Make Food Taste Good Again!

Learning how to enhance food flavor in order to stimulate appetite and increase overall eating pleasure isn't difficult, but it does require a willingness to experiment with a variety of different ingredients. Some of these ingredients, such as herbs and spices are familiar. Others, such as monosodium glutamate, may not be. Nevertheless, they all play a part in making food taste better. When you're trying out flavor-enhanced recipes, keep in mind that, unless you're the one with the decreased senses of taste and smell, the food may taste too strong, too flavorful! If you're cooking for others, remember that what tastes good to you may not be what tastes good to them.

Using Monosodium Glutamate for Flavor Enhancement
The addition of MSG to foods may be helpful to some people who experience taste and smell losses. For example, using MSG can reduce the perceived bitterness or acidity of foods, which can be helpful when cooking things like vegetables, which may not otherwise be well-accepted. Also, using MSG adds an umami (savory) taste to foods, in effect giving more emphasis to the flavors that are already present in the dish. For example, adding MSG to a chicken soup makes the soup taste more like chicken—it deepens existing flavors and contributes to a fully-developed flavor profile. MSG is not generally used in sweet foods such as pastries, puddings and confectionery products, and in some milk-based products. However, it is easily incorporated into casseroles and mixed vegetable dishes, meats and ground meat dishes, soups, stews and chowders, salad dressing and sauces or gravies, too.

Using Other Ingredients for Flavor Enhancement
There are a number of ingredients you can use to make flavor-enhanced foods. Combining these ingredients can yield delicious results that are sure to be appreciated by people with taste and smell losses.

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