The Burn Your Mouth Off Consiracy....

.....well, maybe not really, but SOMETHING seems to be going on!

Foods tend to change tastes over time for a few reasons. Different ingredients get used, or cook with because of changing our diets, or the way the foods are made or cultivated.

Our bodies change over time too. Many times something we had a big taste for in the past, doesn't always taste as good to us now, or we even take up that fork for something that we didn't really care for in the past but now we find yummy now.

How we taste things can also change as we get older, or worse, you can actually loose a large portion of your tasting due the lack of being able to smell!
Many years ago, around 2007, I lost my sense of smell. I'd had one heck of a sinus infection and months down the road as I was pumping gas into my car, I realized I couldn't smell the gas anymore!

One thing that I have noticed though over time is: some things seem to be getting spicier and spicier. I thought it just might be me, but both my youngest son and my wife have noticed this too. Considering my son loves to eat very spicy things, when he tells me something has a bigger bite to it that it used to, I listen.

Here are a few foods we've noticed:

Pepperoni

The "spicy" smoked dry sausage that is a number one favorite topping for pizza here in the US.

Normally pepperoni has always had a little bit of a bite to it, and different brands seem to have different levels of spiciness to them. But lately, one of my favorite foods has been trying to burn a hole into my tongue!

My son and wife noticed this too, with my son actually putting down a slice and complaining that it was too spicy for him. This from a kid that chows down on spicy hot wings, and flamming hot Cheetos like they are nothing.

I do not remember pepperonis being so spicy in decades past, but for the last few years, the dang things have gotten to where I can't enjoy of my favorite splurges anymore:

Kentucky Fried Chicken

Here in the southern part of the US, it's not uncommon for people that eat fried chicken to add hot sauce to it. It's quite common actually.

We also know that KFC has served plenty of spice foods

However, both my wife and I noticed that something seems to have changed in the super secret batter recipe. It now has a bite to it that wasn't there before.



We do not normally eat out a lot, but sometimes we have a lot of running around to do and want to grab something to take home. We'd not been to our local KFC in a while so we picked up a bucket mean and took it home.

As we dug in, I began to notice that my chicken was just a bit spicy. Enough so to leave a bite on my tongue. My wife confirmed that she thought it was a bit spicy too, and didn't taste like we remembered.

Ah come on Colonel Sanders! Why'd you have to go a screw around with my chicken!!!!

Ranch Dressing

Okay, this is one that I can say has changed too. Ranch dressing that we get has a spicy bite to it.

But when I was a kid, it didn't. Back when I was a kid, you had to buy the dry packet and make the dressing yourself. My mom used to do this all the time in he early 1970s. There was NO spicy bite to the salad dressing then.

Times have changed though.....




One of my favorite things to much on is chilled veggies like cucumbers, carrots, snap beans, etc. Being able to dip them in some ranch is even better. Less healthy, but better than a burger from McDonalds.



However, over the years, this salad dressing has gotten spicy enough to leave a heck of a bite on my tongue. My wife still likes it, but she says it seems more spicy to her than in the past.

Here's the original ingredients for Ranch dressing, invented by Steve Henson in California:

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon MSG
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
pinch dried thyme

Now the black pepper, onion powder and garlic powder can make things spicy, but when you look at the amounts added to the volume...nope. No way they'll make it have the bite that a store bought bottle has now.

So just look at the ingredients on the bottle, right? Nope. Sorry, when you look, on every bottle, all you'll see is "spices". Not help at all.

However.....if you start looking up "Homemade" Ranch dressing, you'll see something:



The above image is from a web page for making some homemade Ranch, their version of it. Notice the Tobasco sauce bottle???

Here's another "homemade" recipe for it......and if you look, they list things like Cayenne pepper!

www.foodnetwork.com...

So, yah, using the original recipe that I listed, I made some....guess what?

THAT is the ranch I remembered and loved so much. Not the new spicy hot crap that you buy from the stores now.

So what do you all out there think? Have you noticed a change in these foods too?

Have any other food that seemed to have become spicy hot when they didn't used to be?

I would say that it is part and parcel with the trend toward loving all things wasabi and sriracha and chipotle and ghost pepper. Once the collective palate gets adjusted to spicier food, things that once were less spicy seem bland. So I am guessing that test kitchens are having to adjust their recipes to compensate for that food trend.

a reply to: eriktheawful

I can't smell or taste either!

For me, it is more often than not I am chasing spicy food just to get some sort of flavor or kick versus eating bland food that other than the texture does nothing for me.

Also do you find yourself more interested in eating crispy vegetable more so now than before? I sure do. I love crisp vegetables in the foods I eat more so for the texture and crunch than for healthy purposes. Also pickled things! I love damn near anything that is pickled and has that vinegar kick that I can pick up on.

I really don't find that things have gotten spicier though.

With you being a diabetic, something to consider: thrush. A mild case of thrush can exist for years, and it makes you incredibly sensitive to spice.

I get thrush rather easy due to the autoimmune issues I have, so can relate from that angle.

