Bacon Sounds Better than It Tastes and Smells
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iStock/Thinkstock(OXFORD, England) — Ah, bacon. It tastes good. It smells good. And yes, it sounds good too.
Charles Spence, an experimental psychologist at Oxford University who also fancies himself a food sensory expert, says what really turns people on about bacon and other culinary delights are the pleasant sensations they provide the ear rather than the taste buds or nose.
Although many of Spence’s peers believe he’s a bit daft, he says he can back up his claim with a study in which people used various descriptive words to explain what they liked about 79 foods.
According to Spence, the word “crisp” was used three times as much as other descriptors because “crisp” indicates freshness.
University of Leeds researchers also gave Spence more ammunition when participants in a bacon experiment said that crunchiness was crucial to what makes up the perfect BLT.
As Spence explains it, people are enamored with the textural properties of food as they’re biting or chewing it while the actual sound made while eating seems to affect the perception of flavor.
He adds that as people age and start to lose their senses of taste and smell, the ambient quality of food might compensate for these deficiencies.
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