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Foodies In The News

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby Pepper Pig » Mon Dec 14, 2020 4:01 pm


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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby KeenCook2 » Mon Dec 14, 2020 5:24 pm

The roasted cauliflower salad looks fantastic, we haven't got any aleppo pepper or fresh herbs atm but will at least try to get the herbs for our Wednesday delivery, even if we can't get the aleppo pepper at Asda!

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby Stokey Sue » Mon Dec 14, 2020 5:39 pm

Aleppo pepper is easier to find and half the price when labelled pul biber (Turkish for pepper powder)
Hot paprika is a good substitute though pul biber is usually more coarsest ground, it’s just a mild chilli

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby KeenCook2 » Mon Dec 14, 2020 6:38 pm

Stokey Sue wrote:Aleppo pepper is easier to find and half the price when labelled pul biber (Turkish for pepper powder)
Hot paprika is a good substitute though pul biber is usually more coarsest ground, it’s just a mild chilli

Brilliant, thanks Sue. I have got what is labelled "hot paprika" but it doesn't seem very hot, even to my wussie taste buds! But DS should be able to pick me up some pul biber at the Turkish shop.

Sorry to hear cold butter still tastes yuk - I think you mentioned that on the other thread - how are you reacting to/ tasting hot spice, as in this sort of "hot"?

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby Earthmaiden » Mon Dec 14, 2020 6:54 pm

That ricotta cream .... :yum :yum

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby Stokey Sue » Mon Dec 14, 2020 10:12 pm

KeenCook2 wrote:Sorry to hear cold butter still tastes yuk - I think you mentioned that on the other thread - how are you reacting to/ tasting hot spice, as in this sort of "hot"?


I had a bit of a triumph today - I cleaned the kitchen bin, the point being my nose told me it needed it and I used Dettol spray, the smell of which made me heave last month, but it was fine today

All really bad things smell/taste the same, most really strong flavours like chilli, mustard, garlic, ginger, have been fine but cumin, coriander, fennel, all of course botanically related, have been horrible. Parsley ok cooked, dill fine, same family. Going to go and explore the spices as I want to make a spiced cauliflower thing, mainly black mustard I expect but I’ll see

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby Earthmaiden » Mon Dec 14, 2020 11:44 pm

Am I right in thinking that a majority of foods you have found unpleasant are amongst those that people in general are quite divided on and which I think have been shown to come from variation in a group of olfactory-receptor genes (The classics that spring to mind are coriander, celery, Brussels sprouts etc). Does Covid muck about with such receptors at that level? (be kind, my level of understanding such things is the equivalent of kindergarten!).

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby jeral » Tue Dec 15, 2020 12:14 am

Just musing, I too wonder about groupings, reinforced by my chatting with a new friend and noting that many disparate things she likes I don't as if there's a vertical Marmite line even though the foods are unrelated.

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby Stokey Sue » Tue Dec 15, 2020 1:27 am

I had very little understanding of how smell worked until I had to find out a couple of months back!

Put very simply you have thousands of odour receptors and they respond to different molecule. Each scent triggers lots of different ones, and the unique combination is what you recognise as that smell - it’s a bit like all the instruments in an orchestra playing a distinctive chord, or the coloured dots in a Vogue photo making up a precise shade of lipstick

When a load of the receptors are not working at all or are faulty then it’s like an off key orchestra or an off colour print of the lipstick photo
Why all things nasty go to the same “off” I’m not 100% sure, it’s possibly because that’s the only signal the damaged receptors can issue when triggered , and it makes sense that only closely related molecules can attach to the batch of dodge receptor, all these things work on a lock & key kind of relationship
There are people working on whether it’s the same receptors for everyone and the same triggers, but the first changed taste a lot of people notice (including me) is cucumber or melon, often followed by oranges (skin more than juice)
My bad taste is cheap, over scented, nail varnish remover
Apart from the ones noted above, my triggers are linalool (in citrus skin and the ubiquitous non-specific citrus odour of cleaning products), red wine or anything made from red grapes except red vermouth, gin sometimes (probably coriander and citrus), yellow & green tomatoes, raw carrots, toothpaste, freshly roasted or grilled meat is fine but bad once cold and reheating doesn’t help.
Loads of others, and varies a bit from day to day
There are plant chemists working on it, my slightly random guess is some things called monoterpenes- and yes those are the divide substances in coriander EM!

