The Homemade Italian Food for My Mom’s Birthday Is Almost Finished

I'm not much for cooking. I strongly encourage my spouse to avoid cooking, as well. My parents cooked, and still cook, almost every meal they have. It's just not worth giving up our time and relaxation. I'd rather we not slave over a stove, clean dishes and utensils, overeat and slowly pack on the pounds, then spend the rest of the day exhausted. It's too much of a project/ordeal. There are very good dining options where I live, so it's not a sacrifice in terms of freshness, etc. The sacrifice is only financial--I calculate we spend twice as much as we would cooking for ourselves. But it's more than worth it for me. Everyone is different, I suppose.

Try to cook a tasty meal once or twice a week. I can cook, but don't like the heat. I love left-overs, so I usually cook enough to last for two days!

Joshua, are you a supertaster? I'm not sure if I've ever asked before, but I tend to ask anyone who's very picky with food, a self-described gourmand, or claims to tell the difference between Pepsi and Coke in a double-blind taste test.

I have no idea. I do know that there seems to be a genetic component because a few years ago, the employees at one of my family's businesses didn't believe a handful of us when we were talking about the fact the bottling formula had to be off on the 20 ounce Coca-Colas produced at the local plant because the flavor profile was ... not right. It was just a few degrees ... wonky.

They went to a grocery store and found regular Coke, Mexican coke (sugar cane instead of corn syrup), original pepsi, pepsi throwback (sugar cane instead of syrup), and then the 20 ounce bottles we were complaining about and then made us do a blind taste test in little paper Dixie cups.

Everyone from my maternal grandmother down her bloodline who was there scored a perfect within seconds. Almost everyone else couldn't do it. The flavor is just wildly different to us. Corn syrup, for example, has a much heavier after taste than sugar. Pepsi is about 10x sweeter than Coke, almost like melted sugar, which is why I vastly prefer Coke.

It's possible, I guess. The list on that link includes a greatest hits of the few foods in life I just can't make myself eat. Raw olives, alcohol, grapefruit juice, extra salt ...

I can't stand the taste of alcohol unless it is cooked into food, I can't stand black truffles, even though everyone else seems to be crazy about them (it tastes and smells like someone shoved a handful of loose, moist dirt in my mouth; I do not understand why they are so desired). If food has been battered too heavily in beer, the flavor of the grain is too much and I can't eat it. I can't stand adding extra salt to my food. Grapefruit juice is so strong I just can't do it, never have been able today. Coffee, on the other hand, is someone I could drink forever. I love highly acidic brews made very strongly. That seems to be the exception in my case. For years, I hated carbonated water but developed a taste for it in college because it was often the only thing on hand during planning meetings, my internships, etc.

The upshot is that when a dish is perfect, it is beyond words. I think that's one of the reasons I'm so willing to spend a lot of money at very good restaurants and on cooking at home.

You took biology classes in college, right? Did you ever learn about phenylthiocarbamide? It's a nasty, bitter substance that only 70% of people can taste. I remember putting the PTC-soaked strip of paper in my mouth and almost gagging, while some classmates gave us an incredulous look because they only tasted bland paper.

We tried a single-blind Coke vs. Pepsi taste test back in my undergrad. Out of the class of ~15 or so, only one person scored a perfect out of six samples - no one else got more than 4/6 right. And the one guy claimed to be incapable of telling the difference before we started O_o

Sometimes I feel like having craters for taste buds is a good thing because lower standards means I can enjoy all kinds of food, regardless of price or quality. Also makes me a living trashcan so food never gets wasted around the house.

I want to try the phenylthiocarbamide test! I'll have to add that to my list of weird things to study!

Intellectually, I understand it but viscerally, it is almost impossible for me to accept that people can't taste the difference between Coke and Pepsi. I can buy the other stuff, but those two just baffle me. They aren't even close. Saying they are the same is like saying green and orange are the same colors.

With Coke, there is some sort of citrus in there, a hint of cinnamon, the smoothness of vanilla, and it's cleaner. The aftertaste is far lighter. The flavor reminds me of a lot of the drinks that are popular at Christmas. It's spiced.

With Pepsi, it makes me feel like the ooey gooey molasses guy in the Candy Land board game I would play a child. It tastes good but I can't have more than a can of it because it's like drinking pure, melted sugar. The aftertaste is so heavy. Pepsi throwback isn't as bad but it's still heavier than its Mexican Coke counterpart.

Here's where I just have a hard time accepting it:

Even if someone couldn't taste the difference, which might be possible, couldn't they smell it? The two drinks have completely different fragrances. I'd bet $1,000 cash I could tell the difference between two freshly poured glasses, still fizzing, by scent alone in under 3 seconds if I were blindfolded. It'd be the easiest money I ever made. In perfume speak, fresh Coke has more prevalent top notes compared to fresh Pepsi. Pepsi is all middle notes. I mean, dear God, even the heavily flavored versions such as Cherry Pepsi and Cherry Coke smell different from each other, which is why I stock both in the garage; so I can have whichever one I am craving at the moment.

Yeah, we did the PTC classroom experiment when we learned about Mendelian traits. The 70% statistic comes from PTC-tasting being the dominant trait, so you'd need both parents to pass on a recessive allele in order to be a non-taster.

You know, it's weird. If I try one drink, flush with water, then immediately sample the other cola brand, I can tell a difference. But as soon as I put on that blindfold and had the cup handed to me, I crapped out. I thought that I should at least be able to figure out which three cups was one or the other, even if I couldn't positively identify the flavor as Coke or Pepsi. I ended up getting 3/6 correct, totally randomly. So I might as well have flipped a coin six times to make my choices. Most of my classmates had similar results.

It was a total mindf**k, I can tell you that.

hello,

Joshua, can i have your homemade Alfredo sauce, marinara sauce, and lasagne recipes....it looks sooooooo tempting...i really like this but it is too expensive to eat more than 1 plate at restaurant & look very greedy

Thanks a lot

linda

Can you send me an email address through the contact form and reference this page? That way I can get back to you and see what I can do?