Why do we like dessert, but not extremely salty, sour, umami, or bitter foods alone? [closed]
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This is a "soft" question that's been bothering me for a while.
When cooking savory dishes, we usually try to balance out the five basic flavors (sweet, salty, sour, umami, and bitter) so that none of them dominates. None of these flavors should overwhelm the dish, but when present in the right ratios we will perceive a dish as tasting good.
On the other hand, we also enjoy dishes that are mostly sweet. In Western cultures these are eaten as dessert, usually after the savory portion of a meal, though in some other cultures (e.g. in Japan) sweet foods are traditionally eaten separately from savory meals. We do like having hints of the other four flavors in sweet dishes (e.g. salt in chocolate chip cookies, bitterness in coffee-flavored ice cream, etc.) but sweetness is certainly the dominating flavor.
My question is: why don't we have salty, sour, bitter, or umami equivalents of "dessert"? In other words, why do we not, for example, have a separate dish at meals which is overwhelmingly sour, which only a hint of the other flavors? Why is sweetness unique in this regard?
Best Answer
There's also probably a bit of biology involved: sugars are calorie-dense, and thus good sources of calories when you're struggling to survive on what you can forage. Bitter foods are often dangerous or poisonous in some ways; sour foods are often unripe, and thus harder to digest, and umami is a fairly neutral indicator. Salt can be dehydrating in large quantities. I have heard that this explains why little children need no coaxing to eat sweets but rarely like bitter or astringent foods.
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Why can we taste sweet things?
Generally, sweetness is caused by a form of sugar or alcohol. Certain amino acids may also taste sweet. Scientists think we evolved to like sweetness because it helps us recognize energy-dense foods. Sweet foods are often high in carbohydrates, like glucose, which provide our bodies with fuel.What is the difference between salty and umami?
Salty \u2013 associated with salt (sodium chloride), mineral salts. Umami \u2013 associated with proteins and amino acids such as glutamate, nucleotides that are found in cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, etc.Why do we have the five tastes?
There are five main tastes, one for sweet, sour, savory, bitter, and salty. Animals have evolved to taste sugar to find carbohydrates for energy and a safe source for calories. Animals have evolved to taste savory things to be able to pick up the taste of protein.Why is umami not savory?
Umami is a savory or meaty flavor that is produced by free form glutamate, a particular amino acid that produces the umami taste only when it is not bound by other amino acids.Can we taste more than just bitter, salty, sour, sweet and umami?
More answers regarding why do we like dessert, but not extremely salty, sour, umami, or bitter foods alone? [closed]
Answer 2
This is what we are used to. Back in the 15th century, meals were not separated that strongly into sweet and savory. Over the centuries, with the industrial availability of sugar, the separation became stronger, especially in France, the pioneer of courses.
A French five course dinner is:
- entrée
- plat
- salade
- fromage
- dessert
No course should repeat core flavors and tastes of another one. The dessert had to be sweet, as other courses were not allowed to be sweet.
As you have stated yourself, it's a cultural thing, which also changed over time and will continue to change. For example, salad was eaten after the main course up to the 20th century in the States. Around the first World War this started to change and it became more common to eat it before (maybe to make use of it as a filler).
Maybe in 300 years, sugar and corn syrup will be so prevalent that savory meat will be the dessert and all other courses sweet. Nestlé would love that.
Reference:
Arranging the Meal: A History of Table Service in France
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Nataliya Vaitkevich, Sydney Troxell, Vlada Karpovich, Vlada Karpovich