I’ve been wondering for a while now if I might have that gene or whether Cilantro is just a herb i dislike. I can stomach dishes with cilantro in them, but it just stings through everything. No matter how little was put in, it tastes to me like somebody over-cilantro’d the dish. I’ve never eaten anything where I thought “Mmmh, yes, there’s a subtle hint of cilantro” - it’s always “Oh, there’s the cilantro, and it’s just too strong”.
But whenever I read about this online, people say that it tastes like soap. It’s been a couple of years since I was toddler enough to just put soap in my mouth. But in my mind, the taste of soap is mostly bitter, with an overwhelming tropical/fruity/citrussy flavor of whatever the producers decided to make the soap smell like. I also imagine it having a really unpleasant texture/mouthfeel. I have no urge to try eating soap, just so I can compare it with the taste of a herb. And I assume that most people with the Cilantro-gene also haven’t made an actual taste-comparison. So hence my question: In what way does anything - but cilantro in particular - taste like soap?
I hate cilantro and other things like horseradish and wasabi but like I love jalepeno and popeye spicy chicken so its not just a heat thing. Anyway for me cilantro tastes like dirt and horseradish/wasabi just has this nasty taste. Funny thing is cilantro has become so popular I have developed a kind of resistance to it. Like I can eat something with cilantro but it will bring it down. I used to take one bite of something with cilantro and had to find something to get the taste out of my mouth. A really funny thing was I sepent a massive amount of time thinking I hated avocado because I only incountered it in guacomole which as far as I can tell always has cilantro. Man when I had just some avocado on something I was like. holy fuckin trump, this is awesome.
It’s been a couple of years since I was toddler enough to just put soap in my mouth.
I can’t believe how literate OP is for only being 4 years old!
I’ve always thought soap was the wrong comparison, but I definitely have the gene that makes it awful.
Cilantro is loaded with acetyl groups, and sensitivity to those is what defines the taste. Soap is also full of acetyls, but different ones I guess? What hits much closer to target is stink bugs. The gunk they secrete to make their distinctive stink has many of the same acetyl groups as cilantro.
With our sense of smell tied so strongly to our sense of taste, you kind of know what something tastes like just from getting a whiff, with a few exceptions (looking at you, vanilla extract… you fucking liar).
Anyway, a more accurate comparison would be that cilantro tastes like stink bugs. Or specifically, cilantro tastes like the smell of sink bugs.
I can stomach dishes with cilantro in them, but it just stings through everything. No matter how little was put in, it tastes to me like somebody over-cilantro’d the dish.
Same. The taste of cilantro ranges from bad to intolerable. If there’s just a tiny bit of it in there, it tastes only mildly bad; scale it up and the dish is ruined in a hurry.
Pro tip:
You’ve probably already noticed that “please no cilantro” will fall on deaf ears when placing an order at most restaurants. “I have an allergy to cilantro - please make sure there’s none in my food.” will get you MUCH better results.
If faced with skepticism, give them the spiel about acetyl groups and that those are the source of the allergy. Your symptoms are itchy sensation on the tongue, soreness on the roof of your mouth, constriction/wheezing in your throat, and nausea that kicks in later.
You’ll be amazed how rarely they ‘forget’ not to defile your meal with that rancid shit.
Reminds me of my own issue with parmesan cheese in things; I taste a vomit smell and just a little will make it bad to intolerable. I followed a recipe that added a sprinkle to a large pot of soup and to be the whole thing just tasted like vomit soup. My wife didn’t notice at all. I think I’m sensitive to butyric acid, the shared factor between the two.
I’ll use your stink bug example in the future when cilantro comes up, though, especially since so many people I know love cilantro and can’t imagine (and to be fair it’s very good without said gene, lol)
When I was younger and didn’t know what cilantro was, I couldn’t understand why no one in my family agreed with me that stink bugs smelled like, “some kind of herb.”
When I finally figured out what cilantro was and why I didn’t like it, I went digging into stink bug stink and realized precisely why.
Only partially related, why does no one talk about what it tastes like when you don’t have the gene? Nobody told me it’s like spicy mint! I was expecting something mild like basil or something. But no, it’s overpowering.
I had the chance to try it for the first time a few months ago when I discovered a local restaurant sells Bahi Mi with cilantro and pickled carrots. Its delicious, but I was not expecting that flavor.
I think, people are largely not aware that genetic differences can affect the taste so much, so they just assume that everyone experiences the same taste, just with different preferences for different tastes.
But yeah, when I learned that cumin is another candidate for genetic differences in taste perception, I also had to ask a friend to describe the taste, because I’ve never seen the taste described anywhere. For me, it just tastes extremely hollow, while it’s apparently a rather rich taste for other folks…
Huh, interesting!
