Why umami and mouthfeel are important when you have a poor sense of smell
In a recent zoom event to discuss mouthfeel, we talked about all the ways that food texture contribute to our food pleasure experience. Normally, we are only aware of food texture when it is disgusting. Perhaps you don’t like the idea of oysters, or rice pudding. So we can be aware of mouthfeel often when it is bad. Now let me give you an example that will help you compare good and not-so-good mouthfeel. A hot dog is something that many people eat and enjoy, but if I put it in a food processor and gave you liquidised hot dog, would you enjoy it as much?
Mouthfeel is the subject of a wonderful book by Ole Mouritsen and Klavs Styrbaek. It illustrates the many ways that what you feel with your tongue plays a role in how much you enjoy something. Little nuggets of sea salt on top of chocolate chip cookies? The chewy bite of a well frozen ice cream sandwich? Or really crispy bacon? If I ask you to imagine your favourite foods before you lost your sense of smell, which of these words would you select to describe it?
Chewiness: The sensation of sustained, elastic resistance from food while it is chewed: chewy ice cream, tough meat, pork crackling
Cohesiveness: The degree to which the sample deforms before rupturing when biting with molars: leathery, gummy, tender
Crunchiness: The audible grinding of a food when it is chewed: crisps, crackers
Density: The compactness of cross section of the sample after biting completely through with the molars: jelly (not dense), licorice (very dense)
Dryness: The degree to which the sample feels dry in the mouth: crackers
Exquisiteness: The perceived quality of the item in question: very personal to you
Fracturability: The force with which the sample crumbles, cracks or shatters – Fracturability encompasses crumbliness, crispiness, crunchiness and brittleness.
Graininess: The degree to which a sample contains small grainy particles: baclava
Gumminess: The energy required to disintegrate a semi-solid food to a state ready for swallowing: Gummy bears!
Hardness: The force required to deform the product to a given distance, i.e., force to compress between molars, bite through with incisors, compress between tongue and palate: peanut brittle
Heaviness: The weight of product perceived when first placed on tongue: Greek yogurt
Juiciness
Moisture absorption: The amount of saliva absorbed by product
Moisture release: The amount of wetness/juiciness released from sample
Mouthcoating: The type and degree of coating in the mouth after mastication (for example, fat/oil)
Roughness: The degree of abrasiveness of product’s surface perceived by the tongue: fresh baguette
Slipperiness: The degree to which the product slides over the tongue
Smoothness: The absence of any particles, lumps, bumps, etc., in the product
Uniformity: The degree to which the sample is even throughout or the homogeneity of the sample
Uniformity of bite: The evenness of force throughout the bite
Uniformity of chew: The degree to which the chewing characteristics of the product are even throughout mastication
Viscosity: The force required to draw a liquid from a spoon over the tongue: think of honey, treacle, yogurt, mayo, toothpaste
Wetness: The amount of moisture perceived on product’s surface
I had the pleasure of meeting one of the book’s authors at the ISOT conference. Ole Mouritsen has a new book out with his colleague Klavs Styrbaek, Umami, which looks at the role of this “fifth taste” in food pleasure for people with no/poor sense of smell. Umami is such a fascinating subject, and it really can bring greater depth and pleasure to food in the absence of smell.
Many of our most common foods have umami in them, and combining them brings greater levels of deliciousness. Common umami containing foods are soy sauce, kombu seaweed, dried fish, tomatoes, cheese, mushrooms and olives
I’ll be exploring umami more in the coming months. I hope you will join me then!
