Q & A: Why does Salt Enhance Flavour?
Taste is a complicated behaviour. It used to be thought that there were separate receptor cells (taste buds) on different parts of your tongue for each of the five basic tastes: salt, sweet, sour, bitter and umami (the taste of glutamic acid). However there are taste buds throughout the oral cavity, even on the upper palate and each taste bud is capable of detecting all the basic tastes. It's just that some are more sensitive to a particular taste than to the others.
The upshot is that all tastes interact with each other, sometimes enhancing sometimes suppressing - depending on the concentrations. For example at low concentrations, sour tastes will enhance bitter ones, but at moderate concentrations they will suppress them. This is why we add salt to a margarita.
Salt is used as a universal flavour enhancer because at low concentrations it will reduce bitterness but increase sweet, sour and umami which is good for sweet recipes. But at higher concentrations it will suppress sweetness and enhance umami, which is good for savoury dishes.
Did You Know?
A food's flavour can be easily altered by changing its smell while keeping its taste similar. A good example is flavoured jellies, soft drinks and candies, which, while made of bases with a similar taste, have dramatically different flavours due to the use of different scents or fragrances.
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