Lunch Experiment: Sprouts into Parsnips
By Mark Steer
There’s a cunning way to trick your taste buds at Christmas dinner. It means that you’ll be able to force a few sprouts down to keep everyone happy whilst avoiding the urge to throw up.What to do
- Take something tasty that’s not too dissimilar to a sprout. We reckon parsnips because they are pretty pungent (and they’re more similar to a sprout than cranberry sauce).
- Shove the tasty morsel near/up your nose (but not too far).
- Eat the sprout.
- There, it tasted better than usual didn't it.
What’s happened
Our sense of taste is actually mainly governed by smell. Our taste buds don’t have very good resolution, being only able to distinguish between bitter, sweet, salt, sour and umami (savoury). Our noses, on the other hand, can distinguish up to 10,000 different smells. A lot of what we think of as taste is actually smells passing through our mouths to the olfactory centres.
So by holding the parsnip under your nose you might be able to fool your brain into thinking that the sprout tastes of parsnip.
This experiment actually works best with foods which are also similar in texture, which isn’t quite the case with sprout and parsnips. If you don’t get a good response with the veg, see if you can fool yourself into believing that whipped cream is the actually chocolate mousse.
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This experiment has been adapted from Mick O'Hare's excellent book How to Fossilise your Hamster see more at www.newscientist.com/hamster.
How about trying one of our other top tens:
This experiment has been adapted from Mick O'Hare's excellent book How to Fossilise your Hamster see more at www.newscientist.com/hamster.
How about trying one of our other top tens:
- Top Ten Crazy Xmas Gifts
- Top Ten Geek Holidays
- Top Ten Stupid Science Studies
- Top Ten Work-related Ills
- Top Ten Killer Vegetables
- Top Ten Weird Drinks
- Top Ten Grim Parasites
- Top Ten Things Science Hasn't Explained
Hub image: Sam Osbourne
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