I haven't noticed food getting spicier. But I let the devil dance on my plate.

a reply to: seeker1963

Actually I've always liked crisp veggies. Chilled fruit too.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

I'll have to look that up.

originally posted by: eriktheawful
a reply to: seeker1963

Actually I've always liked crisp veggies. Chilled fruit too.

I did too, but I used to be able to eat a bologna sandwich with mustard with no issue, but I find myself having to have lettuce for the added texture any more.

Maybe it is just a mental thing for me. Just thought I would ask.

a reply to: seeker1963

Ah!

Well when I was a lot younger, yah, slapping a piece of cheese, bologna with some mayo between bread and rushing out the door was pretty much it.

Now, I like to have crisp lettuce and a slice of tomato on it too. I'm good either way, but I enjoy the produce on the sandwich more.

originally posted by: eriktheawful
a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

I'll have to look that up.

www.cdc.gov...

My husband loves anything hot and spicy,he even puts tabasco sauce in
his coffee.

I do have to mention though that my mother is a tremendous tender mouth. If something even has a whiff of spice, she turns red and smoke pours out her ears. As a result, I was raised to be mortally afraid of anything that might contain a tiny bit of spice. I have since gotten over that a developed a decent palate for spicier stuff.

I've also noticed that I can slip a small amount of hot sauce in a recipe and she doesn't notice. It could just be that her sensitivity has dulled with age or that she would not have noticed to begin with.

But generally speaking, a single pepper (if veined and seeded) or dash of Tabasco isn't going to add much noticeable spice to anything.

Used to be they had good meat on the market, flavor tasted great. Now they cover the crappy taste up with too much added space.

Some like it hot, though. Its a sensation, like a roller coaster ride, diving from cliffs or riding fast motorcycles.

Adrenalin junkies…

Tell em to use less spice on your pizza, better yet, stop eating it. One day it will kill you with sodium and all the bad cholesterols.

I haven't noticed things getting spicier but, like someone said above, I like spicy/hot.
I think the lettuce may be a 'textural' thing as we eat it on sandwiches all the time. I can't think of the last time I had a sandwich without it.
We DO eat salads a lot more often than in the past. Salad can be the enitre meal although the salads can be big and over the top.
About the Ranch. I don't prefer the store bought although the kiddos LOVE it.
I think it has a sort of twang that hits you in the back of your throat. Perhaps that is what you describe as spicy?
The fact that you have no sense of smell would definitely interfere with the flavor of foods and make them tasteless but maybe it changes the 'taste' altogether.
My Mom when she was older would say things were hot to her. We would find it odd as it could be something as simple as a smoked turkey or cured ham. Something in it was 'hot' to her.

The west kind of lead the charge on spiciness. We have had it here for awhile. When My little sister moved to Minnesotsayears ago and cooked for her friends, she went easy on the spices, but they still looked at her wide eyed and said " Ooooohhh spicey!"
As for Colonel Sanders, he didnt make the changes, as he passed away years ago. He probably wouldnt have liked the extra heat. Harlan Sanders was a personal friend of my dads. My pops formulated a chicken coating of walnuts or almonds back in the 60s or 70s. It was like a shake and bake. It was really good too. I think it was marketed by Diamond walnut

originally posted by: ketsuko
I would say that it is part and parcel with the trend toward loving all things wasabi and sriracha and chipotle and ghost pepper. Once the collective palate gets adjusted to spicier food, things that once were less spicy seem bland. So I am guessing that test kitchens are having to adjust their recipes to compensate for that food trend.

Ahh , my favorite food group

Adding one: McDs 2 for $2 chicken sandwich. I love me some spicy foods. One of the best. However , they dont mark it as spicy....it is.

a reply to: eriktheawful

It's definitely an "old fart" thing... you're not alone in that arena.

Neither hubby nor myself can handle anything spicy anymore.

When I make chili now, there's practically next to nothing for "chili" in it anymore, we just simply can't handle it... I used to make a 5-alarm chili for years that would get gobbled up like it was going out of style. Now ? It's more like a fricken "bean stew" than it is a chili.

Pfft.

And let's not even bring up what that "bean stew" does to our plumbing these days...



Becoming an old coot bites the big one, dammit !

originally posted by: eriktheawful
The Burn Your Mouth Off Consiracy....

Has it ever occurred to you that your taste buds and senses are changing through the years?
It seems to me that the direction is toward the bland homogenous to appeal to the vast array of bleating mediocre pallettes!
Play to the largest demographic.

Perhaps it's local, but I suspect that it is more 'local' than even that.
We change as we age.
Simple as that.
It's just not the same tongue that we flapped and toasted as a teen!

Perhaps that is one reason that I eat 'napalm', after all these years, it still registers!
(But so does EVERYTHING else!)

It's not too surprising - chili/hot spice does help to bring out flavor so long as it's not overdone. Same with citrus, vinegar, salt, and heat (cold foods/drinks do not have as much flavor as warm ones.)

a reply to: TNMockingbird

With the lack of smell, foods are not tasteless to me, they just lack in complex flavors.

I can still tell when something is sweet or bitter or salty, or sour, etc.