Food Sounds: How Sound Affects Taste PDF

Think about your favourite food. What does it taste like? Is it sweet or savoury, hot or cold, sticky to touch, juicy or dry? Can you picture how it looks, and remember what it smells like? I'm sure you can. But, what does it sound like? Along with your other senses, your ears play a part in how you...

Think about your favourite food. What does it taste like? Is it sweet or savoury, hot or cold, sticky to touch, juicy or dry? Can you picture how it looks, and remember what it smells like? I'm sure you can. But, what does it sound like? Along with your other senses, your ears play a part in how you enjoy food. **Sounds good** Sausages famously SIZZLE as they cook. Butter spreads on toast with a mouth-watering SCRAPE. And how satisfying is the sound of a BUBBLY drink being opened? CRACK-FIZZ! When you hear those sounds, your mouth waters as you imagine tasting the food. The sounds give your brain clues about what flavours and textures to expect. What does it sound like when you bite into a crisp, fresh apple? CRUNCH or SLOP? Which apple sounds more delicious and why? What about a big splodge of mashed potato landing on your plate. CRUNCH or SLOP? Which mash sounds yummier? **Not just popcorn** POP, POP, POP! Popcorn isn't the only food famous for the sound it makes. The Pakistani stir-fry dish *Kata-kat* gets its name from the sharp sound of metal spatulas hitting the pan as it's cooked. *Rumbledethumps* is a potato and cabbage dish from Scotland. It's named after the deep RUMBLE and THUMP of the ingredients being mixed about in a pot. And have you heard of the English dish made by frying up leftovers with egg? It's called *Bubble and Squeak* because---you guessed it---that's what it sounds like while it's cooking! What if all foods were named after the sound they make? Our menus would be marvellously musical. 'Can I please have SIZZLE-POP and CRACK-SIZZLE with SCRAPE-CRUNCH and a SLURP-THUNK to drink?' (That's bacon, eggs, buttered toast and a bubble tea!) **Eat with your ears** Next time you see a cooking show, listen to how loud the food is. CHOP, CRUNCH, CRACKLE! The cooking sounds are turned up extra loud to help you imagine what the food is like even though you can't smell or taste it through the screen. Which CRUNCHY snacks would you prefer: chips from a packet that RUSTLES and CRINKLES or chips from a bag that's silent? A study done at Oxford University discovered that people think chips from a noisy packet are more delicious. We don't know exactly *why* sounds affect the way we experience food. But studies like this one show that what we hear really can make food more, or less, enjoyable. Chef Heston Blumenthal believes that what you hear *while* you're eating makes a difference to how food tastes too. There's a special seafood dish at his restaurant in England called Sound of the Sea. Imagine sitting at a table and the waiter brings your food, along with a set of headphones. As you eat the seafood you listen to sounds of the seaside. Do you think that might make the food taste better? Maybe that's why so many people love to eat fish and hot chips at the beach! Some foods are judged good or bad depending on the sound they make. Crème Brûlée is a French dessert with a sweet layer of hard toffee on top of creamy custard. If the toffee makes a loud CRACK when you hit it with a spoon, it's a good one! **Water you know?** Noises are made by packaging and by the way we mix and eat food, but some food sounds are more complicated. Water is often the reason that foods sound the way they do. Bread, fresh from a hot, dry oven, has a CRUNCHY crust. If the crust gets wet, it softens and becomes silent. When we put something in a hot pan, the water or fat in the food heats up, causing it to SIZZLE, SPIT, HISS and POP. When you boil rice, the water BUBBLES and steam HISSES. But once the rice has absorbed all the water and is ready to eat, it goes quiet. **Mind your manners** BURP! Oh, pardon me. Some 'food sounds' come from our bodies after or while we eat. Burping and/or slurping while eating may be rude, depending on where you are in the world. In Japan, loudly SLURPING your ramen noodles shows the cook that you're enjoying your meal. In other places, the cook might prefer you just say, 'Thank you. That was scrumdiddlyumptious.' But not while your mouth is still full of food! Tastebuds don't actually have ears, but the sound of food can get them very excited! What food sounds get your tastebuds excited?