I equate it more to a strong perfume than soap. When I eat cilantro it just fills the back of my nose with that overwhelming floral perfume smell (feel?).
Imagine someone loaded the dish with wintergreen bubble gum.
I always thought of it being like someone shaved a bar of Irish Spring on top of your food.
It tastes like drinking water from a glass that has been cleaned with dish soap but not rinsed properly and you can taste the residue and distinct smell/taste of soap. I used to have this response as a child but later as an adult the taste completely changed and now I can taste its real flavour.
I experience the soap taste, not with cilantro but with certain beers. There’s a local brewery I go to that makes a certain beer that tastes like soap for me, like the smell(?) / aftertaste of a wax candle. It happens every time. And when I order a different beer, it’s gone. It’s not the glass. Drives me crazy not knowing what the heck it is lol. A genetic quirk I guess. Always a light colored beer, never dark. My partner thinks it’s some of the yeast notes.
I have a really weird one where shandy (beer mixed with lemonade) smells like rubber to me. Like when you rub a balloon really hard.
You guys can smell balloons being rubbed, right? 😅
Mosaic hops do something similar for me. I nearly vomit any time I have a beer brewed with them, so not really trying many new IPAs these days unless they got the hops listed.
My one that I share with my mom is that jalapeños taste like mold. I don’t get it with other kinds of peppers, and vinegar will mask it so picked jalapeño or hot sauces with it are usually okay. But it’s always just a bit there.
I had no idea it could change over time, that’s really cool. Makes me wonder what other genetic factors can change like that.
I couldn’t eat something that had come near cilantro until I was in my 20s. But I was intentional about it. I love Mexican food, but really couldn’t eat it at restaurants because of this so I decided I was going to try an experiment.
That would make a small amount of food at home with a little bit of cilantro as I cut it up I would inhale deeply and tell myself out loud this smell smells delicious. I love this.
I would eat the prepared food and do the same. I did this once a week or so for a few months and eventually the soap taste disappeared. It tastes like delightful fresh herbs now.
A lot. Genes have a weird ability to activate or deactivate, or simply have a different effect, based on environmental factors.
Look up “Epigenetics”.
Thanks for the new rabbit hole! :D
Your taste buds also dull over time, so strong flavors get weaker.
many tastes change over time. certain foods are really sharp to children in unpleasant ways, but to an adult they are more mellow and nuanced.
Right, I know this from experience. I was talking about the genes thing which I have been informed is Epigenetics (thanks Crankenstein!)
The flavor to your immature taste buds wasn’t real?
There is the thing as it exists and then the thing as I perceive it. I’d say I’m tasting the more accurate version of it today but it probably is still debatable.
What something tastes like is part of your perception of it though. It’s an interaction that is based as much on the tongue doing the tasting as the substance being tasted.
I don’t think either way you tasted it was more “real” or “accurate”, but could be closer to what the majority of people experience.
It doesn’t always taste like soap to me. But when it does, it literally tastes like the lather/residue from unscented bar soap. Like if you wash your hands but don’t thoroughly rinse them, then eat finger food. It’s a basic (as opposed to acidic) flavor, that really doesn’t taste like anything other than soap.
On a related note, I love olive oil but hate olives, because anytime a dish has olives at all, it tastes like there’s too many olives. It’s like the olive takes away the taste from the other ingredients and replaces everything with olive taste.
Cilantro tastes fine to me though.
I’ve never tasted soap, so I don’t know that that’s the taste I get, but it’s nasty and ruins whatever I’m eating. I won’t even walk in a Chipotle. Jerks. One thing I’ve noticed over the years is the stems are the worst part. Something that’s cooked with cilantro or has the occasional leaf is okay, but one bite of a stem and I’m done.
But in my mind, the taste of soap is mostly bitter, with an overwhelming tropical/fruity/citrussy flavor of whatever the producers decided to make the soap smell like.
You’ve never encountered a bar of unscented soap? The stuff that’s made by boiling fat, lye and water? You know, soap?
This is why I only have cilantro flavoured soap
I can’t answer your question, because it doesn’t taste like soap to me either. Just as you described, it tastes overwhelmingly strong and unpleasant to me, so I assume I have the gene. I do think sometimes it tastes appropriate buried in amongst other flavors though.
Minute food does a good job explaining it, IMO. https://youtu.be/RZtPynXsFas
To me, it’s not exactly soap but it’s damn close. Like 90% of soap. Idk what else to tell you, it just does.
Imagine if you will, that prior to cooking someone hand scrubbed all the pots/pans that were going to use. But they didn’t rinse them properly so there was still soap residue all over them. And then they cooked with them.
