Not only are there more than four tastes, but In 1995, the
Physiology of smell took a significant step forward with the identification of
the proteins that comprise the receptors of nasal olfactory cells and various
types of bitterness have been discovered. Alejandro Caicedo and Stephen Roper at
the University of Miami have shown that the human gustatory system is capable
of distinguishing various sorts of bitter taste. The Miami studies showed once
again, only this time at the cellular level, which the different parts of the tongue
are not specific to particular tastes, contrary to a view widely held among
cooks and gourmets. The nerve fibers that go out from cells specific to a given
class of bitterness seem to be grouped in dedicated bundles that communicate with a
particular area of the brain.
Why do we chew in the first place? Everyone knows that
mastication breaks up food into smaller pieces—small enough that, having also
been lubricated by saliva, they simply degenerate into the digestive system. For
each food, then, there are an optimal number
of masticatory movements. In asserting that “animals feed, man eats,”
Brillat-Savarin sought to do away with the animal side of our nature—the mere fact
that disturbed the Précieuses of mid–seventeenth-century salons in Paris, who
made a practice of mousses because they eliminated the need for “the unsightly
act of mastication.” And yet who wants to forgo the pleasures of a piece of crusty
bread? A sticky dumpling? A crispy piece of bacon? If we are to enjoy the full array
of pleasures that the culinary world offers, we must honestly receive our understanding
and grow our physiological peculiarities to the benefit of our penchant for nutritious
food. As mammals, we chew our food in order to increase the surface area available
to digestive enzymes. Indirectly, then, mastication accelerates the
assimilation of nourishment.
Small pieces of food are broken up less carefully than bigger
pieces. On the other hand, the number of fragments into which a mouthful of
food is divided by chewing depends on the mechanical characteristics of food in
question. Calculation showed that the cohesion of the masticated food is
initially low, then rapidly increases and reaches its highest point after
twenty cycles. After that point, it diminishes as the particles become smaller
and smaller.
“The Creator, in
making man eat in order to live,” Brillat-Savarin observed, “persuaded him by
appetite and rewarded with by pleasure.” Because we take pleasure in eating, we
extend our enjoyment by chewing longer than is strictly necessary in order to obtain
food particles to bind. Depending on their physical characteristics, foods require
a greater or lesser degree of mastication and so continue the pleasure one
takes from a dish. The shorter the time that food is chewed, the fewer the
number of odorant and taste molecules that are released. More generally, the
hypothesis that the body automatically detects the perfect coherence of mouthfuls
of food ought to be a source of innovative ideas for the cook who wants to find
new ways to integrate sticky, gluey, dry, or absorbent ingredients.
It is not enough to understand the principles; one needs to know how to manipulate.
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