Tod & I were talking over dinner the other night about why homecooked meals usually taste so much better than restaurant food.
Is it the fresh ingredients? I don't think so. Restaurants use fresh ingredients and so do I.
Is it the love and care put into a homecooked meal? Nice thought but I doubt it.
I think that what makes homecooked food taste so good is that we are in it. Minute flakes of our skin, eyelash mites, our exhalations. Maybe, if we used the tasting spoon twice, a bit of our saliva.
Sounds gross, doesn't it? But it makes sense.
Our pans are "seasoned" with the oils of things that have cooked in them, so residual flavors contribute to the overall flavor of our efforts in the kitchen. The curry from a week ago blends ever so subtly with tonight's cream sauce. Not that you'd notice but it's there.
Also, since pantry ingredients are stored where they can pick up the odors of cooking and the household in general, even these basics carry along a certain signature scent. My flour smells just like flour to me, but a bloodhound could probably tell my flour apart from my neighbor's.
For centuries, painters have mixed a bit of one pigment they are using with other colors in the same painting to produce colors with a harmonoius tint. It makes the tone of the painting hang together.
Why shouldn't that be true for food, too?
Remind me never to accept an invitation to dinner at your place again :p
kuri-bits ewww...
It is also about perception. When you are really hungry food tastes better. I always think that food always tastes better if somebody else has cooked it because I am worried what others will think of it. But when you are relaxed and at home with the people you care about and are giving yourself sustenance, then all the factors combine to heighten all your senses. Oh and the kuri-flakes are just a bonus.
This morning, from the frying pan I was cooking fried apples in, the scent of onion from last night's vidalias. I think you're right - it's the combination of flavors that have layered, as well as the happy memories.
IN my case what is important -- who cooks. Sometimes my daughters cook something -- it tastes so-so(or good), but I'm glad to watch them. Smometimes my husband cooks. it tastes good(or great), but the kicthen is a big mess. While we are eating, I'm always saying "who tidies up?" with a sigh.
Sorry just a housewife's moan.
We've got a rule here--the one who cooks doesn't have to clean up. Seems like a fair way to divide the task since we are both doing the eating. Usually I cook and Tod does the washing up but sometimes we switch. And if we both cook, we both clean up! I am lucky to have a very equitable husband.
You ARE lucky to have such an equitable husband. Sometimes, I can wheedle H. into helping me wash up. Others, it's all me. When she cooks, I still clean, but at least I get a break from the cooking! She makes a mean "Bad hairdo" pasta.
When I have two girls in the house (H & her friend A.), they create restaurants and cooking shows (the latter making an absolute mess). Last week it was "D'Jah!, a quirky french-italian restaurant in my dining room. They served pasta, salad and a fruity dessert. We invited A's parents and her little sister and the girls cooked and served most everything.
We have so much in common when it comes to food and the consumption of it. Most of what is good in life comes from the camraderie shared at the table. I think this is universal.