Why Do Some People Think Cilantro Tastes Like Soap?
You probably take your language for granted, or at least don’t fully understand how it recognizes the tastes it encounters and sends these delicious or unpleasant signals to your brain.
This is all the more important because different people do not always perceive things the same way. In fact, when it comes to cilantro greens, the fresh earthiness you feel may actually sound like a Palmolive or a scented bar of bath soap to someone else. There is a lot to overcome when it comes to common food myths , but the idea that cilantro tastes like soap to some people is not an outlandish rumor.
Why some people think cilantro is like soap
Whether you take a sip of antiseptic while taking a bite of cilantro-rich salsa depends on the genetic die roll. Specifically, it all boils down to aldehydes – organic compounds in which a carbon atom shares a bond with another atom or group of atoms,according to Britannica – found in cilantro, which are often used in various perfumes and cleaning products because of their pronounced aroma. … …
According to the Cleveland Clinic , aldehydes are best detected through the olfactory receptors, which allow you to smell things. The organization notes:
The difference may be small at the molecular level, but significant at the level of smell (smell). It is assumed that the dislike for cilantro is largely caused by smell (and smell is directly related to how we taste).
Whether you try tasty herbs or anything soapy depends on your genetics. In a study pointed to by the Cleveland Clinic, 14,000 respondents were tested for genetic traits that could indicate why some people consider cilantro to be soapy and others not. About 10 percent of those who did this demonstrated a predominance of the olfactory receptor gene OR6A2 , “which has a high binding specificity for some of the aldehydes that give cilantro its characteristic odor,” wrote the authors in a 2012 study published in the Flavor Journal. …
Your ethnicity is a factor
The 2012 study is the official scientific consensus for the polarizing cilantro herb. While this is just one study, it has revealed interesting ideas about why certain cultures and ethnic groups seem to share a dislike for cilantro.
According to the study, the different ethnic groups surveyed did not necessarily report the same taste of soap, but there was a clear correlation between aversion to cilantro and ethnicity. (Women also reported more soap tastes when using the herb.)
As Nature wrote in 2012 :
21% of East Asians, 17% of people of European descent and 14% of people of African descent say they don’t like this product … by comparison, 3-7% of South Asians, Latin America and the Middle East disapprove of this herb. , which is more common in their national cuisines.
It can be concluded that these preferences naturally correlate with the use of cilantro and coriander – the seeds that eventually develop into cilantro – in various cuisines around the world. The cultures that use them more have fewer people who taste like soap, and vice versa. This is not really a matter of preference. Some people think that cilantro really looks like soap. Instead of making fun of them, we can sympathize with their plight: they will never know the true pleasure of a properly prepared guacamole.