Why do hot foods taste better?
Hot foods taste better because the heat causes more of the pleasant smells to rise into the nose. These abundant smells contribute to the total taste of the food.
How does the sense of smell work?
The sense of smell is probably the oldest of our five senses. As you breathe in, air passes through a cavity behind the nose. It contains patches of millions of smell receptors called olfactory cells. Sensory hairs stick out from the surface of these receptor cells. The hairs detect smells and pass information along nerve fibres to the brain. Substances that you recognize as having an odour dissolve in the layer of mucus covering the sensory cells, stimulating them to produce a signal.
Most people are able to detect about 4,000 different smells. However, people whose work is based on their ability to smell, such as chefs, perfume makers and wine tasters, can distinguish as many as 10,000 different smells.
Is smell and taste the same?
The taste of food is a mixture of both taste and smell. As you eat, tiny food particles drift up into the nasal passages from the back of the mouth. The smell of the food contributes to the simple tastes detected by the tongue. This explains why food tastes odd when the nasal organs are inflamed or covered by thick mucus when you have a heavy cold — the sense of smell is temporarily smothered. When you eat very spicy foods, such as curry or chilli, mild pain also forms a part of the characteristic taste. If these foods did not burn the mouth, they would not taste like curry or chilli at all. If we were to lose our sense of smell, almost all taste sensation would be lost as well. This means that we would not enjoy the taste of our food nearly so much.
Pictures Credit: Google
