0

Good day, this seems more of a biology question rather than a cooking question, however, I don't know where else to ask. My question is simple? Is it possible to train someones tongue to be more sensitive to flavours with practice? I've noticed that my palette isn't that sensitive to flavours at times and I was wondering if there's a way to improve it. It really would help in cooking since I can fine tune my flavours more.

Razgriz
  • 415
  • 4
  • 8
  • 16

1 Answers1

1

Sure...well, almost. I don't believe you will be training your actual taste sensors to become more sensitive (biologists or flavor chemists can correct me), but you can learn to improve your recognition and understanding of flavor. So, it is a matter of training your brain, not your tongue. It's how chef's, sommeiliers, food/taste chemists, and even home cooks get better and become experts. Taste a lot...observe...take notes...practice. I would start with one food, one cuisine, or one beverage (like wine), and learn as much as possible about it, by which I mainly mean lots of tasting. You will find that you begin to recognize aroma and flavor profiles, variation and even imperfections. Of course, this takes time, but the journey can be very rewarding.

moscafj
  • 72,382
  • 3
  • 117
  • 207
  • Agreed, especially useful when you need to substitute. It helps you know what you can get away with or improve a recipe without a negative impact, for instance Gruyere and Swiss, depending on what you want to happen, you may be able to get away with using Swiss which is half the price. It will taste mostly the same but has a different texture. Or knowing which kinds of blue cheeses are better for this or that recipe, some blues are really mild and some are so funky they start to taste like apricot. – Escoce Sep 22 '15 at 13:56