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby Earthmaiden » Tue Dec 15, 2020 3:20 am

Thank you so much - that's fascinating! The mind boggles at the research needed to find that kind of thing out.

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby aero280 » Tue Dec 15, 2020 12:42 pm

The order that you taste things will also affect the taste.

Try eating an orange or tomato immediately after you have had a piece of Brie.

Or vice-versa.

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby Stokey Sue » Tue Dec 15, 2020 1:29 pm

That’s a different thing to parosmia aero, b

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby ZeroCook » Tue Dec 15, 2020 4:49 pm

Stokey Sue wrote:My bad taste is cheap, over scented, nail varnish remover
Apart from the ones noted above, my triggers are linalool (in citrus skin and the ubiquitous non-specific citrus odour of cleaning products), red wine or anything made from red grapes except red vermouth, gin sometimes (probably coriander and citrus), yellow & green tomatoes, raw carrots, toothpaste, freshly roasted or grilled meat is fine but bad once cold and reheating doesn’t help.
Loads of others, and varies a bit from day to day

Very interesting stuff, Stokey. What do you mean by your 'bad' taste? Is that what you perceive that you're tasting/smelling via damaged receptors?

And what do you mean by triggers? Are those smells/ 'bad' smells that when triggered set off further misperception of similar smells/molecules?

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby KeenCook2 » Tue Dec 15, 2020 4:55 pm

Earthmaiden wrote:Thank you so much - that's fascinating! The mind boggles at the research needed to find that kind of thing out.

That's very interesting, Sue, thanks from me too!

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby Stokey Sue » Tue Dec 15, 2020 5:22 pm

ZeroCook wrote:ery interesting stuff, Stokey. What do you mean by your 'bad' taste? Is that what you perceive that you're tasting/smelling via damaged receptors?

And what do you mean by triggers? Are those smells/ 'bad' smells that when triggered set off further misperception of similar smells/molecules?

Yes, by my bad sell I mean anything that doesn't smell a sit normally would, that's parosmia in action

A bit on receptors then, totally imaginary numbers for illustration
Suppose you normally have 1000 each 1000 different types of smell receptors attached to your nervous system
When you smell lemon, the smell that you recognise is caused by aroma molecules attaching to a small subset of the receptors, the ones they fit, and triggering them to send nervous impulses that travel to the olfactory centres in the brain, which is where all these different inputs are assembled to recognise lemon.
If you smell orange, which is similar, the subset of receptors triggered will be much the same but minus a few and plus a few more

"Normal" ability to small varies quite a lot - some people can't smell cyanide for example, to most of is it's a very strong smell.

What seems to happen post Covid if that you lose receptors (anosmia) and some malfunction (parosmia) - my brain is assuming all definite odours that aren't currently recognised are that xxxxx nail varnish remover. Why that's has become the default, is just one of those things we don't yet know, but the opportunity to investigate in a large group of otherwise faintly healthy people (as they are long past acute Covid) is really interesting for some scientists, you can't really investigate chemo patients, and there aren't that many people who have partially recovered from relevant head injuries

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby Pepper Pig » Wed Dec 16, 2020 12:44 pm

Has anyone here ever been to Macedonia? https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020 ... lus-recipe

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby smitch » Wed Dec 16, 2020 1:15 pm

I was planning to back in May but our Balkans trip was cancelled.

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby Earthmaiden » Wed Dec 16, 2020 1:25 pm

No, not been anywhere like that but isn't it lovely how food leaves such special memories.

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby Pepper Pig » Wed Dec 16, 2020 2:40 pm

Felicity’s been trying out different recipes for veggie sausage rolls this week.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/d ... ity-cloake

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Re: Foodies In The News

Postby Pepper Pig » Wed Dec 16, 2020 5:43 pm

And there’s a festive plait from David Atherton. https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/d ... tive-plait

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