. Yet I”m fine with the ingredients and I like similar mixes, like hollandaise sauce. I hadn’t thought smell was at the root of my mayo-hate, but I betcha it is.
April 14th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Where would great Mexican,Asian or Indian food be without cilantro?! AKA Chinese parsley, coriander, and culantro. Can’t have a great salsa without cilantro!
April 14th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Heidi must not eat salsa. I’ll check at our next lunch…
April 14th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
This could be why I have a deep-rooted hate of the smell of coffee.
April 14th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Interesting…. that is sort of backwards. Most people love the smell, but then call the taste “acquired”.
April 15th, 2010 at 10:26 am
I coulndt get anyone to try my pickled eggs and beets at lunch yesterday, and that was just because opf appearance. They couldn’t smell them. Aquired taste, I guess. I eat them like candy.
April 15th, 2010 at 10:45 am
and I did not acquire that taste!
April 15th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Mon Dieu! The garde manger stumped by a presentation of one of the nation’s favorite bar foods. Make some of them HOT by substituting jalapeño juice for some of your vinegar. Lable that batch and dare anybody to eat a whole one. Never overcook the eggs as the pickling makes the whites (now pink even w/o the beets) a bit rubbery.
April 15th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Get to love it, especially if you like fresh salsa with cilantro leaves.
■Cilantro is one of the richest herbal sources for vitamin K; provides about 258% of DRI. Vitamin-K has potential role in bone mass building by promoting osteotrophic activity in the bones. It also has established role in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease patients by limiting neuronal damage in their brain.
It helps your blood clot too!