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SMELL AND TASTE - by J.C.

“....smell and taste form a single sense, of which the mouth is the laboratory and the nose is the chimney….”

With these words expresses Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, in his marvelous book “Physiologie du Goût or Méditations de Gastronomie Transcendante” (The Physiology of Taste or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy), what he was tempted to believe about the relationship between smell and taste.

We agree with the famous gastronomer, writer and lawyer, at least in what refers to the dependence of tasting to smelling. If you have a doubt, think about why some people, mainly children, pinch shut their noses while taking some horrible medicine. Certainly, without the sense of smell you can not find any flavor in any thing you swallow. So, even if smell and taste are frequently referred to separately, one has to keep in mind that, essentially, tasting can not be separated from smelling.

When we refer to the sense of smell but in relation with the “act of tasting” or “dégustation” (of a wine, a meal, etc.), it is necessary to distinguish between direct olfaction and retro olfaction. In direst olfaction the volatile molecules that a material must provide in order to be odorous, reach the olfactory epithelium directly through the nose. The important matter here is, then, that enough amount of volatile molecules reach the receptors in the epithelium, under the unique influence of environmental characteristics such as temperature. In the case of liquids, as wine for example, swirling allows other molecules reach the nose by converting into gas, and oxidation, that also occurs by swirling, can change the molecules and its fragrance.

In retro olfaction, on the other hand, the volatile molecules reach the nose from the mouth. The matter to be tasted is allocated into the mouth, where other factors come into scene: mouth temperature, movement caused by the tongue, air that can be sucked into the mouth… These factors can produce that additional molecules, that could not make the transition to volatile, when submitted only to environmental conditions, now can do so and reach the olfactory epithelium, obviously from the mouth. Direct and retro olfaction are very important when one is going to fulfill the act of tasting.

With regard to taste, specifically, it is normally accepted that there are four basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. And it is well known that they can be perceived through taste buds which are allocated all over the mouth. Each of the four classical tastes impressions different parts of mouth. So, sweet can be better perceived on the tip of the tongue, salty immediately afterward, sour at the sides of the tongue, but also on the cheek area and on the back of the throat, bitter is better sensed backward on the tongue.

But it seams to be really five the number of basic tastes. “Umami,” the fifth one, was recognized by Chinese at least since one millennium ago. In our side (western world) mister Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, seams to have recognized it on his own, given what it is written in his forementioned book, about a certain “savory taste” in some foods. “Savory,” “tasty,” “delicious,” are terms traditionally employed to refer to umami taste. And this is absolutely reasonable, given that the term come from Japanese words “umai” and “mi”, meaning “delicious” and “essence” respectively.

In honor of this fifth basic taste, there even exists a Restaurant in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y. the Umami Cafe, where exaltation of umami flavor is pursued since its opening in 2002.

In order to provide umami as a seasoning, it was created “Monosodium Glutamate (MSG),” by Japanese Professor Kikunae Ikeda, who in 1907 isolated the flavor, which he had identified as a distinctive taste, differing from those classical four, when he sensed it in “kombu,” a variety of seaweed, common in Japanese culinary art. You can find MSG in some supermarkets, mainly in those specialized in oriental food.

In conclusion, when talking about “dégustation,” it is very worthy to affirm, after Brillat-Savarin one more time, that taste serves to perceive the flavor of actual bodies and smell allows the savoring of their gases.