즐거움 ≫ 맛의 의미 ≫ 지방

고소한 맛의 추구

- Fatty acid taste : 땅콩, 마블링
- 바베큐의 추억 : 불은 원시인 에게 축복
- 부작용 : 고기 굽는 동안 발생하는 유독성분
- 스테이크 굽는 온도


한국
- 한국인이 유난히 참기름에 갈망한 이유
- 숭늉
- 커피 : 중국과 일본은 녹차가 인기지만 ...
- 삼겹살

일본
- 튀김
- 가쓰오부시 ... 훈제 다랑어

중국
- 야채마저  기름에 ...

중국
- 훈제요리, 베이컨

1. Toasting Makes the Food Warm

Although this answer at first glance seems obvious, the principle of dynamic contrast is hot at work. The oral cavity prefers temperature changes, and the oral neural response is greatest to changing temperature, not static ones. Eighty to 90 percent of all food is consumed either hot or cold. It is this temperature change in the mouth upon eating that is very pleasurable. This is the ice cream effect in reverse (ice cream is pleasurable because it’s cold). Most fast food is served hot. In fact, chains like Jack in the Box only cook food when ordered, so the food is as hot as possible (it’s my favorite chain, by the way). But sub shops serve their product, unless it is corned beef or a similar hot sandwich, at room temperature. Jersey Mike’s, however, a national sub chain started in 1956, has a number of very hot sub sandwiches (the chipotle cheese steak is particularly tasty). A room-temperature sub is at a significant sensory disadvantage; however, the addition of sandwich inclusions (pickles, onions, dressing, etc.) compensates in part by greater sensory complexity of the sandwich. This follows the food pleasure equation, where added flavor sensations increase the hedonic response.

Hence, adding heat to a sandwich elevated the food pleasure  to newer heights, and Quiznos caught the other sub shops off guard, at least initially. Heating the sandwich may also activate taste cell receptors in the mouth, independent of direct taste stimulation by solutes, and increases food pleasure. Why? Sweet, umami, and salty taste sensations, when activated by heat, have innate or hard-wired  inputs into the brain circuits for pleasure.3 Food is better when it’s hotter—and this same hedonic reaction occurs when a food is cold and warms up in the mouth.

2. Toasty Creates Special Flavor Compounds

Recall the theory that humans are cookivores. Fire invention and manipulation spurred the development of Homo culinarus via the great advantages of cooked food—increased digestibility, reduction of pathogens, and increased caloric density. A professor once told me that certain aromas are epigenetic—built-in sensing aroma programs that signal survival. Toasting and fire are one and the same—do they bring back memories of survivals past? Witness the wonderful thoughts and memories of people cooking over hardwood or just heating their homes with a wood burning fireplace. Although the evidence is scientific conjecture, I suspect that certain fire-created aromas (like flame-broiled hamburgers) conjure up genetic memories of successful Paleolithic hunts. It’s very possible that our sense of smell, in which the actual receptors have devolved over time, became selectively sensitive to certain environmental aromas of cooked food.

3. Toasting Changes the Dynamic of the Sandwich

Dynamic contrast works through many levels. And the next level is what heat does to the entire sandwich:
a. Many new flavor compounds are created via Maillard reactions or Strecker degradations; for example, the aromatic pyrazines, and the tasty melanoidins.1 This means increased aroma complexity—and the theory is that aroma complexity is more rewarding than aroma simplicity, also known as Moncrief’s Observation. Even McDonald’s experiments with a longer toasting time for their hamburger buns to enhance the flavor.4
b. The sandwich now becomes more dynamically contrastable. Now what does this mean? Instead of a soft bun on top with little give, you have now changed the starch structure to be harder at the surface, such that it fractures and gives way during mastication and then melts down—similar to the wonderful contrast sensation of breaking through the caramelized top of a crème brûlée. Name me a burger that can match this … There is none—except the grilled panini sandwich.
c. Toasting elevates the volatiles that can be perceived in the sandwich. This increases the chance to bond with those flavors you love most: onion, garlic, and umami-linked aromatics of meat.
d. Grilling also melts the cheese in the sandwich, allowing for quicker and more sustained contact with the taste buds. This enhances the contact of the salt and taste active compounds in cheese with the taste bud epithelium itself.

Now what would be the ultimate sandwich-burger combo that excites just about every sensation? It would have the following features:
a. High caloric density must be maintained.
b. It must have a high dynamic contrast in ingredients (like an Italian sub).
c. Meat ingredients should gush umami when chewed.
d. The whole sandwich must be toasted (easy enough) outside with grill marks.
e. The meat should be flame broiled.
f. Cheese must be stuffed in somewhere.
g. The entire ensemble must not be soggy at presentation or the hedonics are reduced.
h. The outside bread should be buttered, as in the classic cheese sandwich.
i. In a perfect world, the sandwich should be a combination of hot and cold elements.

McDonald’s tried a version of this concept with the McDLT in 1985, in which the customer actually put together the hot burger with the cooler ingredients, lettuce and tomato, in a specially designed container that separated the foods. This allowed both types of dynamic contrast into play—both hot and cold elements—and was quite forward thinking at the time, never caught on with the customer.

The popularity of toasting sandwiches is now manifest in the panini; the classic Italian sandwich is grilled on both sides—basically a fancy cheese sandwich. The panini process creates Maillard reation flavors, visual contrast and helps melt the cheese for “quicker” activation of hedonic tastes. The key to a great tasting panini is to thinly slice the cheese and meat fillings so that when the crust is ready, the fillings are hot and melted.

Bruce Horovitz, business writer for USA Today, uncovered a new food trend in which companies are combining two favorite foods into a single meal.5 In his article, “Cheeseburger couplings match 2 favorites,” he indicates that companies are making cheeseburger pizzas, donuts, and tacos, and even deep-fried cheeseburger sticks. And just imagine a cheeseburger using two Krispy Kreme donut halves instead of a sesame seed bun! These combinations may seem over-the-top, but the best taste elements of familiar foods may create a food with enhanced hedonics. Conversely, many foods are typically eaten during certain times of the day, and combining a breakfast food with lunch or dinner food may be perceptually unsettling (cognitive dissonance).