Taster’s Choice: Why I Hate Raw Tomatoes and You Don’t

jtotheizzoe:

Jennifer Ouellette takes you through the strange science of flavor preference as she admits to being a tomato-hater. 

We’ve heard of those segments of the population that despise cilantro on a molecular level, who can or can’t taste savory umami, and now I discover that a surprising number of people hate the taste of raw tomatoes too?

It’s an alien sensation to me, as I go for pretty much anything when it comes to food. I’ll eat cilantro like it’s salad greens and tomatoes like they’re apples. But the science of flavor recognition is a complex one, and certain genes can alter the way we perceive volatile aromas, how our mouth and nose react to flavor compounds and even change how we discern the molecular structure of core nutrients in our food.

Go check out Jennifer’s wonderful and in-depth flavor science piece at Cocktail Party Physics, and save your tomatoes for me. They’re about to be in season.