Science
Moms would approve: Celery makes chicken soup better | Moms would approve: Celery makes chicken soup better |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Wednesday, 13 February 2008 | |
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Kikue Kubota and fellow scientists performed a study on celery within chicken soup to compare its smell and taste. First, they boiled celery to separate its components as they evaporated away in the heat. Then, the scientists selected four of these separated components, which are called phthalides. (A phthalide is defined as “a latone obtained by reduction of phthalyl chloride, as a white crystalline substance.”) For their experiment, they hoped to find out whether or not these phthalides make the complex smell and taste of chicken soup better. The scientists, then, added each component one at a time into chicken broth. After each component was added they had ten female subjects, with excellent olfactory and gustatory senses (aka, they smell and taste things really well), smell and taste the concoction. Then, the scientists repeated the tests with clips on the subjects' noses so they could only taste the soup, not smell it. Also, some were given broth alone (with nothing added) as a control, while others were given the broth-plus mixture. They were asked to describe what they ate in such terms as “thick,” “impactful,” “mild,” “lasting,” “satisfied,” “complex,” “refined,” and “clarified,” which are descriptions of complex flavors, and for such terms as “sweet,” “salty,” and “umami” (similar in English to “savory”), which are descriptions for taste. The researchers concluded that three of the four phthalides (sedanenolide, 3-n-butylphthalide, and sedanolide) enhanced the flavor of the chicken broth. Sedanenolide was deemed most effective by the researchers. While wearing the nose clips, none of the four phthalides helped to boost the flavor of the broth.
The results of the Kubota team were published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
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